I never wanted to inquire too much about my dad while my mom was alive.
I was scared it would break her heart if we found out he was alive, so I didn't really look into that until my mom passed away. I think it would have destroyed her.
Over the years my wife, Julie, had done some family tree research, but the ball really got rolling in 2020 when my niece heard one of her work colleagues, Dr Turi King, a professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, was working on an ancestry programme focusing on the children of American soldiers, calledThe next thing I knew I received a call from the programme's producers. Soon enough, I found out I would be featuring on the show.
Bill spent nine years in the British Royal Navy. During his time in the Navy he visited America on multiple occasionsAt the time I was 75 years old. The story I had built up of my father for all those years was that he died in the war, which put an end to worrying about difficult questions, like why he would have abandoned my mother.
I found out my dad had not died in the war, but that he would never have been able to take my mom back to America, because interracial relationships were illegal in Texas. He would never have been able to marry my mother. Even if he had loved her, it was never a possibility. I saw photos of my father and putting his face to his name was a revelation to me. I discovered my family's rich history. One of my uncles, known as"Fireball Wiley," was the first African-American to be signed to the Abilene Blue Sox baseball team and a cousin of mine was the first Black sheriff's deputy in Taylor County, Texas.
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