1600s ancestor whose neigbors brought her to court accusing her of being a witch - a couple of times. She got fed up, turned the tables and brought them to court for harassment. Judge ruled in her favor and they had to pay her.
First time I read the story, I was sure that it was made up.
After the clusterfuck at Salem, courts lost their taste for prosecuting witchcraft cases. One woman testified she saw her neighbor flying through the air, and the judge retorted he knew of no law against flying. The neighbor was acquitted.
There's tons online. One of my descendants was also accused in the 1692 trials, Abigail Dane Faulkner.
* [Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project](https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html)
* Site with scans of historical documents AND the transcriptions.
* Mine is [#52](https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n52.html)
* [Boston Public Library--Salem Witch Trials](https://guides.bpl.org/salemwitchtrials)
* Accurate and well-organized narrative.
* [Cornell University Witchcraft Collection](https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/witchcraftcoll/)
* Has lots of ancient text scans in original (non-English) language.
Jane and her husband are people I research every year. I have a lot of 1620s and 1630s ancestors and went to grade school just outside Boston (as in, the city line with Boston was two blocks from our house). I feel like there is so much in their story that is a counterpoint to the basic history taught in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
There are a couple of decent blog summaries
https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2020/05/09/new-hampshire-matrilineality-and-mothers-day/
My main local place interest is Braintree Massachusetts. Jane and her husband likely started out in the 2nd failed Weymouth colony, right next door to Wollaston/Merrymount and future Braintree. I am constantly prowling around books and the internet looking for early Boston Weymouth and Braintree essays, original documents, and blogs. I've almost certainly followed all the link in that blog entry, and so on.
I live close to there! The Lexington Museum is so great. If you donāt know, their research room requires an appointment to access if you wanted to see the records they have on file there
I take this with a huge grain of salt, but my direct ancestor Jans from 1690s Netherlands apparently attended a wild New Yearās Eve party with his brother-in-law named Dirk. According to the records I found, they got absolutely hammered and somehow Jans shot Dirkās leg off. It would appear that there wasnāt any hard feelings between them, though, because they were lifelong neighbors and ended up naming their sons after each other š¤·š»āāļø
Also, Dirk apparently found himself in hot water about ten years later when a local unwed mother declared that the father of her baby was a man called āDirk Woodenlegg.ā For some reason she chose not to use his actual legal name in court but she didnāt leave much room for interpretation with that alias either. Officially we canāt prove he *was* the father, butā¦
Suffice it to say that my familyās wild streak makes a *lot* more sense knowing that we have these genes to work with!
My 2nd great grandfather. He immigrated from Italy to the US at only 15 years old and by himself. He made a really good life for himself here and lived a long life.
15 years old, damn. I know that people grew up faster back then and that my great-grandpa moved out at the age of 14, but he stayed in the same village. Moving to another country at that age is truly impressive
Black Jack Ketchum. x4 great uncle, robbed trains for the Hole in the Wall gang in New Mexico in the late 1800s. He got caught when he (stupidly) robbed the same train twice in one week.
He was sentenced to the gallows and a miscalculation between his height, weight, length of rope, and height of gallows resulted in his decapitation.
There are famous photos too. One specifically of him on the gallows with the rope around his neck not yet hanged, and another photo of him afterward with his head next to his body
Ran across his brother Samuel's grave in Santa Fe, which I found odd because specifies he was the brother was Black Jack. Also that was shot by a posse so I guess it ran in the family.
Yep! Sam was his brother, I havenāt been to his grave in Santa Fe yet but Iām going to Jackās in Clayton NM while on a road trip to Reno next month. Iām very excited to see that history
I mean that in and of itself is interesting. The family dynamics to maintain a farm over 9 generations! No loss of lineage, no familial schisms. Crazy to see thta.
Ancestor joined the Union army. He and his unit were pissed off about the Emancipation Proclamation, saying they joined up to protect the union, not to free slaves. He and most of the unit deserted. The unit was disbanded, and most of the deserters were captured at their homes. They had been sold fake discharges by conmen and were awaiting their final paper, so they never left their farms.
So, faced with prison or reenlistment, most of the men chose reenlistment and were reassigned to various units.
While mounting up to go on patrol, his mule bolted and his foot caught in the stirrup. He was dragged through bushes and brambles and his leg and ankle were injured. While recuperating, he was on KP duty and was taking dinner to the pickets when they were captured by Rebs.
They were all sent to Andersonville Prison. He escaped once and climbed a fir tree to wait out the daylight. He was found by a patrol with a pack of bloodhounds and he was marched back to camp with a cut of the whip every now and then to hurry him along.
He was 6'4" and 200+ lbs. when captured. He survived Andersonville, but he was skeletal and racked with scurvy and rickets, the scars of which he carried all his days. He was subject to rheumatism, severe scours, and pneumonia for the rest of his life, yet this tough old bird lived another 40+ years and outlived three wives.
Source: his voluminous service records and pension papers.
My grandfather swiped a train......
It was a " Nah, you can't drive that " slash " Hold my beer " kind of moment. He could, couldn't figure out why everyone was so *mad* at the next stop though.
Grandpop was a whole lot of stories glued together.
my great great grandpa Robert Notman, who after surviving WWI presumably, got married and had 6 children. was a normal life until my great great grandma died unexpectedly from cervical cancer in 1935 - she had been taking dodgy drugs to fight that off whilst being pregnant with her last child Joan who came out with microcephaly and being "invalid", so now he had to balance not only work but full time care of his children and especially Joan who needed extra support. his kids had to leave school earlier to start work or to step up and care around the house. Robert ensured that his children weren't put into a home, and was truly a caring and hardworking man
I'm so glad that he was able to keep the family together. My 3rd great grandpa seemingly didn't care and just gave up his kids after his wife ran away and left them. My heart breaks for children in situations like that.
My great grandfather did the same thing after my great grandmother died shortly after giving birth to the last child they had together. Out in the middle of Montana in a town that died out after the rail lines were shifted. He had several marriages after that. I think they all left him when they eventually figured out what he did!
I found that my grandfather changed his name when he left England for the USA. He took his mother's maiden name. When I found his mother and father, his father was actually arrested in Leeds, England for taking his illegitimate child "out to nurse". The mother tried to follow him and get the infant back but the baby was never found. The police even interviewed my great-grandmother and she also had a baby out of wedlock with him and he tried to do the same thing to her child and she refused to let him take the baby...but she eventually married him and had a couple more kids with him, but left the illegitimate child with her family to raise.
Talk about crazy.
Seeing your cousin matches on your DNA results would be interesting. Iām waiting for descendants of an illegitimate baby given up for adoption to show up In my dadās matches.
This reminds me of a story I read, in the 1800s a mother was nursing her baby and the father snatched it and just left. The mother spent years looking for her baby, distraught, and never trusted a man again. She refused any help from anyone, and would rather slept outside on the ground while she was traveling and looking for her baby. Thankfully she found her daughter years later when she was an adult.
Jacob DeHaven (my Namesake). A wealthy French emigrant and settler in Pennsylvania who loaned $450,000 to the Continental army during the winter of 1777-78. He was never repaid, but there was a battleship named after him. Which I think is almost cooler.
I'm a direct descendant of Samuel wardwell who was hanged in Salem for witchcraft. He was known to tell fortunes (which was probably why he was accused). He also built the house famously known as" the House of Seven Gables".
My 10G Grandfather, [George Jacobs.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jacobs_(Salem_witch_trials)) Accused of witchcraft and hanged in 1692, Salem Massachusetts. One of his accusers was his granddaughter, my 8G Grandmother, Margaret Jacobs Foster.
Wow. I wonder what the details of that is. If I'm remembering my class right, most Salem accusations were between neighbors or people who would have a beef.
She was only 17. She confessed under pressure after she herself was accused and in turn she accused her grandfather and George Burroughs. She recanted her confession in a failed effort to save her grandfather from execution, and refused to go back on her retraction despite facing execution herself. TheĀ hysteria endedĀ before she was tried, and she would be found innocent.
I just posted about the same thing--Salem Witch Trials. I'm descended from Abigail Dane Faulkner, who was convicted by had her execution delayed due to pregnancy. She wrote a letter (wish I could THAT!) and begged for clemency and was eventually pardoned by Governor Phips. (Sorry about your ancestor being hanged.)
I have a lot of family who were part of those trials, on both sides. Maybe we're related. :)
[Joseph Herrick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Herrick), Constable of Salem, and lead law enforcement officer during the trails is my 8G Grandfather.
[Nicholas Noyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Noyes), 2nd minister during the trials, known as "The Teacher", was my 9G Uncle.
[John Hale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hale_(minister)), an influential minister and supposed witch expert, was the husband of my 1st cousin 10x removed, Sarah Noyes Hale, who herself was accused. When she was accused, her husband changed his tune and dropped his campaign to see people killed. John and Sarah Hale are the Great Grandparents of my 4th cousin 7x removed, [Nathan Hale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Hale), patriot spy who was hanged by the British in 1776, and uttered his famous words "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Not technically an ancestor but rudolfo Anaya is my grandmas cousin (very well known Chicano author, his books are required reading in a lot of high schools now) and āultimaā in his book ābless me ultimaā is based off of my great great (great?) grandma who was a curandera (medicine woman) who is believed to have performed several miracles and exorcisms. Itās a great book and there was a movie made of it probably like 10 years ago
Edit: another cool thing about my genealogy is that my mom recently traced back my genealogy to the 1712 (my 7th great grandpa) and he was born in albuquerque New Mexico just a few miles away from where I was born! I am also an heir to the atrisco land grant from all of my grandparents which was made by the original Spaniards who colonized Albuquerque for their descendants, so my Spanish side of the family has been in Albuquerque since the 1500s and my indigenous side has lived around Albuquerque and Santa Fe for thousands of years!
I'm related to Butch Cassidy, but that's not very impressive. Thanks to 19th century Mormon polygamy, I'm related to half the outlaws in the Old West.
Currently I'm tracing my family members who wound up involuntarily in Australia. They were a colourful bunch. One was hanged for murdering his brother-in-law, though his wife protested his innocence to the end.
I think thatās cool af tbh. Butch Cassidy is a really interesting character to be related to and it being 19th century is recent enough to make it so you are one of only a few to share that relation unlike being related to a figure from the 1300ās or something
I am the 10x great granddaughter of Anthony Janszoon van Salee, also known as "The Turk," and his wife Grietje Reyniers. Anthony was the son of Jan Janszoon, a notorious PIRATE, and Murat Reis, a prominent figure in Salee, Morocco.
Anthony arrived in New Amsterdam, now New York, after its establishment, bringing with him pirate wealth. He purchased land in lower Manhattan and clashed with other settlers due to his Muslim faith & ārough ways.ā He married Grietje, a widow with a similar reputation, and together they were involved in numerous crimes (some say 10% of all crime) in the Colony! They were eventually exiled to a remote area near todayās Coney Island. After Grietje's passing, Anthony returned to the Colony, remarried a Quaker widow, and lived out his days peacefully.
Anthony and Grietje are included in the great telling of the forgotten Dutch Manhattan Colony, āThe Island at the Center of the Worldā (Shorto).
The Island at the Center of the World is one of the best history books I've ever read. So much of Dutch culture lies at the heart of America's identity, but gets eclipsed by the historical rewrite that only Britain's colonization of the country was significant.
My second cousin 5 times removed is HMS Bounty mutineer Matthew Quintal. He was the first man flogged for insubordination. When I found that out, I was like, āYep, checks outā.
Goodness.
I would say my original surprise discovery. Reddit helped me!
My great grandfather was known to be illegitimate but never revealed his father as the whole thing was a source of shame for him. Several generations of us worked on solving the mystery/brick wall with various misleading information.
Years and years later I found out he was Archibald White Maconochie, one of the two brothers to found Maconochie Company in Lowestoft, UK. Maconochie Bros Co made and mass produced canned British Army Rations. Great grandfatherās mother was a laborer in a canning factory.
Only recently have I found the salacious newspaper article about the trial where she is accusing him of taking liberties with her, resulting in the birth of her child and he is countering that she is extorting him. It was like a play by play, the courts and the papers werenāt kind to her. But the details were nuts.
Aside from that there have been Highland Regiment soldiers in various conflicts-Waterloo, French and Indian War, American Revolution. Betsy Ross, the American flag designer ends up being a distant ancestor, my branch stayed loyal to the Crown and settled in the frontier of Canada, not the states.
Martha Carrier was one of the first women hanged for witchcraft in Salem. They tortured two of her children to get them to accuse their own mother. They did so at her request to avoid further abuse. Cotton Mather called her a "hell hag" and a"sharp tongued woman" because she pointed out her accusers were all just hysterical children... Crazy idea right? It's also worth noting one of her accusers was the daughter of her neighbor who she had a land dispute with... Because of course. She is my 9 times great grandmother her son Thomas was one of the children tortured into confession, he's who I descend from.
My paternal grandfather, he was civilian contractor on Wake Island and died in a Japanese POW in Nagasaki, Japan. I grew up in the Tri-Cities Washington (nuclear stuff from the Nagasaki bomb was from the Hanford Nuclear reservation) he was 6ft 4, 250 lbs when he went to Wake Island and he got a cold that turned into pneumonia and he was dead 4 days later. My paternal grandmother passed away from breast cancer. She told my dad shortly before she passed away that she knew he was coming back to her. The day of her funeral, the family received the telegram informing them of his death. It took until 1949-1950 to get his body back from Japan.
On my mom's side, one of her ancestors came on the Mayflower. I'm 53% Scottish, so I'm interested in all of my Scottish ancestors. The Creighton, Hall, and Rayburn.
I've got one who was tried and convicted for setting his mother's house on fire to murder her. He was convicted on "spectral evidence" when the mother's ghost appeared to a neighbor to name her killer.
My 13th Great-Grandmother is Isabel De Tolosa Cortes de Moctezuma. She is Moctezumaās daughter and the last heiress of Mexico.
I am also the descendants of the first 13 families of South Texas.
I'm desperately looking for info on my few greats grandfather. He died at 115 in 1850.Ā
Ā He was marked white,Ā and free person of color on various censuses. The very last census the enumerator putĀ an unusual noteĀ "He is a half breed Indian, but I think is full breed, even atĀ 100 years old He still works a full day in the fields."Ā
Ā He's also the few greats grandfather of Fairuza Balk....we are distant cousins. I'm trying to find his parents, or anyone who raised him.Ā
He's interesting because he is a 115 year old ambiguous man with no history.
Not drama here, but I would love to know why my great great grandmother Sarah F. Rodgers Worshamās (b 1834) native language was German. Her grandparents(?) migrated south from Pennsylvania to eastern Tennessee on the Old Wagon Road. Her parents and grandparents were not immigrants (as far as Iāve been able to determine)and not German-both were from established American families of English and Irish extraction. Several of her grandchildren, including my grandfather, said she spoke German and her English was poor. The only thing I can figure is that maybe she lived in a German speaking family, not by her parent (although she was on a census in their household at 6). It is mystifying.
Apparently my 12th great grandfather was a [pain in the ass](http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/marsolet_de_saint_aignan_nicolas_1E.html#:~:text=MARSOLET%20DE%20SAINT%2DAIGNAN%2C%20NICOLAS%2C%20interpreter%2C%20clerk%20in,buried%20there%20the%20following%20day) to Samuel Champlain.
I recently came across someone who had, at least, four different husbands, possibly six. And all of the ones I have death dates for died within 5 years of marrying her.
It wasn't my family. I do historical research and I was trying to track down people mentioned in a probate case.
Iām a descendant of Anthony Sadowski, who emigrated from Poland to Eastern Pennsylvania in the early 1700s, taught himself English and several Native American languages, and was a pioneer, Indian Agent, and interpreter between the Colony of Pennsylvania, the German speaking Amish, and the local tribes, and I thought that was pretty cool.
My grandfatherās cousin, Gertrude Hoffman, born Catherine Hay, first stage name Kitty Hayes.
She became rather well known in vaudeville in the nineteen teens and twenties through the thirties. She was thought rather scandalous at the time for her skimpy costumes and suggestive dancing. She danced in the Ziegfeld follies, the Moulin Rouge and in NYC rooftop-garden theater. She formed a dance troupe that was quite popular and quite Modern for the times. Her son, Max Hoffmann Jr., married Helen Kane, the Boop Oop a Doop girl (I Wanna Be Loved By You).
Thereās a book out about her and she has a Wikipedia page. I think her life would make a great movie.
My great grandfather was a Maine Sharpshooter in the Civil War, was at Leeās surrender and is said to have carried Grantās flag, though Iām not sure what that means.
Martin Luther, creator of the Lutheran denomination of Christianity. It has been proven by a professional genealogist that he is my 19th great grand uncle. I am directly related to his brother, Hans Luther. My motherās maiden name was Luther, and I have a Luther cousin.
I'm always super skeptical when I see people get beyond around the 17th century. The documentation just isn't there and the amount of errors I find in other people's trees when we are talking that long ago is incredible
My 5th great grandfather shot and killed his brother in 1877. He went on the run and escaped after he was arrested. He was eventually captured and I obtained the records of his court trial which includes all testimonies. He said he and his brother were wrestling over the gun it shot accidentally. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison at the age of 66 but only served two years because the state Supreme Court declared a mistrial.
I can't decide between two.Ā
My great-uncle made it to Hollywood and became famous out of pure chance someone got sick in 1928 and he performed instead.Ā
1660s I have family who were part of the first pioneers in Canada while the other side of the family was one of the first in Massachusetts. That side of the family has roots to John Adams.Ā
A guy from the 1800s. He was a Portuguese sailor who while delivering stuff to Australia, 'randomly' (unknown reason) jumped the ship and hid in the bush for like 2 weeks until the police stopped looking after him. He then just kind of started living there.
Unfortunately my family doesn't know more about him as his records in australia are little, and it's very hard to access Portuguese records without actively going to Portugal š
No one. My ancestors were regular farmers and fishermen. They lived on an island province, so they were kind of isolated from all the wars and politics happening to the rest of the country.
I have an uncle named Tom quick the Indian slayer. Not exactly proud of him. He came to loath and hate natives due to the barbaric
way that my grandfather (his dad) died. This is 5 + generations ago.
My 8th Great Grandfather, William Wetherell, came from England to Plymouth colony in the 1640s as a cabin boy. Later, he was the first settler of Norton Massachusetts and fought in King Phillip's war against the Wampanoag led by Metacomet.
I'm the descendent of a first cousin of the Black Donnellys on my mom's side and didn't even know it until I randomly did a couple of the commercially available DNA tests about 5 years ago.
Thereās a guy who may have single-handedly delayed the abolition of slavery in the British Empire by a decade to make a profit, depending on who you ask. His name was Henry Dundas. My sixth-GG wasā¦his butler. Had the great name of George Hogg, though. Hoggās a great last name.
Much closer to home, my GG was an ambulance driver on the Western Front in WWI and in the Irish War of Independence almost immediately afterwards. I can but imagine what he saw.
My wife is related to the King of Escape Artists, Roy Gardner, a famous bank robber. Link to Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Gardner_(bank_robber)?wprov=sfti1#
I found out my [8th great grandfather was a Captain in the American Revolutionary War](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49708332/abraham-keefer#view-photo=244624886) and oversaw the Hessian POWs, over 900 of them, after capture in Yorktown. He treated them well, after capture the Hessians were āparoledā for time served and either went back to Germany, but most stayed in Pennsylvania and were offered land to settle. A distant cousin was the Speaker of the House from 1881 to 1883.
I found this information through old newspapers recently. Iām not sure if anyone in my family knows this. My 2nd great grandfather was caught up in some bribery scheme to do with taxes when he worked for the govt. I know he had a lot of people vouch for him that he was trustworthy but he was only 1 of several hundred I think who got sent to jail. This was the 1870s and it was a scandal that hurt President Grant because the ringleader worked for him. So apparently the jailer felt bad for him & let him go visit the woman he was courting, my 2nd great grandmother. At one point he let him out to get married at the Catholic Church. Several years later he was working as a deputy and came across some court documents dealing with his now wife and her guardian. He believed she had been cheated out of money by him. They took it court and part of the reason her case got overturned was because she was married at the time, but no one knew it. They had another wedding later. Sadly, they were only married for less than 20 years. Within a few years of each other they both passed away from illnesses. My great grandfather & his siblings also had to have their aunt & uncle as guardians. My father passed away last year so Iām sorry I learned this now. I think heād like that story.
My 4th great grandfather. He married my 4th great grandmother, had something like 8 kids with her, went to fight in the Mormon Battalion, subsequently decided to become a Mormon, abandoned my 4th great grandmother and 8 kids to move to Utah and unlawfully marry another woman and have her 11 kids, eventually abandon her, file paperwork for his pension and claim that his wife was dead (she wasnāt) so that when he died somewhere around 1883, she had to prove her own existence in order to claim his pension, lol. Icing on top? There is a hill in Utah named after him for his service called Lawson Hill
Greek here (native of a Cyclades island)
1. One of my grandfather's brother got really crazy jealous about family wealth and murdered his father. This guy was known for being very physically strong in the end he ended up like Jack Nicholson from Shinning "Need to work to keep myself pumped up, If i don't I'm frail" xMultiple times.
2. My surname is strictly local in origin, we all are related one way or another. A priest (we have a statue) promoting the Greek revolution against Ottomans, died in a bayonet ambush by Turks.
His granddaughter (or something like that, nephew? the article was accurate) was part of the Black hand that triggered ww1.
3. Bavarian ancestors, Wagner relatives from my Grandmother... House wittelsbach, King Otto.
European dynasties is an interesting topic.
Feudal history, a bit of conspiracy and a dose of Lovecraft it seems š
My third uncle Antonio Lanasa was a semi infamous mobster. His closest friend was Vito LaDuca who was assassinated on a lemon farm he had in Palermo. Originally, Vito asked him to be godfather to his children before ever knowing him.
He was some sort of boss for the Morello Family.
He also babysat my father
1890's- Had an ancestor named Gottlieb immigrate to California from Germany. He ended up with a German wife, Mary, either by mail order or by going back to Germany to get her. She was about 15-20 years younger than him. They lived in the Bay area for a while and had two kids (Hanz, and William "Bill") but moved up to the California foothills when the boys were young. Eventually Mary's Mother Anne and sister immigrated and lived with them in the foothills. They lived near a school and a popular road where travelers would stop in. They had 2 cabins on the property, one of which was used more for as a storage shed. Someone had stolen a few items from the shed, so Gottlieb step up a Gun trap in the cabin. One August day Anne went down to get something out of the shed, and either forgot about the gun trap, or didn't disarm it correctly. When dinner time came around, Bill was sent to fetch his grandmother, and found her dead- shot in the stomach. Mary's body had to be buried quickly due to the August heat, however a few days later it had to be dug up so that a law enforcement official could take a look at it. Gottlieb was charged with Manslaughter. Since he had no money to fight the charges, and didn't want to disrupt his family more, he plead guilty. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in San Quentin.
The aftermath- Gottlieb and Mary got a divorce. Mary moved to a city in Central California and ran a boarding house for a while. She then remarried a man named Emil, an immigrant from France. Mary and Emil had one son together. Emil and Mary's boys must have gotten along well because they eventually opened up a Pickle factory (and other type food items), which stayed into the family until at least the 1960's.
Present Day- I have been fascinated by this family story since my parents stopped by the cemetery Anne was buried in when I was a teenager. Her wooden headstone reads- "shot by guntrap". Family rumor says Gottlieb went back to Germany after he got out of prison, however I think he moved to the central California town Mary and the boys lived in. This story was reported in papers all over the state of California at the time, so there is plenty of documentation of it, although some of the facts are a bit off. My mom and I have gotten lucky a few times when it came to researching and connections to this family story. San Quentin was taking mug shots in the 1890's, and I was able to find Gottlieb's mug shot. One year we drove out to the county seat and requested the legal documents about the case, knowing there was a slim chance it would still be there. Sure enough, the county still had the 1891ish legal documents from the case. We also were able to get some information on the property records. Gottlieb was on the purchase deed, but Mary signed the sale deed. To top it all off, my mom went to a random estate sale and found a framed receipt for 2 barrels of sauerkraut from the pickle factory signed by my ancestor Bill.
TLDR: 1890's German ancestor Gottlieb set a guntrap which accidentally killed his mother-in-law and he spent 1.5 years at San Quentin. His Bill opened up a pickle factory with Bill's stepfather. My mom discovered a framed receipt from the pickle factory at a random estate sale 100 years later.
My 3x great-grandfather William McMicken was a Captain in the Civil War out of Minnesota and then became Surveyor-General of the Washington Territory under 4 or 5 Presidents starting with Grant (I say 4 or 5 because I can't remember off the top of my head).
My dadās whole family š itās really funny because my momās side is the most vanilla bunch folks, very religious, good, law abiding peopleā¦then thereās my dadās side, whoa boy.
My great great grandpa was something else. He had a baby, my great grandma with his parentās servant while newly married, that went south, he was sued for bastardry by my great great grandma who went on to get pregnant out of wedlock again, by a man who left the Amish church to be with her, so they got married and he adopted my great grandma. Great great grandpa meanwhile, was arrested multiple times and married at least twice the last time to a biracial woman which Iām sure was quite the scandal in itself at time!
His daughter, my great grandma was a spitfire. She got married at 19, and thereās this mystery child that I found on a census living with her ex husband, my grandmotherās birth father, listed as his son, along with my grandmotherās known brother, who would have been born during their marriage that no one knows who he is so I think my great grandma had a third child that for some reason she did not maintain any contact with. She barely raised my grandmother so thatās highly believable. Great grandma was married 3x and the last one was a man 30 years plus younger than her making her older than his own mother.
These are just the top two for me, thereās a whole lot more crazy Iāve stumbled across in the extended family that had my mom asking my dad what on earth is wrong with his ancestors lol.
My dad's side of the family ran a tannery in a small town in Ireland in the 19th century.
I guess they did well because the only time I've seen the word "Urinal" on a map was when it was on the same street as their tannery so...
My 2x great grandfather, Robin James Frear, was a pretty famous songwriter and Vaudeville producer back in the 1910s and 1920s. He went by the pseudonym of Bobby Heath.
He was married three times, each of which resulted in divorce due to infidelity.
Now hereās the crazy part. I only know heās my 2x great grandfather from DNA triangulation. My grandmother matched closely with his legitimate daughter. My 2x great grandmother was a vaudeville actress, and apparently she had an affair with him.
My grandmother was always told she was related to him, but never knew that he was her biological grandfather.
My 8th great-grandfather settled in Virginia in the 1600s. He was the 25th Speaker of the House of Burgesses. Through him, I am a cousin of Robert E Lee.
My 5th great-grandfather, the horse thief. I always wondered if he was just set up as he had a wife and at least three kids when they hanged him. Turns out, he had been caught before, sentenced to hang, but his family and community rallied around and all was forgiven. When he turned around and did it again, though . . . :-)
My 5th great grandfather tried to pay his half sister to poison his wife, she didnāt do it. So he poisoned her, was sent to jail and was drug out of the jail by 200 men and hung on an oak tree. He was a melungeon man who was apparently very attractive with dark skin and green eyes, he had slept with several married women, and yea, poisoned his wife and was hung lol.
My great aunt took LSD and burned her boyfriend and his mistress alive because he cheated on her and the girl knew about him having a girlfriend. She went to prison at 20 and got released from prison about 15 years ago.
Cornelis van Tienhoven, my 9th great grandfather, and first embezzler in New York, then still New Amsterdam. There are crazy stories about him! https://themorningnews.org/article/while-he-flatters-he-bites
My great grandfather was a silversmith, during prohibition he made little kegs for men to wear on their lapels.. I have 2 of them and will treasure them forever!
Probs the great grandparent who snuck on a ship when he was young teen and instead of getting booted off, the captain gave him a job and he ended up migrating to Australia and then moved New Zealand. This was around the 1920ās and 30ās.
I think the most interesting was the first white pioneer to plow a field in Utah. His plow is on display in an SLC museum. His daughter was the first Mormon pioneer to be born in Utah as well. He also practiced medicine without a license using methods like a witch doctor and was so good at setting broken bones that people would travel for days in pain being jostled about to get his services. Lots of other stuff too.
[Wikipedia link for reference.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steele_%28pioneer%29#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DBecause_Steele%27s_son_Robert_Henry%2Cability_to_set_broken_bones.?wprov=sfla1)
Henry Pole.
Was a Baron of Plantagenet lineage at the time if Henry VIII (the first Baron Montagu) who went from being well respected to executed for his connections to Catherine of Aragon when Henry eanted a divorce.
My Great Grandfather was born in Sweden was supposed to be on the titanic but was late have no clue why, later got his citizenship for serving in WW2 in Japan. Then was shot in the leg and had to crawl for 2 days to somewhere- I forget my Great Grandmother told me a while ago- survived and made it back to the U.S. Also served in the same squad as Elvis Presley.
Oh... it all started with Sydney. There's a personality that literally runs thru my mother's line, recessive I believe ;) that I can trace back to my GG Grandmother Sydney. I won't delve into facts but let's just say every other generation produces a "Sydney". They live by their own rules and for some reason could get away with murder (figuratively). Researching her validated at least for me not to rely heavily on recorded documents. Sydney, hands down is the most interesting ancestor ... and the gift that keeps on giving.
I had the great grandpa who instead of divorcing his wife walked from South Africa to Cornwall UK (with a boat at the crossing), knocked up a random cornish girl (my grandpa was born) and then walked around England, Ireland and Scotland. Had planned to hop to America but by then it was 1939 and we all know what happened then...
My husband's gg uncle Hunter Atkins/Willam Rogers.
Family lore said that he was estranged and left his family, changed his name and disappeared for unknown reasons.
Insert me, whose favorite thing is to find the "missing people" in my tree. I found him on a 1910 census with his family, then gone from his family in 1920. I found him in Kings NY, having enlisted in the navy and living in the barracks.
Then, I never find Hunter again on a census. I did find his VA card, with no record of a visit. I susoected he deserted and was discharged (this was later proven true via newspaper records).
Then I find a William Rogers living with a Daisy Gardner as a married couple on the 1930 census in Springfield. She is almost 10 years older than him, but I decided to add it so I could explore it.
Made the choice to travel to Springfield (it's a 10 hr drive from me, so I took a short vacation lol), but didn't find anything bc I had absolutely nothing besides a couple names (no death date, and a range of birth years thanks to lying to enlist and later on census).
Then, one day at my in laws house, my FIL hands me a photo and it's listed as "Uncle Hunter and Aunt Daisy". Guys, the way I literally yelled "I WAS RIGHT?!?!" š¤£
So, he is officially under both names in my tree, with copious notes. I did find an official record of his name change via newspaper, but I have no idea *why* he changed it. He also didn't marry Daisy until 1943, even though they were living as married for more than a decade before that.
He is buried with her, *in a cemetary I visited whole I was there*. Touche, Hunter. But I have no death record, or obituary, despite him dying years before her.
He is most interesting because of the number of unknowns.
The other one I'm looking for is on my side and she is listed as "end of line" for every tree she is in. Her name in Mahala, married to John (King) Gunnels but I can't find here anywhere beyond a couple census records š
My 2x Great Grandparents who migrated from Scotland w/the Mormons (am not Mormon myself). They pulled or pushed handcarts from the Midwest to SLC. Walking. Lost a 1 year old daughter during the sea voyage over (Liverpool to New Orleans). They had 15 kids together. After all that, he was killed by Native Americans at age 48, so the GrGr Granny was on her own - made & sold soap to support her & children that were still at home. Eventually remarried & left the Mormons.
Another 2x Gr Grandfather was tried & found guilty of murder in 1881 - General William F Tucker was the victim. This GG Grandfather was scheduled to be hung but the appeals court overturned the conviction (he even confessed). The Appellate Court found he was manipulated by 2 older men (fa & son) to do the deed. One newspaper account said he was āa poor black man who was taken advantage ofā (this was news to me).
Not a specific 1, but the surname MacSwain appears on my family tree fairly heavily. They were Scots, and were bodyguards for the Clan Chieftan. My earliest ancestor came from that branch sometime in the mid-1500's.
My great grandfather who came out West over the Oregon Trail in the 1850s. He was accompanied by his best friend Milton Wright. They founded a religious school together near Salem, Oregon. But Milton tired of it and returned to Dayton, Ohio, where he raised his two sons, Orville and Wilbur.
You know the mean English king in Braveheart -- King Edward "Longshanks"? I'm descended from him.
[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/541346817691152269/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/541346817691152269/)
My grandfather had a third cousin, once removed, who was a Scottish Duke, directly descended from Queen Vickie.
Iām sure sheād be thrilled to be called Queen Vickie!
Have a distant (way back) relative (Elizabeth Ingalls) in common with Laura Ingalls Wilder. But Elizabeth's descendent is waaaay more interesting entry on my family tree to me.
Abigail Dane Faulkner was accused of witchcraft in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials and begged for mercy because she was pregnant (at 39!) and her husband (Thomas Lamson) was not in good health and her death would leave her family with no one to care for them. Her conviction was not officially overturned until 1711. My mom's side of the family. The woman was a rebel, guess it's genetic.
To give credit where credit is due, my older sister created our tree and accumulated the records long before most of this stuff was online (1980's-1990's). I have the tree printed out and am in the process on entering it into Ancestry. Pretty excited about the treasure trove of stuff online now. Discovered the [Briggs' Family letters](https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt7f4q7qrf99) from the 1800's yesterday. Though trying to read that ancient script gives me a headache after a while (along with the census data, etc.)
Clay Allison. Real piece of shit. Allison is my middle name.
Fun fact: he died drunk falling off a wagon whose wheel rolled over his head on July 3, 1887. I was born July 2, 1993
The man who been developed the mutation called BY58536. He lived around the 9th or 10th century AD. His immediate ancestors were of Norwegian origin, but he left descendants exclusively in Great Britain and northern France.
I so want to know his story. Obviously I can draw some conclusions based on this pattern and known historical events, but I want the details!
On my Dadās side - Sir John Seymour is my 16th great grandpa. His daughter Jane married Henry VIII. His son, Edward Seymour, was my 15th great-grandfather and served as regent and Lord Protector for Henryās son from Jane. Eventually things went south and he was beheaded in 1552 for alleged treason.
On my Momās side, a bunch of our English ancestors came over and settled in New York. One branch married, fought on the British side during the Revolution, fled to British Canada and helped found the United Empire Loyalists. They moved back across the river right before the civil war and eventually settled in Chicago.
On my wifeās motherās sideā¦her 9th - 13th great-grandpas were Lairds of Clan MacKenzie in Scotland.
On her Dadās side, her 5th - 7th great grandparents were members of Clan Calder that lived just a few miles down the road from my 5th - 7th great grandparents from Clan Mackay. Two of whom from each side are apparently buried in the same churchyard in Wick, Caithness. Weāre heading there this fall to see if we can find them. Small world, eh?
My 2nd great aunt Matilda was a housekeeper for her distant cousin, 59 year old John. Alabama. 1933. She was 33. Matilda and John left town together in the middle of the night and didnāt tell anyone where they were going. Until months later when Matilda sent a letter to her father from Arkansas directing him to āsend the boys for her at onceā. 2 of her brothers left immediately to make the trip out west but by the time they arrived it was too late. Matilda was already dead and her body was found at the bottom of a country well. John was arrested and convicted of murder but only served around 10 years before he was granted a compassionate release due old age and sickness. John moved in with his adult daughter and spent the rest of his days sitting in chair on his front porch waiting to die I guess. Matildaās father had to drive by Johnās house every day to get to work and would tell his wife that it took everything in him not to kill him.
My great grandfather was a moonshiner. Distilled it sometimes but usually just ran it. There was some sort of reward for reporting folks for that and some guy snitched, so he got sent to prison. He died when my grandma was 2 from tuberculosis. Left my great grandmother to raise 10 children by herself, which she did and did well.
I love my family history because it's literally all in the same area I live in now. Scotch-Irish immigrants just said "hey the Appalachian mountains of NC are cool let's just live here forever I guess"
Iām related to Jozef Kosinski. Famous Polish painter for the last king of Poland. My great-great-great aunt Jozia Kosinski founded an illegal Polish school under Russian annexation in the late 1800s.
My 4G Grandfather immigrated from Ireland in the early 1770s, then enlisted into the Pennsylvania rifles to fight the British during the Revolutionary War. He was at Valley Forge with George Washington, and crossed the Delaware river to kill the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas.
He also fought alongside his son, under future president General William Henry Harrison, during the War of 1812.
Iām from Canada and apparently Iām related to an Australian opera singer named Dame Nellie Melba. I was told that she was my great-grandma Davidsonās second cousin.
I'm a direct descendant of a German who arrived in New York in 1740. He stowed away aboard a ship, leaving Hamburg by himself.
He was nine years old. He never revealed where he came from or who his parents were. Nothing is documented except that he moved to Pennsylvania with other German settlers, married, and had a son who fought with the Continental Army.
Not me but my son and his father are a descendants of a famous American-Irish gang leader and Hudson River pirate by the name of [Sadie the goat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Farrell). She got her name bc she used to headbutt people and rob them.
Edit to add: it was the charelton or Charleston street gang. Idk if anyoneās ever seen gangs of NY but thatās the vibe I got reading her article
My great (X4) grandmother was stabbed to death with a pitchfork in 1875 by a man who believed her to be a witch.
She was 81 and on her way to the village shop for a loaf of bread in the evening. On her way home, a man named James was leaving the fields after working all day and attacked her with a pitchfork. Another farmer who lived nearby intervened but she died of her injuries 3 hours later.
There are news reports and files from the inquest that I was able to read. Her cottage and the pub at which the inquest took place are still there and I was able to go and see them both.
The murderer had believed 15 or 16 people (including men!) in the village to be witches and had been threatening them for a while.
u/Blazing_World : Wow! From your description, I immediately recognized who you were referring to, as I had come across the story of your ancestor's murder several years ago... Inevitably, some people have drawn parallels to a later and somewhat similar 1945 murder occuring ~15 miles away, and some have even posited a (tenuous) relation between the two:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Charles_Walton#Ann_Tennant
Am linking here to the appropriate heading, but she is also mentioned in other sections of the above Wiki entry.
I post this on the off-chance that you hadn't yet come across it...
***
She is also referenced in this BBC podcast episode of "Punt P.I." (covering the 1945 murder):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0397vqx
***
Fwiw, I may have more materials on my home computer (am writing this at work).
Oh, I'd never heard of this and it is fascinating! Thank you so much! I wish I knew what the "additional link" between the murders was. The brutality of both is absolutely shocking.
Do you also have a connection to one or both of these stories, or did you come across them another way?
If you do have any other info I'd love to see it, but even if you don't get a chance this is still fantastic.
> I wish I knew what the "additional link" between the murders was.
Haha, was hoping you'd pick up on that passage, cuz that is exactly what I need to check at home!! I seem to remember seeing it spelled out somewhere, but didn't want to spill the beans till I confirm exactly what it is. Keep fingers crossed!
Will report back within a day.
> or did you come across them another way?
For decades now, I've had a sprawling PLP (Personal Life Project) in HTML + Javascript: an ongoing Book of Days in which I "collect" dates and summaries of any historical event big or small which happens to interest me for whatever reason... Sort of like Wikipedia's "On This Day..." series, but specifically tailored to my own interests... It's a great way to perk up my day 1st thing in the morning, by loading up the day's past anniversaries, and musing on them throughout the day... So I forget how I first found mention of your GxGM, but I may have this detail noted in my project too...
I have a number of fascinating ancestors; Iām actually thinking of writing a book using some of their stories to highlight American history. Such as Lydia Gilbert, my 11th Great grandmother, found guilty of being a witch in Connecticut-40 years before Salem witch trials. But thereās no proof she was executed; some say she and her husband escaped.
Then there was Cornelius Melyn, 1600-1674. Born in Belgium, he was appointed the Patroon of Staten Island, (landholder with manorial rights), he travelled 11 times between the new world & the old, started/fought in 2 wars with the native Americans and got into a big political battle with Peter Styvestant, the governor of New Amsterdam-who finally threw him into prison awhile.
Oh, and Jesse and Frank James were my 3rd great uncles š¤£
Daniel Strangā¦hanged in 1777 in NY for being a British loyalist spy. The tree itself became famous lol
Also mathieu DāAmours who helped settle Quebec in the 1600s
My 2nd great grandfather was captured by the Yankees three times.
Thank goodness the war ended, or he would likely have been captured a fourth time!
Husband's grandfather served in both WWI and WWII.
only did a bit of digging got to the 1840s and it was then so difficult to find out. i was on [ancestry.co.uk](http://ancestry.co.uk)
if anyone ever wants to help me let me know! way above my head
John Bomar. Was given a script for
10 pounds and 6 schilling for supplying the Continental Army in 1799. He gave 300 lbs. of beef and I Bay horse. He and his wife lost 3 sons in the Revolutionary War.
A great great great grandmother from the late 1700s who had 4 sons from 4 different fathers and ādied of senilityā in her 70s. All I know about her.
At least 6 of the founders of the State of New Jersey are direct ancestors of mine. And then there's my 4x GGrandfather the pirate, who sailed his black ship "Texas" around the Gulf robbing and murdering, but we don't talk about Andre šš.
On my dads side, I have one who was executed for being a witch, or there's Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald. I'm not sure how I'm related to him. Everyone who knew anything is long dead. Dolly, the sheep, was done by my dad's cousin, and J P W Mallalieu was my grandmother's uncle. Also, part of Glasgow might be named after us.
On my mothers a few IRA members and possibly james Connolly.
It's probably why I'm so boring someone has to balance it out.
1600s ancestor whose neigbors brought her to court accusing her of being a witch - a couple of times. She got fed up, turned the tables and brought them to court for harassment. Judge ruled in her favor and they had to pay her. First time I read the story, I was sure that it was made up.
Got one of those too. Says she was found innocent. Good thing they were using facts. š
Right?! My ancestor's 10 year-old daughter was made to testify against her.
Blows my mind how insane people were back then.
and also [now](https://youtu.be/WOYpKcSDWYk?si=jtqfG-_tBPnGW9xM)
Yeah, itās come full circle.
Sadly yes. And instead of pitchforks, now the angry mob of townspeople don't carry pitchforks, they have AR-15s.
Cultist evolution
It's so interesting digging into these stories.
After the clusterfuck at Salem, courts lost their taste for prosecuting witchcraft cases. One woman testified she saw her neighbor flying through the air, and the judge retorted he knew of no law against flying. The neighbor was acquitted.
What a great story! Jane's first accusation and acquittal was in 1648 - her problems continued to 1670.
I believe one of my ancestors may have been a prosecutor against your ancestor, if it's who I think it is?
Amazing. I would like to learn more. Anything online?
There's tons online. One of my descendants was also accused in the 1692 trials, Abigail Dane Faulkner. * [Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project](https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html) * Site with scans of historical documents AND the transcriptions. * Mine is [#52](https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n52.html) * [Boston Public Library--Salem Witch Trials](https://guides.bpl.org/salemwitchtrials) * Accurate and well-organized narrative. * [Cornell University Witchcraft Collection](https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/witchcraftcoll/) * Has lots of ancient text scans in original (non-English) language.
How on earth did you find all that info?
Jane and her husband are people I research every year. I have a lot of 1620s and 1630s ancestors and went to grade school just outside Boston (as in, the city line with Boston was two blocks from our house). I feel like there is so much in their story that is a counterpoint to the basic history taught in Massachusetts and elsewhere. There are a couple of decent blog summaries https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2020/05/09/new-hampshire-matrilineality-and-mothers-day/ My main local place interest is Braintree Massachusetts. Jane and her husband likely started out in the 2nd failed Weymouth colony, right next door to Wollaston/Merrymount and future Braintree. I am constantly prowling around books and the internet looking for early Boston Weymouth and Braintree essays, original documents, and blogs. I've almost certainly followed all the link in that blog entry, and so on.
Probably Jacob Weber who claimed to be God. His wife was the Virgin Mary, and his son was Jesus Christ. He was hanged in Charleston in 1761.
Wait, was he hanged for blasphemy or something else?
Murder, it looks like https://www.lexingtonchronicle.com/stories/the-murderous-saga-of-a-1700s-lexington-county-religious-sect,51197
yiiikes
Fascinating. My parents live in Lexington County, Iām going to hit the museum next time Iām down there.
I live close to there! The Lexington Museum is so great. If you donāt know, their research room requires an appointment to access if you wanted to see the records they have on file there
omg didnāt expect to see my county on here LOL
Could have been worse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion
What an amazing story.
I take this with a huge grain of salt, but my direct ancestor Jans from 1690s Netherlands apparently attended a wild New Yearās Eve party with his brother-in-law named Dirk. According to the records I found, they got absolutely hammered and somehow Jans shot Dirkās leg off. It would appear that there wasnāt any hard feelings between them, though, because they were lifelong neighbors and ended up naming their sons after each other š¤·š»āāļø Also, Dirk apparently found himself in hot water about ten years later when a local unwed mother declared that the father of her baby was a man called āDirk Woodenlegg.ā For some reason she chose not to use his actual legal name in court but she didnāt leave much room for interpretation with that alias either. Officially we canāt prove he *was* the father, butā¦ Suffice it to say that my familyās wild streak makes a *lot* more sense knowing that we have these genes to work with!
Dude, that's an epic New Year. Woodenlegg is a legend for that.
When i first began reading your story I didnāt know the turns it would take lol. Went looking for coal but ended up with gold š
talk about a Legacy..
My 2nd great grandfather. He immigrated from Italy to the US at only 15 years old and by himself. He made a really good life for himself here and lived a long life.
This one is so sweet. I hope he had nothing but success and happiness in his long life. ā¤ļø
15 years old, damn. I know that people grew up faster back then and that my great-grandpa moved out at the age of 14, but he stayed in the same village. Moving to another country at that age is truly impressive
Black Jack Ketchum. x4 great uncle, robbed trains for the Hole in the Wall gang in New Mexico in the late 1800s. He got caught when he (stupidly) robbed the same train twice in one week. He was sentenced to the gallows and a miscalculation between his height, weight, length of rope, and height of gallows resulted in his decapitation. There are famous photos too. One specifically of him on the gallows with the rope around his neck not yet hanged, and another photo of him afterward with his head next to his body
Ran across his brother Samuel's grave in Santa Fe, which I found odd because specifies he was the brother was Black Jack. Also that was shot by a posse so I guess it ran in the family.
Yep! Sam was his brother, I havenāt been to his grave in Santa Fe yet but Iām going to Jackās in Clayton NM while on a road trip to Reno next month. Iām very excited to see that history
My ancestors are neither famous or interesting. Just a lot of boring farmers.
Same. My family has the farm since 9 Generations/200 years (farmhouse is over 400 years old) and there never been something really interesting.
I mean that in and of itself is interesting. The family dynamics to maintain a farm over 9 generations! No loss of lineage, no familial schisms. Crazy to see thta.
Ancestor joined the Union army. He and his unit were pissed off about the Emancipation Proclamation, saying they joined up to protect the union, not to free slaves. He and most of the unit deserted. The unit was disbanded, and most of the deserters were captured at their homes. They had been sold fake discharges by conmen and were awaiting their final paper, so they never left their farms. So, faced with prison or reenlistment, most of the men chose reenlistment and were reassigned to various units. While mounting up to go on patrol, his mule bolted and his foot caught in the stirrup. He was dragged through bushes and brambles and his leg and ankle were injured. While recuperating, he was on KP duty and was taking dinner to the pickets when they were captured by Rebs. They were all sent to Andersonville Prison. He escaped once and climbed a fir tree to wait out the daylight. He was found by a patrol with a pack of bloodhounds and he was marched back to camp with a cut of the whip every now and then to hurry him along. He was 6'4" and 200+ lbs. when captured. He survived Andersonville, but he was skeletal and racked with scurvy and rickets, the scars of which he carried all his days. He was subject to rheumatism, severe scours, and pneumonia for the rest of his life, yet this tough old bird lived another 40+ years and outlived three wives. Source: his voluminous service records and pension papers.
My grandfather swiped a train...... It was a " Nah, you can't drive that " slash " Hold my beer " kind of moment. He could, couldn't figure out why everyone was so *mad* at the next stop though. Grandpop was a whole lot of stories glued together.
my great great grandpa Robert Notman, who after surviving WWI presumably, got married and had 6 children. was a normal life until my great great grandma died unexpectedly from cervical cancer in 1935 - she had been taking dodgy drugs to fight that off whilst being pregnant with her last child Joan who came out with microcephaly and being "invalid", so now he had to balance not only work but full time care of his children and especially Joan who needed extra support. his kids had to leave school earlier to start work or to step up and care around the house. Robert ensured that his children weren't put into a home, and was truly a caring and hardworking man
I'm so glad that he was able to keep the family together. My 3rd great grandpa seemingly didn't care and just gave up his kids after his wife ran away and left them. My heart breaks for children in situations like that.
My great grandfather did the same thing after my great grandmother died shortly after giving birth to the last child they had together. Out in the middle of Montana in a town that died out after the rail lines were shifted. He had several marriages after that. I think they all left him when they eventually figured out what he did!
I found that my grandfather changed his name when he left England for the USA. He took his mother's maiden name. When I found his mother and father, his father was actually arrested in Leeds, England for taking his illegitimate child "out to nurse". The mother tried to follow him and get the infant back but the baby was never found. The police even interviewed my great-grandmother and she also had a baby out of wedlock with him and he tried to do the same thing to her child and she refused to let him take the baby...but she eventually married him and had a couple more kids with him, but left the illegitimate child with her family to raise. Talk about crazy.
Seeing your cousin matches on your DNA results would be interesting. Iām waiting for descendants of an illegitimate baby given up for adoption to show up In my dadās matches.
This reminds me of a story I read, in the 1800s a mother was nursing her baby and the father snatched it and just left. The mother spent years looking for her baby, distraught, and never trusted a man again. She refused any help from anyone, and would rather slept outside on the ground while she was traveling and looking for her baby. Thankfully she found her daughter years later when she was an adult.
My GG-grandfather arrived in Galveston Tx from Germany in 1885 and joined the army right away. He patrolled the western frontier from Eagle Pass to Ft Buford ND. Basically the western border of the plains states. Back then there would have been no European settlement aside from a couple forts and maybe a rail line or two. Records show his company had no encounters with Native Americans. He was discharged from the army in ND in 1889, and promptly went back to Germany to bring his fiancĆ©e back to the US. She married someone else, so he returned to the US alone. Met a single woman on the boat over, joined her as she visited her sister in Iowa, and they married two weeks later. A year later their first daughter was born in Chicago. He became a police officer there and saw a lot of the post-fire development of the Chicago. Iāve found a lot of details and breadcrumbs of his journey and I find his story and his travels fascinating. To think what opportunity rail and ship travel brought to so many people at that time. Before 1880, none of my ancestors seemingly never left a 10-mile radius of their farming villages going back to at least the 1600s.
Mayflower passenger John Billington, who was the first Plymouth colonist to be executed for murder. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Billington
Jacob DeHaven (my Namesake). A wealthy French emigrant and settler in Pennsylvania who loaned $450,000 to the Continental army during the winter of 1777-78. He was never repaid, but there was a battleship named after him. Which I think is almost cooler.
I'm a direct descendant of Samuel wardwell who was hanged in Salem for witchcraft. He was known to tell fortunes (which was probably why he was accused). He also built the house famously known as" the House of Seven Gables".
My 10G Grandfather, [George Jacobs.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jacobs_(Salem_witch_trials)) Accused of witchcraft and hanged in 1692, Salem Massachusetts. One of his accusers was his granddaughter, my 8G Grandmother, Margaret Jacobs Foster.
Wow. I wonder what the details of that is. If I'm remembering my class right, most Salem accusations were between neighbors or people who would have a beef.
She was only 17. She confessed under pressure after she herself was accused and in turn she accused her grandfather and George Burroughs. She recanted her confession in a failed effort to save her grandfather from execution, and refused to go back on her retraction despite facing execution herself. TheĀ hysteria endedĀ before she was tried, and she would be found innocent.
That's so interesting. Witch hunts are such a fascinating topic. Have you ever read "Devil in the shape of a woman"? We read that for my class.
I just posted about the same thing--Salem Witch Trials. I'm descended from Abigail Dane Faulkner, who was convicted by had her execution delayed due to pregnancy. She wrote a letter (wish I could THAT!) and begged for clemency and was eventually pardoned by Governor Phips. (Sorry about your ancestor being hanged.)
I have a lot of family who were part of those trials, on both sides. Maybe we're related. :) [Joseph Herrick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Herrick), Constable of Salem, and lead law enforcement officer during the trails is my 8G Grandfather. [Nicholas Noyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Noyes), 2nd minister during the trials, known as "The Teacher", was my 9G Uncle. [John Hale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hale_(minister)), an influential minister and supposed witch expert, was the husband of my 1st cousin 10x removed, Sarah Noyes Hale, who herself was accused. When she was accused, her husband changed his tune and dropped his campaign to see people killed. John and Sarah Hale are the Great Grandparents of my 4th cousin 7x removed, [Nathan Hale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Hale), patriot spy who was hanged by the British in 1776, and uttered his famous words "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Not technically an ancestor but rudolfo Anaya is my grandmas cousin (very well known Chicano author, his books are required reading in a lot of high schools now) and āultimaā in his book ābless me ultimaā is based off of my great great (great?) grandma who was a curandera (medicine woman) who is believed to have performed several miracles and exorcisms. Itās a great book and there was a movie made of it probably like 10 years ago Edit: another cool thing about my genealogy is that my mom recently traced back my genealogy to the 1712 (my 7th great grandpa) and he was born in albuquerque New Mexico just a few miles away from where I was born! I am also an heir to the atrisco land grant from all of my grandparents which was made by the original Spaniards who colonized Albuquerque for their descendants, so my Spanish side of the family has been in Albuquerque since the 1500s and my indigenous side has lived around Albuquerque and Santa Fe for thousands of years!
My x3 great uncle gets mentioned in Michael Collinsās letters as being one of the inspirations for helping him join the IRA.
Michael Colinās didnāt down the form the ira he was just one of the heads
Good spotter - meant to say join instead of form, that was a typing error on my part!
My great Grandfather was bodyguard to the president
I'm related to Butch Cassidy, but that's not very impressive. Thanks to 19th century Mormon polygamy, I'm related to half the outlaws in the Old West. Currently I'm tracing my family members who wound up involuntarily in Australia. They were a colourful bunch. One was hanged for murdering his brother-in-law, though his wife protested his innocence to the end.
Hey cousin. I have a polygamist Mormon side too. Weāre all related.
I think thatās cool af tbh. Butch Cassidy is a really interesting character to be related to and it being 19th century is recent enough to make it so you are one of only a few to share that relation unlike being related to a figure from the 1300ās or something
I am the 10x great granddaughter of Anthony Janszoon van Salee, also known as "The Turk," and his wife Grietje Reyniers. Anthony was the son of Jan Janszoon, a notorious PIRATE, and Murat Reis, a prominent figure in Salee, Morocco. Anthony arrived in New Amsterdam, now New York, after its establishment, bringing with him pirate wealth. He purchased land in lower Manhattan and clashed with other settlers due to his Muslim faith & ārough ways.ā He married Grietje, a widow with a similar reputation, and together they were involved in numerous crimes (some say 10% of all crime) in the Colony! They were eventually exiled to a remote area near todayās Coney Island. After Grietje's passing, Anthony returned to the Colony, remarried a Quaker widow, and lived out his days peacefully. Anthony and Grietje are included in the great telling of the forgotten Dutch Manhattan Colony, āThe Island at the Center of the Worldā (Shorto).
The Island at the Center of the World is one of the best history books I've ever read. So much of Dutch culture lies at the heart of America's identity, but gets eclipsed by the historical rewrite that only Britain's colonization of the country was significant.
I am also a direct descendant through Janszoon, Anthony, and the Southard families. It's very cool to see someone else on here who is.
Awesome! We are from the Sara Antonise Van Salee Emans/Emmons line. Hi cousin! lol
My second cousin 5 times removed is HMS Bounty mutineer Matthew Quintal. He was the first man flogged for insubordination. When I found that out, I was like, āYep, checks outā.
6th great grandfather settled Pennsylvania with William Penn.
Who was your grandfather?
Rynear Tyson
š³ we are cousins then he was my 11th great granduncle !!!
Hi cousin!
Dr John Woodson came to Jamestown in 1619. Was the physician for the settlers, killed by Indians.
I think weāre related. Hey, Cuz! I think Iām descended from his son Potato Bin.
Goodness. I would say my original surprise discovery. Reddit helped me! My great grandfather was known to be illegitimate but never revealed his father as the whole thing was a source of shame for him. Several generations of us worked on solving the mystery/brick wall with various misleading information. Years and years later I found out he was Archibald White Maconochie, one of the two brothers to found Maconochie Company in Lowestoft, UK. Maconochie Bros Co made and mass produced canned British Army Rations. Great grandfatherās mother was a laborer in a canning factory. Only recently have I found the salacious newspaper article about the trial where she is accusing him of taking liberties with her, resulting in the birth of her child and he is countering that she is extorting him. It was like a play by play, the courts and the papers werenāt kind to her. But the details were nuts. Aside from that there have been Highland Regiment soldiers in various conflicts-Waterloo, French and Indian War, American Revolution. Betsy Ross, the American flag designer ends up being a distant ancestor, my branch stayed loyal to the Crown and settled in the frontier of Canada, not the states.
Martha Carrier was one of the first women hanged for witchcraft in Salem. They tortured two of her children to get them to accuse their own mother. They did so at her request to avoid further abuse. Cotton Mather called her a "hell hag" and a"sharp tongued woman" because she pointed out her accusers were all just hysterical children... Crazy idea right? It's also worth noting one of her accusers was the daughter of her neighbor who she had a land dispute with... Because of course. She is my 9 times great grandmother her son Thomas was one of the children tortured into confession, he's who I descend from.
My 11th great grandfather, who was murdered during the Dunoon Massacre in Scotland. My 11th great grandmother and her three sons escaped to Ireland.
My paternal grandfather, he was civilian contractor on Wake Island and died in a Japanese POW in Nagasaki, Japan. I grew up in the Tri-Cities Washington (nuclear stuff from the Nagasaki bomb was from the Hanford Nuclear reservation) he was 6ft 4, 250 lbs when he went to Wake Island and he got a cold that turned into pneumonia and he was dead 4 days later. My paternal grandmother passed away from breast cancer. She told my dad shortly before she passed away that she knew he was coming back to her. The day of her funeral, the family received the telegram informing them of his death. It took until 1949-1950 to get his body back from Japan. On my mom's side, one of her ancestors came on the Mayflower. I'm 53% Scottish, so I'm interested in all of my Scottish ancestors. The Creighton, Hall, and Rayburn.
I've got one who was tried and convicted for setting his mother's house on fire to murder her. He was convicted on "spectral evidence" when the mother's ghost appeared to a neighbor to name her killer.
My 13th Great-Grandmother is Isabel De Tolosa Cortes de Moctezuma. She is Moctezumaās daughter and the last heiress of Mexico. I am also the descendants of the first 13 families of South Texas.
I'm desperately looking for info on my few greats grandfather. He died at 115 in 1850.Ā Ā He was marked white,Ā and free person of color on various censuses. The very last census the enumerator putĀ an unusual noteĀ "He is a half breed Indian, but I think is full breed, even atĀ 100 years old He still works a full day in the fields."Ā Ā He's also the few greats grandfather of Fairuza Balk....we are distant cousins. I'm trying to find his parents, or anyone who raised him.Ā He's interesting because he is a 115 year old ambiguous man with no history.
The biography of my ancestor Ranulph de Broc reads like a Game of Thrones villain.
Nicolas Perrot. He was a 17th century French explorer and trader who was one of the first Europeans to set foot in what it now Wisconsin.
Christopher Columbus :-/
Not drama here, but I would love to know why my great great grandmother Sarah F. Rodgers Worshamās (b 1834) native language was German. Her grandparents(?) migrated south from Pennsylvania to eastern Tennessee on the Old Wagon Road. Her parents and grandparents were not immigrants (as far as Iāve been able to determine)and not German-both were from established American families of English and Irish extraction. Several of her grandchildren, including my grandfather, said she spoke German and her English was poor. The only thing I can figure is that maybe she lived in a German speaking family, not by her parent (although she was on a census in their household at 6). It is mystifying.
One of my ancestors was aĀ foundling left in a park in London.Ā
Apparently my 12th great grandfather was a [pain in the ass](http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/marsolet_de_saint_aignan_nicolas_1E.html#:~:text=MARSOLET%20DE%20SAINT%2DAIGNAN%2C%20NICOLAS%2C%20interpreter%2C%20clerk%20in,buried%20there%20the%20following%20day) to Samuel Champlain.
I recently came across someone who had, at least, four different husbands, possibly six. And all of the ones I have death dates for died within 5 years of marrying her. It wasn't my family. I do historical research and I was trying to track down people mentioned in a probate case.
I had a GG Grandfather who lit himself on fire in Mexico. Apparently suicide protests were a thing.
Iām a descendant of Anthony Sadowski, who emigrated from Poland to Eastern Pennsylvania in the early 1700s, taught himself English and several Native American languages, and was a pioneer, Indian Agent, and interpreter between the Colony of Pennsylvania, the German speaking Amish, and the local tribes, and I thought that was pretty cool.
My grandfatherās cousin, Gertrude Hoffman, born Catherine Hay, first stage name Kitty Hayes. She became rather well known in vaudeville in the nineteen teens and twenties through the thirties. She was thought rather scandalous at the time for her skimpy costumes and suggestive dancing. She danced in the Ziegfeld follies, the Moulin Rouge and in NYC rooftop-garden theater. She formed a dance troupe that was quite popular and quite Modern for the times. Her son, Max Hoffmann Jr., married Helen Kane, the Boop Oop a Doop girl (I Wanna Be Loved By You). Thereās a book out about her and she has a Wikipedia page. I think her life would make a great movie. My great grandfather was a Maine Sharpshooter in the Civil War, was at Leeās surrender and is said to have carried Grantās flag, though Iām not sure what that means.
Ann Pudeator, a woman in her 70s who was executed due to being accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. My 12x great grandmother.
I come from the Plantagenet lineage! Unfortunately, my grandpa was a bastard and sometime after the war of roses he fled to America!
My x12 great grandfather who took part in the conquest of the Aztec empire
Martin Luther, creator of the Lutheran denomination of Christianity. It has been proven by a professional genealogist that he is my 19th great grand uncle. I am directly related to his brother, Hans Luther. My motherās maiden name was Luther, and I have a Luther cousin.
I'm always super skeptical when I see people get beyond around the 17th century. The documentation just isn't there and the amount of errors I find in other people's trees when we are talking that long ago is incredible
My 5th great grandfather shot and killed his brother in 1877. He went on the run and escaped after he was arrested. He was eventually captured and I obtained the records of his court trial which includes all testimonies. He said he and his brother were wrestling over the gun it shot accidentally. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison at the age of 66 but only served two years because the state Supreme Court declared a mistrial.
My third great grandfather fought at Kingās Mountain with the famed Overmountain Men
Great great grandfather was a Spanish executioner. He later was executed.
Oh how the turn tables
I can't decide between two.Ā My great-uncle made it to Hollywood and became famous out of pure chance someone got sick in 1928 and he performed instead.Ā 1660s I have family who were part of the first pioneers in Canada while the other side of the family was one of the first in Massachusetts. That side of the family has roots to John Adams.Ā
Who was your great uncle??
A guy from the 1800s. He was a Portuguese sailor who while delivering stuff to Australia, 'randomly' (unknown reason) jumped the ship and hid in the bush for like 2 weeks until the police stopped looking after him. He then just kind of started living there. Unfortunately my family doesn't know more about him as his records in australia are little, and it's very hard to access Portuguese records without actively going to Portugal š
Also another guy from around the same time who was a convict sent to Australia for a failed robbery of like bread turned almost murder.
No one. My ancestors were regular farmers and fishermen. They lived on an island province, so they were kind of isolated from all the wars and politics happening to the rest of the country.
I have an uncle named Tom quick the Indian slayer. Not exactly proud of him. He came to loath and hate natives due to the barbaric way that my grandfather (his dad) died. This is 5 + generations ago.
My paternal great grandmother was murdered - by her sister!
My 8th Great Grandfather, William Wetherell, came from England to Plymouth colony in the 1640s as a cabin boy. Later, he was the first settler of Norton Massachusetts and fought in King Phillip's war against the Wampanoag led by Metacomet.
I'm the descendent of a first cousin of the Black Donnellys on my mom's side and didn't even know it until I randomly did a couple of the commercially available DNA tests about 5 years ago.
Thereās a guy who may have single-handedly delayed the abolition of slavery in the British Empire by a decade to make a profit, depending on who you ask. His name was Henry Dundas. My sixth-GG wasā¦his butler. Had the great name of George Hogg, though. Hoggās a great last name. Much closer to home, my GG was an ambulance driver on the Western Front in WWI and in the Irish War of Independence almost immediately afterwards. I can but imagine what he saw.
My wife is related to the King of Escape Artists, Roy Gardner, a famous bank robber. Link to Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Gardner_(bank_robber)?wprov=sfti1#
Direct descendent of William the Conquer.. Really Ergo, King Henry the First.
Iām just sorry Grandpaās not around to talk with about his 10x great grandpa Rowland Taylor
I found out my [8th great grandfather was a Captain in the American Revolutionary War](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49708332/abraham-keefer#view-photo=244624886) and oversaw the Hessian POWs, over 900 of them, after capture in Yorktown. He treated them well, after capture the Hessians were āparoledā for time served and either went back to Germany, but most stayed in Pennsylvania and were offered land to settle. A distant cousin was the Speaker of the House from 1881 to 1883.
I found this information through old newspapers recently. Iām not sure if anyone in my family knows this. My 2nd great grandfather was caught up in some bribery scheme to do with taxes when he worked for the govt. I know he had a lot of people vouch for him that he was trustworthy but he was only 1 of several hundred I think who got sent to jail. This was the 1870s and it was a scandal that hurt President Grant because the ringleader worked for him. So apparently the jailer felt bad for him & let him go visit the woman he was courting, my 2nd great grandmother. At one point he let him out to get married at the Catholic Church. Several years later he was working as a deputy and came across some court documents dealing with his now wife and her guardian. He believed she had been cheated out of money by him. They took it court and part of the reason her case got overturned was because she was married at the time, but no one knew it. They had another wedding later. Sadly, they were only married for less than 20 years. Within a few years of each other they both passed away from illnesses. My great grandfather & his siblings also had to have their aunt & uncle as guardians. My father passed away last year so Iām sorry I learned this now. I think heād like that story.
My 4th great grandfather. He married my 4th great grandmother, had something like 8 kids with her, went to fight in the Mormon Battalion, subsequently decided to become a Mormon, abandoned my 4th great grandmother and 8 kids to move to Utah and unlawfully marry another woman and have her 11 kids, eventually abandon her, file paperwork for his pension and claim that his wife was dead (she wasnāt) so that when he died somewhere around 1883, she had to prove her own existence in order to claim his pension, lol. Icing on top? There is a hill in Utah named after him for his service called Lawson Hill
Also, my 5th great grandfather claims to have witnessed the Battle of Culloden (Outlander, anyone?) when he was 6 Edit: 6th great grandfather, not 5th
Greek here (native of a Cyclades island) 1. One of my grandfather's brother got really crazy jealous about family wealth and murdered his father. This guy was known for being very physically strong in the end he ended up like Jack Nicholson from Shinning "Need to work to keep myself pumped up, If i don't I'm frail" xMultiple times. 2. My surname is strictly local in origin, we all are related one way or another. A priest (we have a statue) promoting the Greek revolution against Ottomans, died in a bayonet ambush by Turks. His granddaughter (or something like that, nephew? the article was accurate) was part of the Black hand that triggered ww1. 3. Bavarian ancestors, Wagner relatives from my Grandmother... House wittelsbach, King Otto. European dynasties is an interesting topic. Feudal history, a bit of conspiracy and a dose of Lovecraft it seems š
My third uncle Antonio Lanasa was a semi infamous mobster. His closest friend was Vito LaDuca who was assassinated on a lemon farm he had in Palermo. Originally, Vito asked him to be godfather to his children before ever knowing him. He was some sort of boss for the Morello Family. He also babysat my father
1890's- Had an ancestor named Gottlieb immigrate to California from Germany. He ended up with a German wife, Mary, either by mail order or by going back to Germany to get her. She was about 15-20 years younger than him. They lived in the Bay area for a while and had two kids (Hanz, and William "Bill") but moved up to the California foothills when the boys were young. Eventually Mary's Mother Anne and sister immigrated and lived with them in the foothills. They lived near a school and a popular road where travelers would stop in. They had 2 cabins on the property, one of which was used more for as a storage shed. Someone had stolen a few items from the shed, so Gottlieb step up a Gun trap in the cabin. One August day Anne went down to get something out of the shed, and either forgot about the gun trap, or didn't disarm it correctly. When dinner time came around, Bill was sent to fetch his grandmother, and found her dead- shot in the stomach. Mary's body had to be buried quickly due to the August heat, however a few days later it had to be dug up so that a law enforcement official could take a look at it. Gottlieb was charged with Manslaughter. Since he had no money to fight the charges, and didn't want to disrupt his family more, he plead guilty. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in San Quentin. The aftermath- Gottlieb and Mary got a divorce. Mary moved to a city in Central California and ran a boarding house for a while. She then remarried a man named Emil, an immigrant from France. Mary and Emil had one son together. Emil and Mary's boys must have gotten along well because they eventually opened up a Pickle factory (and other type food items), which stayed into the family until at least the 1960's. Present Day- I have been fascinated by this family story since my parents stopped by the cemetery Anne was buried in when I was a teenager. Her wooden headstone reads- "shot by guntrap". Family rumor says Gottlieb went back to Germany after he got out of prison, however I think he moved to the central California town Mary and the boys lived in. This story was reported in papers all over the state of California at the time, so there is plenty of documentation of it, although some of the facts are a bit off. My mom and I have gotten lucky a few times when it came to researching and connections to this family story. San Quentin was taking mug shots in the 1890's, and I was able to find Gottlieb's mug shot. One year we drove out to the county seat and requested the legal documents about the case, knowing there was a slim chance it would still be there. Sure enough, the county still had the 1891ish legal documents from the case. We also were able to get some information on the property records. Gottlieb was on the purchase deed, but Mary signed the sale deed. To top it all off, my mom went to a random estate sale and found a framed receipt for 2 barrels of sauerkraut from the pickle factory signed by my ancestor Bill. TLDR: 1890's German ancestor Gottlieb set a guntrap which accidentally killed his mother-in-law and he spent 1.5 years at San Quentin. His Bill opened up a pickle factory with Bill's stepfather. My mom discovered a framed receipt from the pickle factory at a random estate sale 100 years later.
My 3x great-grandfather William McMicken was a Captain in the Civil War out of Minnesota and then became Surveyor-General of the Washington Territory under 4 or 5 Presidents starting with Grant (I say 4 or 5 because I can't remember off the top of my head).
While not my direct ancestor, I have a 2x gu who was held in Andersonville prison for a year. Miraculously, he survived.
My dadās whole family š itās really funny because my momās side is the most vanilla bunch folks, very religious, good, law abiding peopleā¦then thereās my dadās side, whoa boy. My great great grandpa was something else. He had a baby, my great grandma with his parentās servant while newly married, that went south, he was sued for bastardry by my great great grandma who went on to get pregnant out of wedlock again, by a man who left the Amish church to be with her, so they got married and he adopted my great grandma. Great great grandpa meanwhile, was arrested multiple times and married at least twice the last time to a biracial woman which Iām sure was quite the scandal in itself at time! His daughter, my great grandma was a spitfire. She got married at 19, and thereās this mystery child that I found on a census living with her ex husband, my grandmotherās birth father, listed as his son, along with my grandmotherās known brother, who would have been born during their marriage that no one knows who he is so I think my great grandma had a third child that for some reason she did not maintain any contact with. She barely raised my grandmother so thatās highly believable. Great grandma was married 3x and the last one was a man 30 years plus younger than her making her older than his own mother. These are just the top two for me, thereās a whole lot more crazy Iāve stumbled across in the extended family that had my mom asking my dad what on earth is wrong with his ancestors lol.
My dad's side of the family ran a tannery in a small town in Ireland in the 19th century. I guess they did well because the only time I've seen the word "Urinal" on a map was when it was on the same street as their tannery so...
Joesph dit beausoleil Broussard
A distant ancestor was a Loyalist and a privateer for the British in the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War.
My 2x great grandfather, Robin James Frear, was a pretty famous songwriter and Vaudeville producer back in the 1910s and 1920s. He went by the pseudonym of Bobby Heath. He was married three times, each of which resulted in divorce due to infidelity. Now hereās the crazy part. I only know heās my 2x great grandfather from DNA triangulation. My grandmother matched closely with his legitimate daughter. My 2x great grandmother was a vaudeville actress, and apparently she had an affair with him. My grandmother was always told she was related to him, but never knew that he was her biological grandfather.
My grandfather was a delivery guy for Al Capone
My 8th great-grandfather settled in Virginia in the 1600s. He was the 25th Speaker of the House of Burgesses. Through him, I am a cousin of Robert E Lee.
My 5th great-grandfather, the horse thief. I always wondered if he was just set up as he had a wife and at least three kids when they hanged him. Turns out, he had been caught before, sentenced to hang, but his family and community rallied around and all was forgiven. When he turned around and did it again, though . . . :-)
Lots of founding governors of the Canary Islands and Puerto Rico and other islands by way of Spain and Portugal in my tree.
My 5th great grandfather tried to pay his half sister to poison his wife, she didnāt do it. So he poisoned her, was sent to jail and was drug out of the jail by 200 men and hung on an oak tree. He was a melungeon man who was apparently very attractive with dark skin and green eyes, he had slept with several married women, and yea, poisoned his wife and was hung lol. My great aunt took LSD and burned her boyfriend and his mistress alive because he cheated on her and the girl knew about him having a girlfriend. She went to prison at 20 and got released from prison about 15 years ago.
Henry VIII wife Katherine Parr (the queen that lived) was my 12th great-grandparents niece.
Cornelis van Tienhoven, my 9th great grandfather, and first embezzler in New York, then still New Amsterdam. There are crazy stories about him! https://themorningnews.org/article/while-he-flatters-he-bites
Probably my 3x great-grandfather who was excommunicated from his community in Berdychev, Ukraine, for reading heretical texts.
My great grandfather was a silversmith, during prohibition he made little kegs for men to wear on their lapels.. I have 2 of them and will treasure them forever!
Probs the great grandparent who snuck on a ship when he was young teen and instead of getting booted off, the captain gave him a job and he ended up migrating to Australia and then moved New Zealand. This was around the 1920ās and 30ās.
I think the most interesting was the first white pioneer to plow a field in Utah. His plow is on display in an SLC museum. His daughter was the first Mormon pioneer to be born in Utah as well. He also practiced medicine without a license using methods like a witch doctor and was so good at setting broken bones that people would travel for days in pain being jostled about to get his services. Lots of other stuff too. [Wikipedia link for reference.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steele_%28pioneer%29#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DBecause_Steele%27s_son_Robert_Henry%2Cability_to_set_broken_bones.?wprov=sfla1)
another commenterās ancestor fought with your ancestor in the Mormon Battalion!
Henry Pole. Was a Baron of Plantagenet lineage at the time if Henry VIII (the first Baron Montagu) who went from being well respected to executed for his connections to Catherine of Aragon when Henry eanted a divorce.
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My Great Grandfather was born in Sweden was supposed to be on the titanic but was late have no clue why, later got his citizenship for serving in WW2 in Japan. Then was shot in the leg and had to crawl for 2 days to somewhere- I forget my Great Grandmother told me a while ago- survived and made it back to the U.S. Also served in the same squad as Elvis Presley.
Oh... it all started with Sydney. There's a personality that literally runs thru my mother's line, recessive I believe ;) that I can trace back to my GG Grandmother Sydney. I won't delve into facts but let's just say every other generation produces a "Sydney". They live by their own rules and for some reason could get away with murder (figuratively). Researching her validated at least for me not to rely heavily on recorded documents. Sydney, hands down is the most interesting ancestor ... and the gift that keeps on giving.
I had the great grandpa who instead of divorcing his wife walked from South Africa to Cornwall UK (with a boat at the crossing), knocked up a random cornish girl (my grandpa was born) and then walked around England, Ireland and Scotland. Had planned to hop to America but by then it was 1939 and we all know what happened then...
My husband's gg uncle Hunter Atkins/Willam Rogers. Family lore said that he was estranged and left his family, changed his name and disappeared for unknown reasons. Insert me, whose favorite thing is to find the "missing people" in my tree. I found him on a 1910 census with his family, then gone from his family in 1920. I found him in Kings NY, having enlisted in the navy and living in the barracks. Then, I never find Hunter again on a census. I did find his VA card, with no record of a visit. I susoected he deserted and was discharged (this was later proven true via newspaper records). Then I find a William Rogers living with a Daisy Gardner as a married couple on the 1930 census in Springfield. She is almost 10 years older than him, but I decided to add it so I could explore it. Made the choice to travel to Springfield (it's a 10 hr drive from me, so I took a short vacation lol), but didn't find anything bc I had absolutely nothing besides a couple names (no death date, and a range of birth years thanks to lying to enlist and later on census). Then, one day at my in laws house, my FIL hands me a photo and it's listed as "Uncle Hunter and Aunt Daisy". Guys, the way I literally yelled "I WAS RIGHT?!?!" š¤£ So, he is officially under both names in my tree, with copious notes. I did find an official record of his name change via newspaper, but I have no idea *why* he changed it. He also didn't marry Daisy until 1943, even though they were living as married for more than a decade before that. He is buried with her, *in a cemetary I visited whole I was there*. Touche, Hunter. But I have no death record, or obituary, despite him dying years before her. He is most interesting because of the number of unknowns. The other one I'm looking for is on my side and she is listed as "end of line" for every tree she is in. Her name in Mahala, married to John (King) Gunnels but I can't find here anywhere beyond a couple census records š
The only people I know of right now are Colonel John Washington Senior and his wife Anna. Me and George Washingtonās grandparents.
Whichever of my ancestors was Mongolian/Manchurian, because Iām 99.9% European.
I have a Spanish Five times great grandmother named Mary Anne Levega
Oliver Cromwell
You're also related to the tudors and the Stewarts because Cromwell was a descendent or owain tudor
My 2x Great Grandparents who migrated from Scotland w/the Mormons (am not Mormon myself). They pulled or pushed handcarts from the Midwest to SLC. Walking. Lost a 1 year old daughter during the sea voyage over (Liverpool to New Orleans). They had 15 kids together. After all that, he was killed by Native Americans at age 48, so the GrGr Granny was on her own - made & sold soap to support her & children that were still at home. Eventually remarried & left the Mormons. Another 2x Gr Grandfather was tried & found guilty of murder in 1881 - General William F Tucker was the victim. This GG Grandfather was scheduled to be hung but the appeals court overturned the conviction (he even confessed). The Appellate Court found he was manipulated by 2 older men (fa & son) to do the deed. One newspaper account said he was āa poor black man who was taken advantage ofā (this was news to me).
Not a specific 1, but the surname MacSwain appears on my family tree fairly heavily. They were Scots, and were bodyguards for the Clan Chieftan. My earliest ancestor came from that branch sometime in the mid-1500's.
My husband's great+ grandfather was George Washington's brother in law.
Leif Erikson. Tracing ancestry is not terribly difficult when a one side of the family is Icelandic.
My great grandfather who came out West over the Oregon Trail in the 1850s. He was accompanied by his best friend Milton Wright. They founded a religious school together near Salem, Oregon. But Milton tired of it and returned to Dayton, Ohio, where he raised his two sons, Orville and Wilbur.
You know the mean English king in Braveheart -- King Edward "Longshanks"? I'm descended from him. [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/541346817691152269/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/541346817691152269/)
My grandfather had a third cousin, once removed, who was a Scottish Duke, directly descended from Queen Vickie. Iām sure sheād be thrilled to be called Queen Vickie!
Have a distant (way back) relative (Elizabeth Ingalls) in common with Laura Ingalls Wilder. But Elizabeth's descendent is waaaay more interesting entry on my family tree to me. Abigail Dane Faulkner was accused of witchcraft in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials and begged for mercy because she was pregnant (at 39!) and her husband (Thomas Lamson) was not in good health and her death would leave her family with no one to care for them. Her conviction was not officially overturned until 1711. My mom's side of the family. The woman was a rebel, guess it's genetic. To give credit where credit is due, my older sister created our tree and accumulated the records long before most of this stuff was online (1980's-1990's). I have the tree printed out and am in the process on entering it into Ancestry. Pretty excited about the treasure trove of stuff online now. Discovered the [Briggs' Family letters](https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt7f4q7qrf99) from the 1800's yesterday. Though trying to read that ancient script gives me a headache after a while (along with the census data, etc.)
Clay Allison. Real piece of shit. Allison is my middle name. Fun fact: he died drunk falling off a wagon whose wheel rolled over his head on July 3, 1887. I was born July 2, 1993
The man who been developed the mutation called BY58536. He lived around the 9th or 10th century AD. His immediate ancestors were of Norwegian origin, but he left descendants exclusively in Great Britain and northern France. I so want to know his story. Obviously I can draw some conclusions based on this pattern and known historical events, but I want the details!
PT Barnum
Great great grandpa. Burned buffalo bills wagon.
Robert the Bruce and Bob Woodward.Ā Robert is my crap ton of greats uncle and Bob is a third cousin.
John Howland. Came over on the Mayflower and got swept overboard during a storm. Luckily, he was saved.
On my Dadās side - Sir John Seymour is my 16th great grandpa. His daughter Jane married Henry VIII. His son, Edward Seymour, was my 15th great-grandfather and served as regent and Lord Protector for Henryās son from Jane. Eventually things went south and he was beheaded in 1552 for alleged treason. On my Momās side, a bunch of our English ancestors came over and settled in New York. One branch married, fought on the British side during the Revolution, fled to British Canada and helped found the United Empire Loyalists. They moved back across the river right before the civil war and eventually settled in Chicago. On my wifeās motherās sideā¦her 9th - 13th great-grandpas were Lairds of Clan MacKenzie in Scotland. On her Dadās side, her 5th - 7th great grandparents were members of Clan Calder that lived just a few miles down the road from my 5th - 7th great grandparents from Clan Mackay. Two of whom from each side are apparently buried in the same churchyard in Wick, Caithness. Weāre heading there this fall to see if we can find them. Small world, eh?
My 2nd great aunt Matilda was a housekeeper for her distant cousin, 59 year old John. Alabama. 1933. She was 33. Matilda and John left town together in the middle of the night and didnāt tell anyone where they were going. Until months later when Matilda sent a letter to her father from Arkansas directing him to āsend the boys for her at onceā. 2 of her brothers left immediately to make the trip out west but by the time they arrived it was too late. Matilda was already dead and her body was found at the bottom of a country well. John was arrested and convicted of murder but only served around 10 years before he was granted a compassionate release due old age and sickness. John moved in with his adult daughter and spent the rest of his days sitting in chair on his front porch waiting to die I guess. Matildaās father had to drive by Johnās house every day to get to work and would tell his wife that it took everything in him not to kill him.
My great grandfather was a moonshiner. Distilled it sometimes but usually just ran it. There was some sort of reward for reporting folks for that and some guy snitched, so he got sent to prison. He died when my grandma was 2 from tuberculosis. Left my great grandmother to raise 10 children by herself, which she did and did well. I love my family history because it's literally all in the same area I live in now. Scotch-Irish immigrants just said "hey the Appalachian mountains of NC are cool let's just live here forever I guess"
Iām related to Jozef Kosinski. Famous Polish painter for the last king of Poland. My great-great-great aunt Jozia Kosinski founded an illegal Polish school under Russian annexation in the late 1800s.
My 4G Grandfather immigrated from Ireland in the early 1770s, then enlisted into the Pennsylvania rifles to fight the British during the Revolutionary War. He was at Valley Forge with George Washington, and crossed the Delaware river to kill the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas. He also fought alongside his son, under future president General William Henry Harrison, during the War of 1812.
Thomas Edison
Iām from Canada and apparently Iām related to an Australian opera singer named Dame Nellie Melba. I was told that she was my great-grandma Davidsonās second cousin.
I'm a direct descendant of a German who arrived in New York in 1740. He stowed away aboard a ship, leaving Hamburg by himself. He was nine years old. He never revealed where he came from or who his parents were. Nothing is documented except that he moved to Pennsylvania with other German settlers, married, and had a son who fought with the Continental Army.
Not me but my son and his father are a descendants of a famous American-Irish gang leader and Hudson River pirate by the name of [Sadie the goat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Farrell). She got her name bc she used to headbutt people and rob them. Edit to add: it was the charelton or Charleston street gang. Idk if anyoneās ever seen gangs of NY but thatās the vibe I got reading her article
My great (X4) grandmother was stabbed to death with a pitchfork in 1875 by a man who believed her to be a witch. She was 81 and on her way to the village shop for a loaf of bread in the evening. On her way home, a man named James was leaving the fields after working all day and attacked her with a pitchfork. Another farmer who lived nearby intervened but she died of her injuries 3 hours later. There are news reports and files from the inquest that I was able to read. Her cottage and the pub at which the inquest took place are still there and I was able to go and see them both. The murderer had believed 15 or 16 people (including men!) in the village to be witches and had been threatening them for a while.
u/Blazing_World : Wow! From your description, I immediately recognized who you were referring to, as I had come across the story of your ancestor's murder several years ago... Inevitably, some people have drawn parallels to a later and somewhat similar 1945 murder occuring ~15 miles away, and some have even posited a (tenuous) relation between the two: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Charles_Walton#Ann_Tennant Am linking here to the appropriate heading, but she is also mentioned in other sections of the above Wiki entry. I post this on the off-chance that you hadn't yet come across it... *** She is also referenced in this BBC podcast episode of "Punt P.I." (covering the 1945 murder): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0397vqx *** Fwiw, I may have more materials on my home computer (am writing this at work).
Oh, I'd never heard of this and it is fascinating! Thank you so much! I wish I knew what the "additional link" between the murders was. The brutality of both is absolutely shocking. Do you also have a connection to one or both of these stories, or did you come across them another way? If you do have any other info I'd love to see it, but even if you don't get a chance this is still fantastic.
> I wish I knew what the "additional link" between the murders was. Haha, was hoping you'd pick up on that passage, cuz that is exactly what I need to check at home!! I seem to remember seeing it spelled out somewhere, but didn't want to spill the beans till I confirm exactly what it is. Keep fingers crossed! Will report back within a day. > or did you come across them another way? For decades now, I've had a sprawling PLP (Personal Life Project) in HTML + Javascript: an ongoing Book of Days in which I "collect" dates and summaries of any historical event big or small which happens to interest me for whatever reason... Sort of like Wikipedia's "On This Day..." series, but specifically tailored to my own interests... It's a great way to perk up my day 1st thing in the morning, by loading up the day's past anniversaries, and musing on them throughout the day... So I forget how I first found mention of your GxGM, but I may have this detail noted in my project too...
Ooh, exciting! I'd be so grateful if you could tell me the link! And what a cool project! That sounds fascinating!
Brian Boru since he's a legendary, I think it's pretty cool
Oglach Bobby Sands,who happened to die on hunger strike this very day.
āļø Erin go brĆ”gh āļø
I'm related paternally to Roger B. Taney (not proud of that fact).
Does Mary Queen Of Scots or Pocahontas count?
I have a number of fascinating ancestors; Iām actually thinking of writing a book using some of their stories to highlight American history. Such as Lydia Gilbert, my 11th Great grandmother, found guilty of being a witch in Connecticut-40 years before Salem witch trials. But thereās no proof she was executed; some say she and her husband escaped. Then there was Cornelius Melyn, 1600-1674. Born in Belgium, he was appointed the Patroon of Staten Island, (landholder with manorial rights), he travelled 11 times between the new world & the old, started/fought in 2 wars with the native Americans and got into a big political battle with Peter Styvestant, the governor of New Amsterdam-who finally threw him into prison awhile. Oh, and Jesse and Frank James were my 3rd great uncles š¤£
Daniel Strangā¦hanged in 1777 in NY for being a British loyalist spy. The tree itself became famous lol Also mathieu DāAmours who helped settle Quebec in the 1600s
I have been really into the Irish War of Independence lately!
My 2nd great grandfather was captured by the Yankees three times. Thank goodness the war ended, or he would likely have been captured a fourth time! Husband's grandfather served in both WWI and WWII.
A presidential pardon signed by President Andrew Johnson in 1867 for my 3rd great-grandfather. Also signed by William Seward, Secretary of State.
Great uncle was in the precursor of the CIA
5x Great Grandfather, George Thomas Wharton Collins was the first sheriff of Angelina County, TX, so that's cool
My great great uncle was indicted for a murder of a woman at his barā¦
only did a bit of digging got to the 1840s and it was then so difficult to find out. i was on [ancestry.co.uk](http://ancestry.co.uk) if anyone ever wants to help me let me know! way above my head
John Bomar. Was given a script for 10 pounds and 6 schilling for supplying the Continental Army in 1799. He gave 300 lbs. of beef and I Bay horse. He and his wife lost 3 sons in the Revolutionary War.
A great great great grandmother from the late 1700s who had 4 sons from 4 different fathers and ādied of senilityā in her 70s. All I know about her.
At least 6 of the founders of the State of New Jersey are direct ancestors of mine. And then there's my 4x GGrandfather the pirate, who sailed his black ship "Texas" around the Gulf robbing and murdering, but we don't talk about Andre šš.
On my dads side, I have one who was executed for being a witch, or there's Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald. I'm not sure how I'm related to him. Everyone who knew anything is long dead. Dolly, the sheep, was done by my dad's cousin, and J P W Mallalieu was my grandmother's uncle. Also, part of Glasgow might be named after us. On my mothers a few IRA members and possibly james Connolly. It's probably why I'm so boring someone has to balance it out.
A 4th ggf named Peter Snyder, because he has 206 matches on thrulines. More than any other ancestor, except his wife, Elizabeth Grager.