My Ray Family

Just sent to me by my cousin this is a picture of my Ray Family

Front Row: Patsy Ray (Aunt), Gloria Ray (Aunt), Sylvian Ray (Uncle).

Rear Row: Stonewall Wallace Ray (Dad), Aggie Edwards (Grandmother) Leland Leroy Ray (Grandfather)

This ordinarily would just look like any old photo to people but the story of why its so important to me may make it more special.

I never knew my real father

My mother at 30 years old was going through a divorce and somewhere during that time she met my father Stonewall Wallace Ray then a 45 year old WWII Veteran and Geologist. From what I can gather the relationship was short lived as he was moving to Brazil and she had teenage children that she wasn't going to move.

For some reason that I will never know, my mother put her ex husbands name on my birth certificate and from all accounts never told my father about me, or if she did I will never know as he has died also.

I probably would have never known but when I was about 8 years old my mother who had been drinking confessed to me that the person I was thinking of as dad was not really my father (she had remarried a new man and I just assumed he was) He was always fighting with my mother and I thought pretty mean ........So she told me my real dads name, that he was older than her, and that if she wanted me to find him she would try. I was 8 and I was angry and sad, I told her no.

I never really mentioned it again not in any real conversation anyway, my mom died in 2004 taking any reasons with her, in 2011 I returned from my last deployment and after some close calls I just felt like I needed to know who my family was.

So armed with little more than a name, and a few random places and facts from my sisters I set out to find my father, I found on Ancestry a picture of a man on a horse with the same name and in the right place but the picture was very old so i knew it couldn't be my father but on a whim I wrote the poster of the picture anyway.

Turns out the man that posted the picture was my half brother and he remembers my mom and his dad seeing each other!

Sadly I learn my father died in 1999 but I have recently had DNA testing done and confirmed my family identity.

It is as if a million pounds was lifted off of me and I continue to make new discoveries all the time about the family that was denied me and that I must say I am proud to be a part of.

Now the hard part do I change that last name at 44 years old .............I feel it may be a nightmare to do so.

Oh and can any of you car guys tell me what kind of car that is in the background? Wouldn't it be cool to find it and give the owner a copy of this picture?