I’m you’re second cousin! Alex, your grandfather was my great uncle. We were all ecstatic to find out Uncle Al had kids and grandkids since we all never knew he did! He was the sweetest, loving, most caring man and would have absolutely adored all of you !
Awesome! I had to go reference my family tree that I got from Jay. I see you in there. From what I hear from much of the family, my father and his father, had personality traits that mirror each other. All the way down to their humor. Like with my dad, you’d have to really know him to hear him joke around. His whit was sharp and quick. Kinda crazy that this little family project has received so much attention in the past week isn’t it? My guess is everyone got ancestry kits for Christmas and they are looking up videos.
@@arn209 I saw it on RU-vid as a suggested video. I haven't taken a DNA test, nor will I. But I do enjoy hearing how people find their long lost family members. My best friend searched his entire adult life looking for his and as far as we know, he never found them. His Widow did however within the past year or so and his story wouldn't have been the best to put in a video. So that's why I am so interested in seeing others who do have great stories to tell. You guys make contact with your people, get to know them and make lifelong connections. It's a lonely life without knowing, and without family. Stay safe and good luck in all you do.
I hope he mans up, never too late to change...I found my adopted mother's father through DNA test and matched cousins...the family wouldn't speak to me about my mother's birth or anything else...in the late 1930's, the circumstances were painful and back then, shameful, so I took their silence with a bit of grace....but DNA don't lie, and I'm glad I know a name and a few life details about my grandaddy.
So sad that he went to prison for his belief that he could not kill another human being. This happened to people without money. Rich kids with connections got out easier with few consequences. .
This was a beautifully told story. Your father is a man of integrity, and I have so much respect for him. Glad you found the information about his dad.
Yes, I agree. I am a woman of the same generation. Some of my acquaintances died in the Viet Nam War. Many others employed various other strategies to avoid the draft, though it only postponed getting drafted for most of them. I never knew anyone who did what Don did and was willing to go to prison because he was honest about his objection to the war. I so admire Don’s courage. Especially having lived through that time and knowing the abuse conscientious objectors were subjected to. I really was touched by all the elements of this story.
I also just found out through Ancestry who my father's father was after 55 years of not knowing. It's so surreal when you finally get there. He had also passed by the time we found out, but I'm glad my dad has answers after all this time.
Beautiful story! I feel your father’s pain not meeting his birth father. Mine passed away one day before my husband and I had planned to fly to Florida to meet him. I will meet him in heaven.
Bless your heart for giving your dad that sense of peace of knowing who his father was. I didn’t find out who my father was and meet him until I was almost 18 years old so I kind of understand how he feels. I still don’t have anything to do with him or his family so I’m still trying to find out now at 49 years old more about their family and their ethnicities. So thank you for giving him that peace. I know how much it means...
Best of luck in your search to learn about the other half of you. Too many stories like this out there. It must be SO difficult not knowing for so many years.
What a touching story. Your dad was so grateful and content with his step dad raising him, but his heart was still yearning to know who his biological dad was. You helped him have closure and meet his bio family. I was teary eyed with him.
I feel the same as your father. I could never fight in a war. Bless you for helping him find his (and yours) family. Since Al passed 3 years before you found out, I believe he helped you from the other side.
Oh Oh I Thought This Very Same thing! His father on the other side ~ wanting his son to know of him, prompting his grandson here and there, where to look, what to do! Family is eternal 😊😊
This made me smile & cry. Thank you for sharing such a personal story. It was so wonderful to learn how they accepted you with open arms. Like your father said, he came from kind people. I can tell that he is a loving kind person also just from listening to him talk about his wife💜
So many secrets kept back in those days because of societies morals. I wonder if Al knew he was a father? So happy for you all and hope you meet your new family very soon.
This was so beautiful Aaron, thank you to your dear father. I am happy to see that he held firm to his integrity under such difficult circumstances. I too have been on a quest for my unknown maternal grandfather. Mother never knew who her father was, never wanted to know. It made her life so much more difficult. I took a test in 2018 and now I have it narrowed down to two brothers. Mom and these men are gone but at least now I know the family name. I thought I was crazy to do this. After all, some day we will know everything. Patience is probably the quality I will need to work on the most. But when all is made new, I want to be able to tell him, I know you, you are my grandfather.
Don’t give up on it. It took me three months of obsessing to find this out. When I say obsessing, I mean obsessing! Many nights I’d be up until 2am searching public records. I’d have dreams on what avenues to search, and follow thru when I’d wake up. It wasn’t easy. I had to search absolutely everything. By the time I was finished, there really wasn’t much of anything I didn’t know about the family. Tenacity is key.
❤ 😂❤ It's not their shame..Liars will never tell you the truth..I'm almost 60yrs old and will be in my grave..I hate daily my adopted mom passed away..I had to find out like my cousin about parents through gossip..These stories help me..someone told me they put my DNA in a system..and sent me into more emotional pain.. A cruel stunt she thought to be funny.. Not realizing the trauma associated with my life.❤..I finally got to spend time with my adopted brother..50yrs on the earth lost..even with raising my own children ..But ❤I'm holding on to Jesus.. These people can't imagine the pain .. but I'm not going to take myself there
@MonaeMalome-dq6ru My real father evidently had never told his wife he had a child out there. When he met her, he had another child, I guess, the mother dumped on him. So she raised my sister like a red headed step child. I know Jesus helps in all situations. I don't know where I would be without him.
Beautiful story!! So happy you were able to find your precious dad's biological father and family. He's a great storyteller and seems to be a very compassionate man. You obviously come from an amazing family. Happy for all of you. Sometimes it's awesome to scroll through the good ol RU-vid
This was an incredible gift to give to your father and a wonderful way to honor him. He seemed so happy to know his family and finally know where he really came from.
This was a very happy ending I'm so happy for your family I hope to find my older brother that was put up for adoption hope to someday that I would find him
Thank you for sharing your father with us! What a lovely man! You are lucky to have inherited his “gift of gab”; I enjoyed watching and listening to you both.
So very well done. So touching, I had the most wonderful protective father. A father is so integral to sons and daughters both. Your father is a real gem and I respect him so much for standing his ground and not going to war. What a fantastic man. You could say he raised one hell of a fine son too.
Wow! What an amazing story, great researching Aaron. I love researching my own family it’s great to find out where you come from. I am half Welsh 🏴and half Scottish🏴 Thanks for sharing this lovely story.
Hi my dad is 78 he to was born in 1943 to he never new his dad he knows he was in the war but my grandmother was the same never talk about him only gave my father his name that’s it. so many of the same things my father is going though. I did buy him a DNA test lots of people on his mom’s side he knew of. He has a first cousin I think on his dads side come up and lots of second cousins and more it’s got to be on his side because he doesn’t know anybody from that place on his moms side of family. But for the first cousin his family tree in private I messaged him nothing back from him.I messaged others Related to him nothing back it’s been almost a year. But I am glad and dad to he said to see names and some faces on his dad side he said he didn’t think he ever see that But anyways enough about us. so happy for your father he got to know of his dad.
What a wonderful story! Thoroughly enjoyed this video! So faith-strengthening that you kept such integrity! Are you one of Jehovah's Witnesses? Thank you for sharing.
As something like Amish was not mentioned my speculation, based on the description of the senior Mr. Nelson's stepfather's faith, and his own "conscientious objection" to serving in the military, was Jehovah's Witness.
Beautiful story. Mine is similar. Totally understand your Dad's grief in finding out that his Dad had passed before he could meet him. Same here. Thank you for sharing this incredible journey. You're a wonderful researcher!
What a wonderful story. I have been trying to trace my father-in-law’s birth father for a few years now. He was adopted in England during WW2. I found his birth mother in 2008 but she had passed away in 1983 leaving no clue to the identity of his birth father. She was married at the time of my father-in-law’s conception but her husband was away serving in Iceland. They had children before and after he was born and initially kept him, but after a few months the strain for her husband must have been to difficult and he was given up for adoption.Ancestry DNA has revealed some good matches (as well as other sites we uploaded the raw DNA data to) but no one closer than 3rd cousins. I have been able to narrow it down to his great grandparents, but they had many children, as did their offspring, so I have had trouble narrowing it down any further. My FIL turns 80 this year and I would love to be able to give him the details of his paternal lineage.
So a third cousin to me, is how I found my dads father. What was in the third cousin range was actually, first cousin once removed. So, he was my dads first cousin. Kinda tricky. Of course when my dad took the test, it showed him as first cousin.
@@arn209 I have done trees for all of his closest matches bar one who uses a nickname for their profile and has never replied to any of my messages. I am almost at the point of asking for help from an Angel in one of the genetic genealogy groups I belong to. There is so much satisfaction in making the discovery myself though. I have helped 2 other people identify their birth fathers, so it’s extra frustrating not to be able to get any closer for Derek at this stage.
I have a similar situation myself but can't get people to respond to my messages. I believe I have found my grandfather but still need more proof and people as re dieing off to ask them faster these days.
I think that anyone who has doubt of who they are or where their family comes from should do DNA. My mother never knew her father or even his name. Her mother took it to her grave and my mother spend her whole life wondering. I did the DNA test, but not till after my mom had passed away. I learned so many things. Some good, some OMG! Lol Now i have access to who my mothers father is but shes not here to do DNA and finally put her mind at rest. Dont waste time. Do it now. Some info maybe uncomfortable for you or a family member but you know what, secrets shouldnt be kept. Not when its about someone you love. Plus you can find out some really cool stuff to. My mom would have loved a lot of stuff i found out but shes not here to share. I traced a lot back to 1300s.
Thank You For Sharing This video! Such a beautiful story ~ my family has a sort of similar story. Because of DNA tests, we found out about my dear Uncle Don (my mother's half brother). He was adopted out, and didn't think he had any family at all, but now he has our entire gang, and we just love him so much! My mom has seen him in person several times and we all keep up with each other on Facebook. I'm so grateful for the miracle of DNA tests ~ they are reuniting families and loved ones in ways that could never happen before!😊😊😊
I worked with a nurse who spent time in fed prison for not complying with draft. He was a fully bearded long haired hippie nurse who didn’t give a fck lol I respected him for facing consequences vs others who finagled away or ran to Canada.
I have known several people who either themselves or their fathers came up to Canada to escape the draft. Stories out of Vietnam were surfacing; the horror was becoming known. They faced consequences; loss of family, loss of home. Draft is wrong; 18 year old kids were sent to die and so many came back horribly damaged. Not only single boys came up, but married couples, because the US eventually started to draft married men. For those that went, I remember that a lot lived in the forests of the pacific northwest (WA state) because they couldn't cope. People should not be thought badly of, for making a decision to leave because many Americans objected to it due to is brutality and devastation. Vietnam was not an honourable war; it was a killing field for civilians; over 2 million died horribly, especially the ones destroyed by napalm bombs - liquid fire.
I absolutely love 💘 the photo at the end. I too have a similar story. Through Ancestry DNA, I was able to find my mother's dad, my bio grandfather. This just happened 2 weeks ago, through his youngest son, my uncle. We have been talking on the phone as if we've known each other all our lives, we have also emailed photos back and forth as well.
What a great story! 75 years ago no one thought that DNA tests would exist to pin point blood connections. Back when birth control was not accessible, so unintended pregnancies were a fact of life. It was very shameful. Sounds like Mr. Nelson was willing to marry a pregnant woman & give her child a 'name'. It was considered chivalrous act. In the end, Mr. Nelson moved on & grandma was able to save face w/ another marriage. Now things have changed and the truth can come out without the shades of shame to blur true family connections. Mazel Tov!
My grandma had 5 kids 4 different fathers, a bunch of them had fathers in the service, Army and Navy, in southern CA. One German/Irish guy from Missouri one Italian guy from Pennsylvania. She lied and told the kids her husband was their father. This was so common back then, women never told the kids their real father was just a guy visiting from the military.
I love that you shared this and your dad's story. What a special treasure for future generations of your family. Did you find who your mother's father was too? Family ancestry research is something I enjoy and find fascinating.
I narrowed my mother’s father down to one of two brothers. One, I can’t pick up a paper trail on. The other died in 1956 I believe, so his trail goes cold as well. The one who died in 56 (or around) had a daughter. I reached out and offered to send them (the grandchildren of the daughter) a dna test to close some gaps. They said they had it covered, but I haven’t heard anything. I know she was getting later in life, and certain aspects of her health proved difficult to administer a DNA test. So I haven’t given up on it. I know where he comes from. I know who my, great grandparents would be on my moms side. Just hard to narrow it down to which one of the two brothers in question. They both look a lot alike, and my mother looks like them as well.
@@arn209 You did a beautiful job telling your dad's story. I have narrowed my father's father down to one of two brothers also but am having difficulty confirming which one. Best of luck to you and thanks for the very sweet story. I am SO against family secrets about identity but it happened so often "back then" that I suppose they must have really believed it was "for the best."
As soon as I saw the "All Scripture" book I knew you were my spiritual brother ! Some day soon we all will know more intimately all our family members. Until then take care, remain faithful.
Hello my sister. As I listened to his story I felt he too was my brother. All along I was thinking of the scripture at Mark 10:29-30. Then when I saw the "All Scripture" book, it sealed the deal for me. When I heard him say that they happily stayed together because they still practice the same strong faith my heart rejoiced!
My husband found out who his real father was when he was 64 years old. His father had no idea he was conceived as my husband's mother had many men in her life and there were numerous children. My husband has also found a sibling the same year that is 3 years older then him that he didn't know anything about until we were doing research about 29 years ago. Now they talk almost every day on video chat. Hoping my husband reconnecting with his true relatives is a great journey. Life is now a surprise at every turn.
Beautiful. This is so touching. Your dad is amazing and he will soon get to meet His father Alex. 💕💕 condolences 💐 and love being sent your families way.
@@arn209 sorry to hear that. I know it's possible for a 75 year old to have living parents. Did your father get to meet his father before he passed or was it too late? I think my great grandfather grew up his whole life not knowing who his real father was after I discovered a match who is likely my great grandfather nephew
@@KentPetersonmoney unfortunately he did not. His father died 3 years before we took the dna test. So I highly recommend if anyone has any concerns, to not procrastinate. We never know when our last day is.
The dude got some hard knocks in life. He did well for himself coming through with a positive attitude. If I had been in his place I'd been an angry young man.
My grandmother was a bastard and she called this situation "a slip in the night". She would be 111 today and that phrase was not odd, so look past the b.s. on " morals".
Thank you for your conviction to being a conscientious objector. I also objected to the war and trained as a draft counselor with the Quakers (my ancestors) and now teach English with students in Southeast Asia where my students' ancestors and country were devastated by US illegal bombings in Laos and Cambodia. Wonderful video. Thank you.
I remember my father would tell me a story of a Quaker who was locked up with him. They would tell him to shave his beard and he wouldn’t. So they’d give him like 2 weeks in solitary confinement. He’d get out and they’d ask him if he was ready to shave. Of course the answer was no. Back into solitary he went. This process went on for some time until they finally broke the man down and he shaved. He told me that this man was devastated that he gave into shaving.
What a beautiful story.👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾I feel like I've read a good book. I'm so glad your son did a follow up on the DNA info.Pls Remember Acts 24:15. Jehovah God's promise. I know you will be looking for your Dad a in Paradise.
My father passed 6 months after filming this. That thought was one of the things he looked forward to. He fell asleep with a plan and shall awaken remembering that plan.
This has got to be hard. Your last name is not correct. That has to be part of the pain. Do you change your name? My own cousin found his father is not one of our grandfathers's children. Grandpa always said "This one is not mine". How painful for my Uncle.
@@teresaoconnell4790 it does pose a dilemma. While we all are going to keep our legal names, we don’t disregard our biological ones. I’ve chosen to align with my father in terms of names.
It was a shame you didn’t know that you could have been a medic and a consequent objector. My Uncle served as a Seventh Day Adventist Objector. If you had learned of the Seventh Day Adventist Church they would have defended you and helped you.
My father was aware of this. He was offered this. He also knew he would be at the will of the military and picking up arms, could always be in the realm of possibilities. That, he wanted no part of. For him, it was easier to have a clean conscience and avoid it all together, then to ponder over the possibilities of what he could be forced to do.
Thank you for sharing your family story. I'm sorry that your father/grandfather was not determined until after his passing, but what comfort for the truth to be learned and find your extended family. The resemblance cannot be mistaken.
Thank you for sharing your story. A long searching journey, life transforming results. So special and meaningful, to have traced back the arrival of your family to America.... the land of hope♡
Congratulations to this man and his family!! He won me over by his determination to remain a conscientious objector to war...as did the late Great, Muhammed Ali. I am so glad that you found your family sir. Everyone wants to "belong" to a group of people with whom there is a historical commonality, and as this Pandemic has taught us, no amount of material wealth can compensate for being or feeling alone in this world. May he Live Long & Prosper in Good Health, Peace of Mind & Mighty Love. 💙
