The first prompt for 52 Ancestors in 2024 is “Family Lore”. This prompt reminded me of a story my dad mentioned about his younger brother Jim.

 As the story goes, Jim had red hair. I don’t believe it was flaming red like Carrot Top or Little Orphan Annie, but probably closer to a strawberry blonde. It was definitely a contrast to the black hair that my dad, his sister and my grandmother were blessed with. Dad said he teased his brother and told him he was switched at the hospital. Somehow I doubt there was a baby swap, but it makes for a good story. I personally do not have first hand knowledge of the color of Uncle Jim’s hair. I wasn’t even two years old when he died at age twenty-one in an automobile accident. The few pictures we still have of him are black and white. I did attempt to colorize this photo using Fotor. Maybe there is a little red in there. It’s difficult to say for sure.

The fact that Uncle Jim had reddish colored hair isn’t really that far fetched. My niece is a strawberry blonde. Jim’s father (my grandfather) was described as having blonde hair on his draft card for World War II. Maybe it had a little red mixed in that wasn’t noted. My Ancestry DNA results have significant levels of Scottish (21%) and Irish (10%) origins, all apparently from my paternal line. We’ve even got some obvious Irish and Scottish surnames peppered in there–McCullough, McLees, McAllister–as well as the family Ireland (I’m assuming they came from Ireland!). My grandmother may also have had a tad bit of Irish or Scottish blood in her veins from the Caseys and Heaths in her line.

“The expression is from mixed Italian-Irish families in the late 19th century. The red-haired stepchildren would be seen as evil. Also, red hair would underscore that the child is not related to the stepparent, as seen by the physical difference.”

–tvtropes.org

So was my uncle Jim a red-headed stepchild? I seriously doubt it based on this photograph of him with my dad. The few memories my dad shared of his younger brother were good ones. I can only imagine what kind of crazy trouble they would have gotten up to together if Jim had lived a few decades longer.