Interesting story about Brittney's Grandfather

Brittney has never known much about her father's father, who is named Kenneth Parsons. Brittney's grandparents were divorced when Daris (Brittney's dad and the oldest child) was about 4 years old and the youngest child Dale wasn't yet born. Brittney's dad never talked much about his father and had not seen him since he was about 10 years old. His whole life, he had been under the impression that his father had essentially wanted nothing to do with him and his siblings, but since reuniting with him found that this wasn't the case. After his father had remarried and his mother had remarried, someone (either Daris' mother or his new stepfather) had communicated to Kenneth that Daris' new stepfather intended to adopt the children and that he wasn't wanted anymore.

Now for the interesting story about how they found their father. Daris had frequently mentioned his father in passing to Brittney's mother (Janean). Apparently this had been happening with increased frequency so Janean asked several times whether Daris was interesting in trying to find his father. Daris always said "no", but Janean took matters into her own hands. She started searching on the internet for his father's full name. A common result was a bio of a movie and TV star named Karyn Parsons who was born in Santa Monica after Kenneth had remarried. She is most notably known for playing the character for Will Smith's cousin Hilary Banks on the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air". They knew that Kenneth had married an African American woman and lived in Santa Monica during that time period, so thought that maybe she was their half sister. Several weeks later, Daris' youngest brother Dale sent a message through Facebook to her and received a response. They in fact did have the same father.

Karyn's parents, though divorced, both live near each other in the same area of Massachusetts and meet for lunch somewhat often. Karyn's mother-in-law also lives in the same area. For years, Karyn's mother Louise has often urged Kenneth to contact his other children but he has never done it because he thought they had been adopted and didn't even think of him as their father anymore. After Dale met with Karyn, Karyn's mother-in-law sent a lengthy email to Daris and Dale telling them a about their father and getting them in contact. A few weekends ago, Kenneth invited Daris and family up to Massachusetts and they went up. It was the first time Daris had seen his father in almost 50 years and they had a great time.

So, I guess that is the whole story. It is interesting that they never would have found their father if their sister hadn't been famous. I thought it was kindof a fun story and worth an entire blog post.