HOPE FOR A FREE MAN: A SECRET FAMILY HISTORY OF MURDER, ESCAPE AND DISCOVERY

This family story of murder and abuse was kept hidden for many decades by a boy who disappeared from his home in the Belgian Bay Settlement of Green Bay, Wisconsin in the 1870s. What his family believed happened at the time of his disappearance, a story that carried forward for over 150 years, was that he had died at the hands of his own father. While not beyond the scope of possibilities given the circumstances at the time, the story has a much happier ending – he changed his name, married, and raised a family several states away in California. His new family was kept safe from his old family’s secrets for almost 100 years after his death, until a DNA match in 2023 led to a shocking discovery. While this story encompasses all the elements of Gothic horror and the lion’s share of ancestral trauma, it is a remarkable testament to a man who made great sacrifices in order to become a “Free Man” – a true California pioneer.