on a trip to the tiny “town” (an intersection abandoned after a new state highway was built in the 60s) my bio father was from, he told me that his own father (who died when my father was like 6-7) had a brother and that the larger part of the family (my last name is crazy common in the US and in this area, like every 5th person had the name) was the part of the family this brother belonged to. that the brothers had some kind of falling out, because this mysterious brother was purported to have made a pact with the devil and used it to become rich. and that was why we had no family connection or real capacity to trade on our name in the area. not that there was much to trade on that I can tell.

this was all information told like 3rd hand to my father, the irony being that pretty much everybody in this breakaway faction I belonged to turned out to be their own kind of villains and I don’t communicate with any of them, because they’re generally backwards ass chuds, unpleasant to be around, and frequently caught lying about shit.