I started tracing my family roots after meeting my fiancee b/c being Mormon, they were really into family history. I found a lot of things including some family skeletons that were probably best left alone & one HUGE shocker that sent my mom reeling.
My dad's side of the family is Mexican-Indian but I have been able to trace them back to German settlers. This was kind of neat & I was able to find out why our German last name disappeared. That happened after a period in the early 1800's when the last remaining son had only daughters so no one carried on the family last name. I'm guessing this happened tons of times throughout history.
My moms family immigrated from Spain roughly in the late 1700's. My mom was born in Mexico & both of my parents were childhood sweethearts living only a few minutes apart (ironically they divorced when I was 5 thus ending an inperfect 9 year union). My coloring is an inbetween of my extremely dark skinned & dark haired father & my light skinned blond mother. I'm olive skinned w/dark brown hair that lightens in the sun.
Now come the family secrets.
#1. My paternal grandfather fathered a child w/my maternal grandmother. One of my moms sisters is actually related to me on both sides of the family tree.
#2. The previously mentioned aunt died as a child but when I was tracing the family history, after much confusion about a name that kept popping up, I found that the aunt was very much alive & had one of her sons trying to search for her biological family. Her information was rather sketchy b/c she could only remember vague things seeing as how she was 4 when she was taken away. A family embarrassment apparently. My mom & her unfortunately have little in common & don't particularly get along but at least they have found each other.