G-Pa Tom Update #1: My grandpa Tom "Hammond".

So as mentioned in the introductory blog post, the story of my grandfather's father changing his name was basically all we knew about him (and all we knew about grandpa Tom).

I saw that ad on TV for ancestry.com saying crap about the two-week free trial, so I figured, What the hell, and signed myself up. Long story short, regarding Tom Hammond's ancestry, I didn't find a damned thing.

Also I should mention I signed up for the two-week trial about a year ago.

Last month, I found out a friend of mine was a full ancestry.com member, and she offered to help me out. Long story short, she found grandpa Tom's social security number. Not only that, but she told me about this form I could fill out (an "SSI-711" form) and request a copy of an "SSI-5" form, which is the form that was filed out when a person wants to file for social security income. According to the government website, that form has the person's social security number, birthday, the father's full name and the mother's maiden name; precisely what I needed!

I filled out the form, paid the money, and got a response back in about a week and a half. Here is what I got (edited for security reasons):

Thomas Earl Condron

Now, besides the last name not being "Hammond" like it should be, here are some other interesting things to note.

1) According to that my G-pa was born in 1921, and he filled out that form in 1938. It even says on the form that he was only 17 when he filed for SSI. That seems pretty lame until you learn that my G-pa was blind. Apparently he was born with full sight, but it got progressively worse. So worse I guess that he couldn't work.

2) The form has his father's name, as well as his mother's maiden name. No first name unfortunately. Again, precisely what I needed.

3) CONDRON?! What the $@*(. So it wasn't my great grandfather that changed his name, oh no. It was my grandfather himself. That means the story he told my mom when she asked him was a lie. What the hell is this guy hiding? What happened that made him want to change his name? Unfortunately he passed in 2005, so unless I find something else on my search later down the road, no one will ever know.

So there you have it. No Lavere at all apparently. My name should actually be Tim Condron. Sounds a little too close to "condom" for my taste, but whatever it still sounds cool.