The Family Lineage

At the last family gathering, I'm pretty sure it was a wedding and not a funeral, my brother and I got to talking about our ancestors.  I mentioned that I'd thought about going on "that" website to do some research about our family history.  Both of us recall the stories told to us by our grandparents dating back to the turn of the last century or so, but beyond that there's a black hole.
Unbeknownst to me, my brother informed me that our maternal grandfather had paid a genealogist to track down the family history.  My Bro had read the findings.  This apparently happened many years ago.  Hello? Why am I just finding out about this now?
My younger Bro' just laughed.  "Yeah, it was interesting to read but it didn't go back all that far".
"It got back to a horse thief that got hanged and PawPaw pulled the plug on the research." "After that, there's nothing."

My Bro laughed.  So did I.

God forbid that should ever get out into general knowledge about our devout religious family*.
Figures.
On my Dad's side, my grandfather was a carpenter, and my Great grandfather was a house painter. My Dad never speaks of my GGF, and Dad hates to paint anything. I remember visiting my great grandmother on Dad's side, and my grandfather's retarded sister.
 Further back than that, I know nothing about the German side of my family.

One thing I do know about my family lineage is that it is full of humans full of the frailties of all humankind.
Guilty of all the seven deadly sins in spite of what they tried to present to the world at large.
God knows I've witnessed it in my lifetime. God certainly knows I'm guilty as well.
I'm working on it.


* I do believe in God.  I am not religious.
.