A little late to the party. It was not a secret per se, but I did not know about it until this year. My mother's side of the family, as I knew consisted of her (oldest) and three other siblings (two younger brothers and one younger sister). She later revealed that her family used to be bigger.

My mom had a younger sister who died in an accident. She jumped into the river and never surfaced. I was told that my two living uncles witnessed her death. Another younger sister died at a very young age due to illness, and my grandparents had to sell off yet another daughter to another family just to keep themselves fed. She had a name change and all and until now, my mom is still trying to find her as they lost contact with each other a while back.

My grandparents also sold off another son of theirs to a family, a man with two wives, and last I heard things weren't going so well on his side. Oh and my aunt bought a kid a few years back cause his birth parents didn't want him and my aunt couldn't conceive.

On hindsight, it probably isn't very messed up given the circumstances, but it definitely shocked me when I learnt about this side of my mom's family.