I had a PC, Jase Syngaard, who was a hideous (facially scarred), dumb brute of a human fighter, but his secret background was he had been married and his wife died giving birth to their only daughter, Hope. Syngaard immediately dropped Hope into the orphanage at the Temple of Pelor, claiming he'd found her in the woods, where he knew she could have a good life, and then became an adventurer so he could provide for the orphans at the church. None of this was mentioned to the other players at the beginning of the campaign, but it all eventually came out. Twenty levels later, when we finished the campaign, Syngaard retired as an adventurer and became a full-time dad to Hope.
Johnathan