what's in a name?

my kids have been asking questions about our family and i don't really know much about their dad's side. he isn't around to ask. got started sleuthing info. this quickly turned into one big hairy mess.

hubby was adopted but his birth certificate lists his adoptive parents. his parents know the names of his birth parents, but this topic is verboten. (since we don't come from a very large gene pool, this presents a dilemma of sorts for our kids, because in terms of potential spouses, we're talking only one generation removed and we aren't going to find out the birth parents' names in the near future. genetically speaking, its quite possible that if they married someone whose racial extractions are atleast half their dad's, the person could be directly related. hmmm.)

more strangeness. most of us only daydream at some point or another about changing our names, but mom in law seems to have changed hers four times that we've figured out so far. name changes correspond to different phases of her life, but since we don't know very much about her life (she isn't one to share confidences), this makes it a challenge. we don't even know what town she was born in, because we were each told a different one. oddly enough, i can't find any info on dad in law prior to high school. i could ask again, but i'm not a fan of being yelled at. apparently, asking about past history is prying.

we have a slim lead, in that we know which cemetary their paternal grandfather's family members are in. so. i guess we'll be spending part of spring break poring over cemetary records, if we can get access to them.