They say everyone who looks into their family history will find a secret sooner or later.

What I found wasn’t a secret, it was just a story that wasn’t told in it’s entirety.

My Great Great Grandfather, William Robert McDowall  drowned in 1925.

How he ended up in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Canada remained a mystery, so it was never determined if his death was accidental or if he was the victim of foul play.

He was identified by his Father and Son in Law and if the circumstances of his death weren’t bleak enough, my Great Great Grandfather was  in Ottawa for his Mother’s funeral.

My Great Great Grandfather’s death and the story about his tragic death wasn’t a family secret at all.

I knew before I saw it confirmed in the news paper story that I found  that he had been in the water for a few days. Robert was listed as a a John Doe until some papers were found in his pocket that id’ him. It was  my Great, Great, Great Grandfather who  went into the mortuary and looked down into the face of his son’s corpse and confirmed that was his son because in those days they didn’t have a room for the deceased and another room for the family and a camera or a window to separate you from them.

He looked pretty bad, I heard.

The only detail, and I guess it’s a small one is this- my family who were pretty superb story tellers never really got around to explaining why Robert was alone for the funeral and why they didn’t think foul play was involved.

Those details never made their way into a single story and I will always wonder why.