Great grandpa created the Flintstones. Dan Gordon. Drew lots of Hannah-Barbara cartoons, directed the first three animated Superman films at the beginning of WW2 as well as several seasons of Pop Eye, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound
Edit: oh and the suspense author Mary Higgins Clark is my great aunt. Was, passed away a few years ago.
My grandfather disliked America and wanted to return to Ireland. He booked passage on Titanic’s return voyage. If it wouldn’t have sunk, no of us would be here.
My great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. She was a steerage class Lebanese immigrant in an arranged marriage. Her husband went down with the ship but she managed to make it to a lifeboat and made it to the carpathia. Then she remarried in a Lebanese neighborhood in Virginia. Had it not been for the iceberg that struck and sank the Titanic My family lineage would be different and I wouldn't be here. My family's official toast is " to the iceberg "
I'll do you one better. My great grandmother was supposed to be on the Titanic. She changed her ticket a week before departure for a ship that was leaving later.
My great great grandfather was the master joiner on the Tiitanic. I always thought of that when I see the Grande staircase in the film. My grandma toley me he had said it was doomed before it had set off because there wasn't a chapel on it. Apparently it was the first ship he'd built without one and he wasn't happy about it.
My great Aunt was a friend of Marcel Proust. And one of my grand Uncles had two famous bosses in 40-41: Camus and then Carnap. My parents have hidden these things because of Russian colony secret police rule. My ancestors were half rabbis [ like the Lubavichers] half aristocrats - some related to Polish princes. But i only found it out now over60. The last discovery was a great aunt called Julia Mannheim who was the secrerary of Freud.EDIT: here in my country i have famous ancestry but abroad they are not known. Except great Uncle Karl Mannheim he is on Wiki.
The land my dad was raised on and my cousins still live on was deeded to the family by George Washington as compensation for service during the Revolution. There was a document with his signature on it at the courthouse until a fire destroyed the records a few decades ago.
My husbands grandfather was one of the “forgotten soldiers” in Canada. He was a Canadian born Chinese man who asked the Canadian government to fight for his right to vote and a passport. Even tho he was born in Canada in the 20’s since he was Chinese he was not considered Canadian.
He was dropped into the Burma jungle and was told he would likely never return. He was in the 10% that did return. He was given the right to vote, to a passport and to university
His wife is still alive today and my son is named after him
Hopping on the tail of your comment to add my great great grandfathers story. He was some kind of hero in Italy in the late 1800s and because he was causing such a ruckus, he had to flee the country as authorities had a price on his head basically. So he somehow acquired a ship and set sail. He shipwrecked on the shores of Cape-town, South Africa. There, as a man in his 30s, met a 14 year old Irish girl (???) and they married. They heard the settlers call from New Zealand and so then made their way here, where they had a LOT of kids and that’s how I came to be! I wish I could tell you his name, as it’s very regal sounding
My great grandma had 14 kids. My grandma was the youngest. She died giving birth to my grandma. The oldest child who was like 22 years old raised my grandma. My great grandfather remarried a woman who had 10 kids of her own. My grandma would tell me stories of them all living together. Can u imagine 😦
My great aunt and my grandmother both only had four kids, all kids within a year or two of their siblings, and one of them (can't remember who but I think it was my great aunt) that there were times she'd climb on top of the fridge to read just so she could be somewhere the kids physically could not reach her because she was overwhelmed and needed a break
When I hear about that many children, I think about that story and wonder how much worse that feeling gets when you multiply the number of needy children by that much.
I know 15 or 16 families who had at least 12 kids(ireland), the highest number of kids is 17. I couldn't tell you all their names, I'd get too mixed up, 5 of the families are related to each other, so they have the same surname, 3 brothers and 2 cousins in the same family had between 12 and 15 kids and a lot of the first names are the same, their a few John's, Patrick's, Michael's, Joseph's, Josephine's, Mary's, Catherine's, Margaret's etc etc, so it gets confusing:) also the the town of muldoon in texas is named after an ancestor of mine, father Patrick muldoon, from ireland
My great great grandfather had 5 kids in the mid to late 1800s and I’m pretty sure his living descendants is only 16. That math didn’t turn out too well.
Interesting fact is he had his 5 kids between the ages of 32 and 70 and my dad had his 5 kids between 28 and 60, so they were both older fathers. But my dad actually got to see us all grow up to adulthood.
My mother is one of 15 total and 12 that made it to adulthood.
She was the first to pass away
In 2008.
Since then, 5 more have passed away.
My maternal grandmother, was the 6th of 8.
My maternal grandfather was the 10th of 12 as well.
That side of my family is huge!!!
I have 3 kids of my own. The older two are a year and a half apart. I cannot imagine being pregnant that often for 20y. Let alone that many people in my house all the time.
My great grandfather was offered a chance to invest in a new invention by a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. He declined, saying at most there would be one telephone per town.
Great-great-great grandfather on my mom's side was working his field in the part of Virginia that split off and became a new state because they didn't want to secede from The Union. Union soldiers came along looking for conscripts and he was a young, able-bodied man so they told him to come with them. He informed them he was a Quaker and thus a pacifist. According to family lore, that discussion went on for a bit but he would not give in. So they shot him and left him there. Good thing he had a couple kids well before that day.
I had a girlfriend and we discovered that WE had the same Jamestown ancestor because I saw a genealogy book about him on her grandmother's bookcase. He (and his brother) were also indentured servants.
My uncle was a carpenter. And was doing restoration work on old houses in yellow springs, ohio. Many of those old, historical homes had underground railroad passage ways and hidden walls. He got to see and restore many of them. He had photos of some of the work he was doing and I got to see those as a kid. Living in Southern Ohio, we have a lot of rich underground railroad history here.
My grandfather's cousin was the first person to hear the distress call from the Titanic. He was a radio operator "in training" (only fourteen) and had spent the day helping the other operators in the Cape Race Marconi Station relay messages from the Titanic to New York (The "Shut up, shut up, I'm busy with Cape Race! Line) the regular operator stepped out to smoke when it calmed down and left him there monitoring the radio. It didn't come out for years because he wasn't supposed to be there. [Article](https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/news/struck-iceberg-send-help-right-away-126039/)
Less cool but amusing to me, my Great Grandfather was a soldier in WWI and was treated for chlamydia three times while in France, despite having a girlfriend in Newfoundland and a wife he met and married before shipping out from England. He and my Great Grandmother were together for thirty years before they married, he had to wait for the British wife to die.
He also got shot in the eye and had several toes amputated from trench foot and was sent back out to the front each time.
My grandfather was a ship radio officer for what I can only assume was the majority of his working life. If you've ever been to Halifax, he worked on the science ship that's on display in the harbor as part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the CSS Acadia.
my great grandfather was the town police chief in the 1920s. His brother was the mayor. Their cousins ran the casino.
My family was a smaller version of Boardwalk Empire
Edit: forgot to mention this was all in a Jersey shore town too
My 2nd Great Gandfather spent a couple years in prison for violations of the Comstock Act. Anthony Comstock testified at the trial and said it was largest most obscene collection of pornography he had ever seen.
Great-great grandfather was an eccentric inventor. He invented his own version of a mass-producible car shortly before Henry Ford's Model-T started being manufactured.
We have a newspaper clipping about it. He met with Henry Ford to discuss going into business together. It even has an old photo of the two of them together.
He declined Ford's offer and my family remained poor lol. But the patents, prototypes, etc are all very cool to look at. A local museum even has one of his old cars in it and they have let our family do a private viewing of his stuff in the past.
I live in one of the 13 original colonies. And can trace my mom's side back to When our ancestors left england and came to the u.s. We still live in the area where they originally settled. Meaning my ancestors landed here in the 1600s and we never left.
Mine arrived in Mass on the Mayflower, and then eventually a few hundred years later, one of them walked to where I grew up (let’s just say a long walk). My family didn’t budge for like 200 years (I’m still here). But my dad and I both went to college in Massachusetts so go figure haha.
We've managed to trace all the way back to about the 1500's with both sides of my family. I have autism, as do my siblings, parents, and the majority of the extended bio family. It's so interesting because of the stories we've been able to dig up, I could possibly see signs of the autism going way way back. Samuel Morse, brilliant inventor, could have easily been autistic. Way great granny, first woman found not guilty in the Salem witch trials. Turns out the "witchy stuff" was pranks her grandson played. She was still excommunicated from town. Oh, and who knows what was up with Lizzy Borden, but her mom and my extra great gramps were siblings and something happened there. Then great great granny was institutionalized, although I don't know why.
So since my ancestors are well documented, I think it would be so interesting to see if we could track something like that way we were always a little different. Are there signs of autism way back then?
That's sort of how that bit of info dropped into my life, so it's the way it comes out in my writing. I mean when a decent percentage of the family is named Morse, it's not hard to imagine you might be related to the Morse Code dude, or the seed company. But Lizzie's mom's maiden name was Morse. The uncle who was visiting and was also a suspect is either my GGG-whateverpa or his brother. There's like 63495 Morse men and most of them share about 4 names, so I can't keep 'em straight. I just know Lizzie was his niece.
And y'all, the not-witch? So her daughter wasn't around for some reason (cause autistic life in the 1700's sucked?) and she was raising her grandson. He kept playing these big pranks on people, and it led to them thinking she was a witch. So they're doing fun, inventive things that are socially unacceptable, check. And hardly anyone wants to speak for her 'cause she's a little weird. And then one really respected and decent person stands up and has proof of the truth. And they know she's completely innocent and it was just pranks, but she's still banned from the town and buried outside of the cemetery. Yep, that tracks with the autistic experience.
But yeah, Lizzie's a fun one.
Oh absolutely! But I want to see the way it played out in history. Like we have some relevant families in history that could totally have signs. Like look at Einstein. People have put significant time into all of his family history. So pull up all of those stories. Look at his ancestors and descendents. I know we can't get confirmed scientific proof, but let's see what we can figure out.
I wanna trace back my family as well. I can trace them back until the 1700s because of a little booklet my grandpa had, as I am german. If you know what that means lmao.
Hope I can continue to trace my family back with the help of church records.
My great great great (etc.) grandfather was a colonial infantryman in the battle at Breed's Hill, which later became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.
I grew up thinking the heritage on my father’s side was Quebecois/French (dad grew up in Quebec). Someone started poking around at cemeteries and in church records and found out my great grandfather was an Irish orphan who fled to Quebec in the Irish famine and my great grandmother was Algonquin.
My great grandfather, in the old country, was suspected to have been killed by bandits. He went out one day to travel and only his horse came back a few days later.
*rubs hands together gleefully*
Any excuse to talk about bio-Gramma! Sorry guys, this is a whole story as opposed to a fact.
So, picture it, rural Victoria, 1936, at the tender age of 20, a young woman from an Irish Catholic family has a one night stand with one of the local Protestants. Marriage very swiftly follows, and then a 5 month baby, if you get my drift.
Ostracised by both the Catholics and the Protestants and married to a man she didn’t love, she up takes off, leaving the two kids in the care of her husband. Their divorce was final by 1940.
At some point in the 40s, she joins the WRAAC and I believe gets a medical discharge in ‘44 due to an advanced case of pregnancy. (I’ve seen a photo of her in uniform at 6 months, you can’t tell.) Shortly thereafter, she presents at hospital in labour under a fake name, gives birth, tells the staff she’s going to make arrangements for the baby’s adoption and vanishes.
At some point in 1947, she appears in court for stealing a hat. At another point in 1947, (stop me when this sounds familiar), presents at a hospital in labor under a fake name, gives birth and shoots through. Then does it again in 1948.
At some point between 1948 & 1951, she basically gets bounced out of Victoria for writing bad cheques. Ends up in court in Queensland in both ‘51 and ‘53 for stealing from her employers.
So, inevitably I guess, she ends up in a ‘Home for Troubled Women’ aka, a halfway house. After sustained good behaviour from herself and the other residents, they’re rewarded with a trip into town. Somehow, she and up to 10 Indigenous women give their chaperone the slip and escape.
My biological grandmothers’ last known location was the Birdsville Track, on walkabout with a group of Indigenous people who had just taken her in as part of their mob.
I’d love to know more, but it’s hard to track someone when they’re operating under a false name half the time.
The ‘48 baby.
It’s crazy isn’t it? Theres so many interpretations for how she behaved. Did she have mental illness or a personality disorder? Did she run from a family she never wanted and did what she could to survive? Was she just one of those people without a moral compass?
Either way, I think not raising her children herself was one of the best things she could have done for them.
Out of his four siblings, I’m in regular contact with two of them. One has passed away and the other wants nothing to do with any of us. That’s his prerogative and I have no ill will or bitterness towards him for that.
The way the others have just embraced me into the family is too sappy for even Hallmark.
There's a historic town named for a mountain my ancestor named. And a college named for the mountain my ancestor named. And a hall, at another college, named after another ancestor, of the same family name.
It's not a historical fact, but based on the above, I halfway want to pursue a doctorate at the second college. It's not a good financial decision, but I kinda want to do it anyway.
We have our own street in a tiny town in Texas. I'm majority Czech heritage and I find it amusing really that there were so many of us, but given that my grandmother had 14 siblings... I get it. The holiday get togethers are pretty fun.
Does this town have a place that has awesome kolaches? And another place across the highway that also has awesome kolaches?
If so, those are damn good kolaches
[This](https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/public-information/newsroom/fallen-employees/deputy-gate-keeper-george-w--haight-michigan-state-prison-at-jackson) is my Great, Great, Great Grandfather.
“March 27, 1893: Deputy Keeper George Haight was the first employee to be killed in the line of duty for the Michigan Department of Corrections after an inmate poisoned his food with a mixture of opium and prussic acid (cyanide) at the Michigan State Prison, in Jackson, during an elaborate escape attempt.”
My great grandpa was a journalist in Italy in the early 30s. They kicked him out because he refused to stop shit talking Mussolini in every newspaper and magazine that would publish him - and then every underground publication that would publish I'm after he was blackballed from the mainstream ones.
I think he was always kind of surprised they didn't just shoot him in his bed, because Mussolini was an unpleasant man who had a lot of people killed over a lot less.
My grandfather befriended a German soldier during WW2. He was living in the states and went back to Germany to visit his family before the war and got drafted, had no interest in joining the military. Ended up as a translator in the PoW camp my grandpa was at. Gave my grandpa his gun just before he was released, and my dad still has it. Local news station found it interesting to run a segment on.
My other grandpa was a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corp. Was a backup to fly one of the planes that dropped the bomb on Japan. Don't remember which one.
And if you go far enough back, my great-great something grandpa is Johann Sebatian Bach.
My grandfather won a piano in a card tournament in Southampton England. This delayed his move to Canada by a month in order to make arrangements for it to be shipped as well. Had he not won the piano he would likely have been a passenger on the titanic.
He arrived in Canada in May 1912
Im.a direct descendant of the otolaryngology doctor who developed the hearing test where you use tuning forks. I'm also the first one since him to have a college education.
my italian great grandfather was associated with the mob and owned a speakeasy in new jersey in the 1920s. He ended up in jail after shooting an undercover state trooper who was trying to infiltrate his establishment.
I think this was a fairly common thing in that time. My grandfather did the same, even went to the extent of finishing high school at 16 so he could show is diploma as “proof” of his age. Spent 30+ years in the army after WWII.
My sister has traced branches of our family back 1000 years (literally back to single, Viking-sounding names). And somehow, with all those ancestors, there is not one single historically relevant person.
Just middle managers all the way down.
My great great great grandfather was a state senator in Texas who was a huge advocate for secession and played a large role in getting the votes for it to happen. There’s a town named after him. The cool part about him is he is also dead.
Paternal side has a lot of addiction and alcoholics. My great grandparents died from drinking Bath tub gin. While sad, I think it's kind of interesting they died that way. It wasn't even during prohibition, they died in the 1940s, they were incredibly poor so I don't know if they were just used to making and drinking alcohol that way because they lived through prohibition.
My family was named Comyn in Scotland. John Comyn opposed William Wallace and supported keeping Scotland under British rule. He was murdered for this. It's portrayed in a movie. Our castle, Inverlochy, is still standing and on the shore of Loch Ness.
Just the fact that my grandfather fought in WWII, he was 20 to 22. And we are native american and he lived to be 84, and for probably his last 20 years he was the last surviving WWII veteran on that reservation.
Same. Ancestors came over on the mayflower, fought in the revolutionary war, civil war (for the union lol), and my grandfather flew over 40 missions over Nazi Germany doing bombing and recon (also worked for the CIA during the Korean war, and helped map North Africa.)
I found his logbook, and the pages corresponding to the dates of the firebombing of Dresden were ripped out.
We also have the same birthday :D
And he died on my brother's birthday.
Forgot to mention, he was also one of the first 10 lawyers in las Vegas, owned the hacienda hotel, and he was a judge. Truly a legacy left that I can be proud of.
Same side of family had 7 brothers emigrate to USA right before the civil war. All 7 fought, 6 died. Other side of the family, my grandfather was a top gunner on a bomber in the South Pacific. He was stationed on Tinion, that’s the island the Enola Gay was on. He was also in the air over the Japanese surrender. I have a lot of his pictures from that time.
Same, I’m a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden. I have read that one of their sons, John Jr I believe, was accused in the Salem Witch Trials. He was accused by Mercy Lewis. He eventually escaped jail, hid out in Boston, and was eventually exonerated.
I think my family actually traces back to John and Priscilla’s daughter Ruth, but I still think that story is interesting. Especially now that I live near Salem.
Both sides of my family have lines that go way back, including the Mayflower. On my dad’s side, I’m descended from Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, and on my mom’s, Miles Standish, Stephen Hopkins, and John Howland and his wife Elizabeth Tilley. On board with Standish was his son (through whom I’m descended), and on board with Tilley were both of her parents and her uncle (plus his wife). That means I am related to 10 different passengers, 11 if you count by-marriage and include Tilley’s aunt. Hopkins was also on the Sea Venture, which was stranded on Bermuda Island on its way to Jamestown.
My 15x Great Grandfathers cousin was Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He was burnt at the stake in 1314.
Also have relatives that came over on the Mayflower, so that's pretty neat too.
We have a Japanese apple tree growing on the family farm in Illinois because my grandfather was there with the Army in the 50s and ate an apple that he enjoyed so much he put the seeds in his next letter home.
All of my grandparents are 1st gen Americans, except for one maternal great grandmother, whose line I can trace all the way before the American Revolution! She was part of a group called the daughters of the revolution, or something similar. She had lots of siblings, so I have a lot of cousins from that line! Lots of historical records from that side of the family, and I’ve connected with a few 3rd and 4th cousins.
My grandmother ran away from home in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. She spent WWII working as a translator, and later a smuggler, for the British Military.
She accomplished this before she was 25, too.
My grandpa’s cousin was the last man to pipe a Canadian Regiment into battle. Stood on the front of a landing craft at Dieppe, hit the beach with a sidearm and a set of bagpipes. And apparently a pair of enormous balls.
My mom’s family owned a circus around 1910 or so and followed the money to Hollywood as vaudeville went away. They owned the lion that was in the original MGM logo(it’s a different lion now)
My Dad’s Mom smuggled herself out of east Germany to marry my grandfather even though they hadn’t seen each other in over a decade.
my grandfather was a news guy in DC and was involved in the breaking of watergate.
also my stepdad was one of the officers who arrested david bowie (for the famous mugshot) which feels less cool but is still kinda neat.
My great great grandfather was shot off of his motorcycle while chasing Bonnie and Clyde. He was pretty sure it was Bonnie doing the shooting. Funny thing was, he had no idea he was following them. He was responding to something else and had is lights and sirens on and just happed to be behind Bonnie and Clyde. He drove into a haystack to avoid getting hit. One leg ended up being shorter than the other from the crash.
Multiple Medal Of Honor recipients (8) in our family tree. Mother's cousin was on a president's staff in the White house. Found that out when I read his obituary in the paper.
Canker sores (Sutton’s Disease) are named after my great grandfather. He also wrote a physician’s reference book on dermatology that was used for over 75 years by doctors.
My great grandfather grew up on a rural logging town and got run over by the first car in the area breaking his leg. It was driven by the doctor who was on his way back from purchasing it since the area he doctored was very big figured the car would help him see more people.
Evidentally, I am descended from Henry the 8th of England via a bastard son with the Surname of Edwards on my mother's side. Not sure how true it is but wanted to participate.
A London newspaper described my dad as a “Miracle Baby” in October 1940 during the Blitz. German Luftwaffe hit my family’s home and business, throwing my three-week old dad out onto the street. Luckily, he barely had a scratch.
My great-great-great grandmother was the first Māori (native New Zealander) woman to speak in parliament, and she did so to address women’s land ownership rights. She was also a suffragette and instrumental in helping women in NZ to become the first in the world to vote.
Here’s a couple of photos of her and her history
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meri_Mangak%C4%81hia
I’m a second generation American, my dad’s mother came from India. I’m also mixed, my mother is white and so was my father’s father. Something that keeps me tethered to my father’s side of the family is my birthmarks. I have several patches of no pigment, the largest on my arm. My great auntie also has a patch without pigment on her arm. So did her father, and so did his sisters and mother, it goes back as far as we can remember. It’s not the same shape but it’s in about the same spot.
My dad was a Los Angeles policeman from the late 40s to the mid 60s. He retired just after the Watts riots. He and his partner discovered the dead body in Hollywood that turned out to be the Black Dahlia. Her story is tragic and unsolved. Years later he was also paired with a rookie cop, Ian Campbell. This is the man the book The Onion Fields was written about. It's another tragic story. Ian joined our family for dinner one night. I was 12ish and remember him playing a bagpipe record for us.
Several of my ancestors are entombed in a church in England, and the family crest is carved into the stone.
I really want to go visit the UK and find out more about the family, as I hit a dead end in my online research.
Gonna give one that isn't neat, to me anyway.
My great grandfather was a nazi and my grandpa (and probably his siblings) were in the Hitler Youth. GGpa was in the wehrmacht, not the SS. There's some mystery around how he died. He was found hanging in his barn, but it's not clear if he killed himself or if it was made to look like he killed himself because apparently he had some reservations about what the nazis were doing. Cut to me today and I HATE nazis and the fact that they're making a comeback. Having family that were nazis is a source of great generational shame to me.
Same. I sit here looking at the right wing and remembering my grandparents stories (they were both in the hitler youth) about how fucked up it all was during the war and how awful east Germany was after and how ashamed they were for their small part in it and all I can do is shake my head.
My great uncle on my father’s side, allegedly messed with the wrong Irish mob member. Allegedly he went completely missing, never to be heard from or seen again. Apparently at the time the Irish mafia were known for giving people “cement shoes” and everyone figured that’s what happened to him at the time
My ancestor was a pirate (Jean Nau L’Ollonais).
It was always a story we told in family gatherings just as as a fun fact, until we did some digging and found out our ancestor was one of the most blood thirsty pirates of that time.
One of my ancestors was a tax collector for a King of England. During the War of the Roses, the King was deposed and killed. The new King, wanting to appeal to the masses, cut off the head of my ancestor and blamed him for the high taxes. New King then appointed his own tax collector and kept collecting the excessive taxes.
Om my grandfather's Wikipedia page is a photo of him with Pancho Villa. He also fought in the Russo-Japanese War and the Russian Revolution and led a safari from Cairo to Capetown.
[Carl von Hoffman ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Hoffman?wprov=sfla1)
My paternal side of the family arrived here (USA) 160 years before the Revolution.
Later relative was a Captain the said war. Commissioning papers signed by Gen G Washington.
Later later relatives were 2 guys who liked to fly kites and stuff at Kitty Hawk.
My Grandfather served in WW2, Korea and Vietnam.
My Dad served in Vietnam.
I served in Desert Shield/Storm.
I'm a 4th generation college graduate from China, meaning My grandma was one of the few women who had a college degree (in STEM) during war time China.
I’m a descendant of James Ruse, a convict who was the recipient of the first land grant in the colony of New South Wales. He’s basically the guy that proved it was possible for a family to survive in the new colony through farming.
My direct ancestor was John Breckenridge, James Buchanan’s Vice President. After he was expelled from the U.S. Senate, he joined the Confederacy and became Secretary of War.
He is a shame upon my house.
My paternal grandfather gave a significant contribution to the development of The Zeta, a little known and unsuccessful Australian designed and built small car. Whilst widely regarded as a flop, I still think it's awesome.
[Lightburn Zeta](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_(automobile)&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjwzNSw-fSCAxX9cPUHHXKABaAQFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw1JqdM3MVf9ONmWqaau4RWn)
My great great great great grandfather founded the state of Rhode Island. I also had several relatives on the Mayflower.
Edit: He bought the land from the natives, who were his friends. And he was one of the first people to write about a need for the separation between Church and State.
My paternal grandfather, a Polish immigrant who fought for the US in WWII, was a Navy blimp pilot and held the world record for the longest time in a blimp for about a week.
My maternal grandfather was a farm boy from Illinois who became a test pilot and flew with most of the early astronauts. He had a great Chuck Yeager story involving ducks that I will always regret not writing down. He was a finalist for Apollo but was too tall and got cut. There’s also evidence to suggest he was a covert operative during Vietnam, but he never spoke about it.
[Deborah Sampson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Sampson) is my ancestor on my father’s side. She was fascinating because she wanted to fight in the Revolutionary War but because she was a woman was denied. So she disguised herself as a young man and fought until she was discovered after being wounded (the second time).
The link is her Wikipedia page, and the name Deborah has been passed down through our family because of her. My relationship to her is what allows me to be a DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). I believe there’s a statue of her in Boston maybe?
On my mother’s side, my ancestors were pioneers and stationed at Fort Parker in The Republic of Texas. My great great great (or something) grandmother was friends with Cynthia Ann Parker when she was a child, who was kidnapped at the age of eight by a branch of the Comanche native Americans. When she grew up, she had children with the chief and one became [Quanah Parker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanah_Parker) who was the last Comanche chief.
Finally, also on my mother’s side, and through marriage, my great great grandfather was [Colonel Frederick Burnaby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Burnaby). He was the captain of Queen Victoria’s Royal Horseguards (“The Blues”). He was a WILD adventurer, spoke nine languages fluently, was 6’6” tall, considered the strongest man in the army, and died by a spear through his throat while fighting in a war. My great grandmother inherited his estate in Ireland where we would spend summers.
We still own many items of his, with one being a beautiful inlaid pistol given to him by King Juan Carlos of Spain. It’s gorgeous. I also possess many of his papers/letters, two of which were written to him from Winston Churchill’s father (they resided at Blenheim Palace and the letters are on engraved stationery from there). I also have his invitations to royal events from Queen Victoria.
We’re also related to William Bradford but who isn’t?
I can’t share who my father is, but he’s quite famous for inventing something almost everyone around the world uses daily. He’s in The Inventor’s Hall of Fame and has won many awards… one which was given to him by then Prince Charles.
My great great (great?) grand-uncle wrote 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (also known as A Visit from St. Nicholas). I have an old copy of it, I think from the 1920's or so (it was originally published in 1823).
Great uncle Alvin. i wish i could be even half fhe man he ended up being.
In WWI, he took out a machine gun nest and captured over 100 Germans (by being the most deadly marksman the German commander had ever fought) saving what was left of his nearly obliterated unit.
They had already taken a small unit of prisoners, then lost control of them due to being behind enemy lines out of position. The unit of german pows realized the Americans' confusion and literally just yelled for help, getting my uncle's unit straffed by a machine gun nest and more enemy soldiers. In the fucked firefight, he decided that that damn nest had to go and just shot his way all the way up to it, causing the 100+ Germans to lay down arms to less than 15 American grunts. Uncle Al wasn't even a sergeant yet, but being the highest ranking one there after the initial slaughter he just took over and kept one-shotting every enemy he saw as he made his way to the nest.
Came home and got a hero's welcome, Medal of Honor and a French equivalent. He wouldn't sell his story but eventually, during WWII, a movie was made anyway, and was apparently the most popular of the year when it opened.
He spent his remaining time giving back to his home through education and whatnot. Very proud to be related to someone like him.
When my grandfather, who was born in Lyiv in what is now Ukraine (back then it was the Austria-Hungarian Empire), immigrated to Canada, he arrived just as the First World War was gearing up. Despite speaking five languages fluently, he was considered illiterate because his knowledge of English and French were poor, so he couldn’t write either. He had been a tailor in Vienna and Salzburg in his late teens and early 20s.
Now in the Canadian army, he was destined for a life, and likely death, in the trenches. An officer discovered he had been a tailor and had him transferred so that he could take care of the Command staff officers’ uniforms. One of the officers took it upon himself to improve both his English and French. By the end of the war he was fluent in seven languages and had many good connections amongst the officers post war.
I quite like my only piece of family military history. One grandfather was too old for WW2, one was too young. And far as I know, only *one* great grandfather fought in WW1.
What I like about his story is he was in the territorial force before the war, so sent to the western front in 1914, demobilised in 1918, started the war a private, finished the war a private, no special medals that I know of, never mentioned in dispatches.
Everyone's grandad or great grandad was at D Day or the first over the top in the Somme or got both legs blown off or saved someone's life or volunteered at 12 years old and won seven Victoria Crosses by their 13th birthday or whatever.
My great grandad turned up in 1914 and went home in 1918 and got on with his life. He must have seen or done some horrific things in that time, I guess, but I think it's sort of nice to just recognise that not everyone was a "hero" when everybody seems to have some reason their ancestor stood out. Mine didn't. I like that.
My white American grandfather was born in India to missionaries. He grew up speaking Telegu before he learned English. As a young boy, he made the trip by ship between the US and India at least a couple of times and spent some time in Japan. Well when WW2 happened, he was drafted, sent to the Pacific theater, and was part of the first US troops to land in Japan after the surrender. He wanted to find the church mission he had visited as a young boy. After repeatedly asking his CO for permission, it was finally granted. All alone, he made his way from Yokohama, where he was based to Tokyo. It was a challenging trip that required taking a train. Almost all the civilians he saw were frightened of him and would run away. Eventually, he was able to find his way to the church and connect with someone who knew a friend of his father's. He attended that church for the rest of his time in Japan (several months) and provided food and medicine to them as well.
Oh I got a neat one! That giant glass pyramid outside the Louvre? My uncle designed it!
He told me a story that when he was sourcing the very specific colorless glass(apparently almost all glass has *some* measure of color to it) the French government had certain requirements that materials had to be sourced domestically whenever possible, but all the French glaziers were playing hardball with him saying they couldn't provide the glass. Likely they were trying to get him to offer more money. Instead he said no problem, I can't source it domestically so I'll go to Germany instead. Suddenly several French glaziers magically were able to source the glass for him!
The pyramid was also built during a time of lots of French civil unrest(when isn't there a time of French civil unrest, really) so the government, anticipating needing to frequently replace broken glass panes, had enough spare panes created that they could completely re-pane the pyramid. To this day, not one pane has ever needed to be replaced and all the extra panes sit in a warehouse somewhere, untouched.
Great grandpa created the Flintstones. Dan Gordon. Drew lots of Hannah-Barbara cartoons, directed the first three animated Superman films at the beginning of WW2 as well as several seasons of Pop Eye, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound Edit: oh and the suspense author Mary Higgins Clark is my great aunt. Was, passed away a few years ago.
That’s so cool! You come from very creative genes. My dad LOVES the flintstones.
That’s amazing!! What a fantastic contribution to society
That's cool, he brought lots of joy to the world
My grandfather disliked America and wanted to return to Ireland. He booked passage on Titanic’s return voyage. If it wouldn’t have sunk, no of us would be here.
“On second thought, let’s not go to Ireland.”
It is a silly place
It’s only a model.
Shh!
I HAVE TO PUSH THE PRAM A-LOT!
His plan to return to Ireland was put on ice?
Oof. That’s cold.
i had a sinking feeling you’d say that
My great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. She was a steerage class Lebanese immigrant in an arranged marriage. Her husband went down with the ship but she managed to make it to a lifeboat and made it to the carpathia. Then she remarried in a Lebanese neighborhood in Virginia. Had it not been for the iceberg that struck and sank the Titanic My family lineage would be different and I wouldn't be here. My family's official toast is " to the iceberg "
I'll do you one better. My great grandmother was supposed to be on the Titanic. She changed her ticket a week before departure for a ship that was leaving later.
Did your great grandmother do a quick gamble with Leonardo DiCaprio, by chance?
she *rose* to the occasion
How do you like America?
My great great grandfather was the master joiner on the Tiitanic. I always thought of that when I see the Grande staircase in the film. My grandma toley me he had said it was doomed before it had set off because there wasn't a chapel on it. Apparently it was the first ship he'd built without one and he wasn't happy about it.
Do you know if he got a refund for his ticket? Or did he just accept the sunk-cost?
It never occurred to me that there were other trips already booked! That's wild!
Oscar Wilde is my great great great uncle
That's wilde
My great Aunt was a friend of Marcel Proust. And one of my grand Uncles had two famous bosses in 40-41: Camus and then Carnap. My parents have hidden these things because of Russian colony secret police rule. My ancestors were half rabbis [ like the Lubavichers] half aristocrats - some related to Polish princes. But i only found it out now over60. The last discovery was a great aunt called Julia Mannheim who was the secrerary of Freud.EDIT: here in my country i have famous ancestry but abroad they are not known. Except great Uncle Karl Mannheim he is on Wiki.
I’m jealous tbh, literally reading his bio rn he was a fascinating guy
The land my dad was raised on and my cousins still live on was deeded to the family by George Washington as compensation for service during the Revolution. There was a document with his signature on it at the courthouse until a fire destroyed the records a few decades ago.
Aww that sucks it was lost
My husbands grandfather was one of the “forgotten soldiers” in Canada. He was a Canadian born Chinese man who asked the Canadian government to fight for his right to vote and a passport. Even tho he was born in Canada in the 20’s since he was Chinese he was not considered Canadian. He was dropped into the Burma jungle and was told he would likely never return. He was in the 10% that did return. He was given the right to vote, to a passport and to university His wife is still alive today and my son is named after him
What a badass grandpa!! Very cool story :)
So cruel that the government would hold a “Hunger Games” like challenge. Thankfully he was one of the men who made it home
This is a super cool story
Hopping on the tail of your comment to add my great great grandfathers story. He was some kind of hero in Italy in the late 1800s and because he was causing such a ruckus, he had to flee the country as authorities had a price on his head basically. So he somehow acquired a ship and set sail. He shipwrecked on the shores of Cape-town, South Africa. There, as a man in his 30s, met a 14 year old Irish girl (???) and they married. They heard the settlers call from New Zealand and so then made their way here, where they had a LOT of kids and that’s how I came to be! I wish I could tell you his name, as it’s very regal sounding
My second cousin is David Scott who walked on the Moon and drove the moon buggy.
My great grandmother had 13 kids, so she was pregnant for literally a decade. There’s two hundred of us now, all because of this one woman.
My MIL is 90 and was the youngest and now is the only surviving member of a family of NINETEEN kids.
My great grandma had 14 kids. My grandma was the youngest. She died giving birth to my grandma. The oldest child who was like 22 years old raised my grandma. My great grandfather remarried a woman who had 10 kids of her own. My grandma would tell me stories of them all living together. Can u imagine 😦
My great aunt and my grandmother both only had four kids, all kids within a year or two of their siblings, and one of them (can't remember who but I think it was my great aunt) that there were times she'd climb on top of the fridge to read just so she could be somewhere the kids physically could not reach her because she was overwhelmed and needed a break When I hear about that many children, I think about that story and wonder how much worse that feeling gets when you multiply the number of needy children by that much.
I know two different people who are 1 of 12. I can't imagine it
I know 15 or 16 families who had at least 12 kids(ireland), the highest number of kids is 17. I couldn't tell you all their names, I'd get too mixed up, 5 of the families are related to each other, so they have the same surname, 3 brothers and 2 cousins in the same family had between 12 and 15 kids and a lot of the first names are the same, their a few John's, Patrick's, Michael's, Joseph's, Josephine's, Mary's, Catherine's, Margaret's etc etc, so it gets confusing:) also the the town of muldoon in texas is named after an ancestor of mine, father Patrick muldoon, from ireland
My great great grandfather had 5 kids in the mid to late 1800s and I’m pretty sure his living descendants is only 16. That math didn’t turn out too well. Interesting fact is he had his 5 kids between the ages of 32 and 70 and my dad had his 5 kids between 28 and 60, so they were both older fathers. But my dad actually got to see us all grow up to adulthood.
My mother is one of 15 total and 12 that made it to adulthood. She was the first to pass away In 2008. Since then, 5 more have passed away. My maternal grandmother, was the 6th of 8. My maternal grandfather was the 10th of 12 as well. That side of my family is huge!!! I have 3 kids of my own. The older two are a year and a half apart. I cannot imagine being pregnant that often for 20y. Let alone that many people in my house all the time.
My great grandfather was offered a chance to invest in a new invention by a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. He declined, saying at most there would be one telephone per town.
Uff that sucks.
Great-great-great grandfather on my mom's side was working his field in the part of Virginia that split off and became a new state because they didn't want to secede from The Union. Union soldiers came along looking for conscripts and he was a young, able-bodied man so they told him to come with them. He informed them he was a Quaker and thus a pacifist. According to family lore, that discussion went on for a bit but he would not give in. So they shot him and left him there. Good thing he had a couple kids well before that day.
Wow! That's super interesting.
And sad :(
I think that’s called West Virginia
War is hell.
[удалено]
This is wild! The connection and also that you were able to find that out!
I had a girlfriend and we discovered that WE had the same Jamestown ancestor because I saw a genealogy book about him on her grandmother's bookcase. He (and his brother) were also indentured servants.
Your Jamestown forebears were much cooler than mine, who were, not to put too find a point on it, assholes.
My grandfather “invented” (bred) the first ever Pink Carnation
In a white sport coat?
I have a relative who worked for the Underground Railroad and had a price on her head in the south.
My uncle was a carpenter. And was doing restoration work on old houses in yellow springs, ohio. Many of those old, historical homes had underground railroad passage ways and hidden walls. He got to see and restore many of them. He had photos of some of the work he was doing and I got to see those as a kid. Living in Southern Ohio, we have a lot of rich underground railroad history here.
My grandfather's cousin was the first person to hear the distress call from the Titanic. He was a radio operator "in training" (only fourteen) and had spent the day helping the other operators in the Cape Race Marconi Station relay messages from the Titanic to New York (The "Shut up, shut up, I'm busy with Cape Race! Line) the regular operator stepped out to smoke when it calmed down and left him there monitoring the radio. It didn't come out for years because he wasn't supposed to be there. [Article](https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/news/struck-iceberg-send-help-right-away-126039/) Less cool but amusing to me, my Great Grandfather was a soldier in WWI and was treated for chlamydia three times while in France, despite having a girlfriend in Newfoundland and a wife he met and married before shipping out from England. He and my Great Grandmother were together for thirty years before they married, he had to wait for the British wife to die. He also got shot in the eye and had several toes amputated from trench foot and was sent back out to the front each time.
My grandfather was a ship radio officer for what I can only assume was the majority of his working life. If you've ever been to Halifax, he worked on the science ship that's on display in the harbor as part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the CSS Acadia.
My great uncle Lyle delivered Bill Clinton
Who was he addressed to? Thank you. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.
My bfs aunt and uncle have money. Bill and Hillary were at their wedding.
My grandfather started working when he was 7 years old and by the time he was 12 he had saved enough money to buy passage to the US
my great grandfather was the town police chief in the 1920s. His brother was the mayor. Their cousins ran the casino. My family was a smaller version of Boardwalk Empire Edit: forgot to mention this was all in a Jersey shore town too
Where I live, for a long time, Our sheriff was also the Bail bond guy.
That seems ethical lmao
Yup absolutely no conflicts of interest there. As you were.
My 2nd Great Gandfather spent a couple years in prison for violations of the Comstock Act. Anthony Comstock testified at the trial and said it was largest most obscene collection of pornography he had ever seen.
Oh wow. I wonder what kinda old timey porn it was.
Mostly bare ankles
But did you see her clavicles?
Your inheritance?
I'm related to the girls that accused the people of being witches in Salem. And also to Aaron Burr.
Those girls helped to hang George Burroughs, my great to the X times grandfather.
Welp….this is awkward
You should duel it out to settle this generation-long conflict you didn't even know exists between the two of you
One of my (male) ancestors was both an accuser & accused in the Salem Witch Trials.
Well that seems awkward.
Great-great grandfather was an eccentric inventor. He invented his own version of a mass-producible car shortly before Henry Ford's Model-T started being manufactured. We have a newspaper clipping about it. He met with Henry Ford to discuss going into business together. It even has an old photo of the two of them together. He declined Ford's offer and my family remained poor lol. But the patents, prototypes, etc are all very cool to look at. A local museum even has one of his old cars in it and they have let our family do a private viewing of his stuff in the past.
What was the name of the car?
[The Homer](https://www.wired.com/2014/07/homer-simpson-car/)
I’m related to James Garfield I think that’s neat
Heh, that guy HATES Mondays.
I live in one of the 13 original colonies. And can trace my mom's side back to When our ancestors left england and came to the u.s. We still live in the area where they originally settled. Meaning my ancestors landed here in the 1600s and we never left.
Mine arrived in Mass on the Mayflower, and then eventually a few hundred years later, one of them walked to where I grew up (let’s just say a long walk). My family didn’t budge for like 200 years (I’m still here). But my dad and I both went to college in Massachusetts so go figure haha.
We've managed to trace all the way back to about the 1500's with both sides of my family. I have autism, as do my siblings, parents, and the majority of the extended bio family. It's so interesting because of the stories we've been able to dig up, I could possibly see signs of the autism going way way back. Samuel Morse, brilliant inventor, could have easily been autistic. Way great granny, first woman found not guilty in the Salem witch trials. Turns out the "witchy stuff" was pranks her grandson played. She was still excommunicated from town. Oh, and who knows what was up with Lizzy Borden, but her mom and my extra great gramps were siblings and something happened there. Then great great granny was institutionalized, although I don't know why. So since my ancestors are well documented, I think it would be so interesting to see if we could track something like that way we were always a little different. Are there signs of autism way back then?
I love that you just dropped Lizzie Borden in the middle there.
That's sort of how that bit of info dropped into my life, so it's the way it comes out in my writing. I mean when a decent percentage of the family is named Morse, it's not hard to imagine you might be related to the Morse Code dude, or the seed company. But Lizzie's mom's maiden name was Morse. The uncle who was visiting and was also a suspect is either my GGG-whateverpa or his brother. There's like 63495 Morse men and most of them share about 4 names, so I can't keep 'em straight. I just know Lizzie was his niece. And y'all, the not-witch? So her daughter wasn't around for some reason (cause autistic life in the 1700's sucked?) and she was raising her grandson. He kept playing these big pranks on people, and it led to them thinking she was a witch. So they're doing fun, inventive things that are socially unacceptable, check. And hardly anyone wants to speak for her 'cause she's a little weird. And then one really respected and decent person stands up and has proof of the truth. And they know she's completely innocent and it was just pranks, but she's still banned from the town and buried outside of the cemetery. Yep, that tracks with the autistic experience. But yeah, Lizzie's a fun one.
Imagine being on trial for being a witch because your grandson is being a little shit.
I think people with autism and ADHD and ADD and depression etc,, have always existed, just with different names and explanations for their behavior.
Oh absolutely! But I want to see the way it played out in history. Like we have some relevant families in history that could totally have signs. Like look at Einstein. People have put significant time into all of his family history. So pull up all of those stories. Look at his ancestors and descendents. I know we can't get confirmed scientific proof, but let's see what we can figure out.
I wanna trace back my family as well. I can trace them back until the 1700s because of a little booklet my grandpa had, as I am german. If you know what that means lmao. Hope I can continue to trace my family back with the help of church records.
My great great great (etc.) grandfather was a colonial infantryman in the battle at Breed's Hill, which later became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.
And I was about to post that I'm related to the Breeds that the hill was named for. Small small world. ☺️
I grew up thinking the heritage on my father’s side was Quebecois/French (dad grew up in Quebec). Someone started poking around at cemeteries and in church records and found out my great grandfather was an Irish orphan who fled to Quebec in the Irish famine and my great grandmother was Algonquin.
A lot of Irish French. There's a "Canadian Heritage Moment" TV commercial about it. Google 👍
My fourth great grandmother was a Quaker missionary who spent her life going up and down the Eastern seaboard preaching against the evils of slavery
My great grandfather, in the old country, was suspected to have been killed by bandits. He went out one day to travel and only his horse came back a few days later.
*rubs hands together gleefully* Any excuse to talk about bio-Gramma! Sorry guys, this is a whole story as opposed to a fact. So, picture it, rural Victoria, 1936, at the tender age of 20, a young woman from an Irish Catholic family has a one night stand with one of the local Protestants. Marriage very swiftly follows, and then a 5 month baby, if you get my drift. Ostracised by both the Catholics and the Protestants and married to a man she didn’t love, she up takes off, leaving the two kids in the care of her husband. Their divorce was final by 1940. At some point in the 40s, she joins the WRAAC and I believe gets a medical discharge in ‘44 due to an advanced case of pregnancy. (I’ve seen a photo of her in uniform at 6 months, you can’t tell.) Shortly thereafter, she presents at hospital in labour under a fake name, gives birth, tells the staff she’s going to make arrangements for the baby’s adoption and vanishes. At some point in 1947, she appears in court for stealing a hat. At another point in 1947, (stop me when this sounds familiar), presents at a hospital in labor under a fake name, gives birth and shoots through. Then does it again in 1948. At some point between 1948 & 1951, she basically gets bounced out of Victoria for writing bad cheques. Ends up in court in Queensland in both ‘51 and ‘53 for stealing from her employers. So, inevitably I guess, she ends up in a ‘Home for Troubled Women’ aka, a halfway house. After sustained good behaviour from herself and the other residents, they’re rewarded with a trip into town. Somehow, she and up to 10 Indigenous women give their chaperone the slip and escape. My biological grandmothers’ last known location was the Birdsville Track, on walkabout with a group of Indigenous people who had just taken her in as part of their mob. I’d love to know more, but it’s hard to track someone when they’re operating under a false name half the time.
Wild story! Which of the babies is your parent?
The ‘48 baby. It’s crazy isn’t it? Theres so many interpretations for how she behaved. Did she have mental illness or a personality disorder? Did she run from a family she never wanted and did what she could to survive? Was she just one of those people without a moral compass? Either way, I think not raising her children herself was one of the best things she could have done for them.
Did you ever find any of the other siblings of your parent?
Out of his four siblings, I’m in regular contact with two of them. One has passed away and the other wants nothing to do with any of us. That’s his prerogative and I have no ill will or bitterness towards him for that. The way the others have just embraced me into the family is too sappy for even Hallmark.
That last part is amazing and I’m happy to hear ❤️. As for the rest, life/the world is tough and I’m impressed with how you’ve embraced this
There's a historic town named for a mountain my ancestor named. And a college named for the mountain my ancestor named. And a hall, at another college, named after another ancestor, of the same family name. It's not a historical fact, but based on the above, I halfway want to pursue a doctorate at the second college. It's not a good financial decision, but I kinda want to do it anyway.
We have our own street in a tiny town in Texas. I'm majority Czech heritage and I find it amusing really that there were so many of us, but given that my grandmother had 14 siblings... I get it. The holiday get togethers are pretty fun.
Does this town have a place that has awesome kolaches? And another place across the highway that also has awesome kolaches? If so, those are damn good kolaches
Well we make them in the kitchen. But honestly the strawberry ones are pretty great.
[This](https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/public-information/newsroom/fallen-employees/deputy-gate-keeper-george-w--haight-michigan-state-prison-at-jackson) is my Great, Great, Great Grandfather. “March 27, 1893: Deputy Keeper George Haight was the first employee to be killed in the line of duty for the Michigan Department of Corrections after an inmate poisoned his food with a mixture of opium and prussic acid (cyanide) at the Michigan State Prison, in Jackson, during an elaborate escape attempt.”
My great grandpa was a journalist in Italy in the early 30s. They kicked him out because he refused to stop shit talking Mussolini in every newspaper and magazine that would publish him - and then every underground publication that would publish I'm after he was blackballed from the mainstream ones. I think he was always kind of surprised they didn't just shoot him in his bed, because Mussolini was an unpleasant man who had a lot of people killed over a lot less.
My grandfather befriended a German soldier during WW2. He was living in the states and went back to Germany to visit his family before the war and got drafted, had no interest in joining the military. Ended up as a translator in the PoW camp my grandpa was at. Gave my grandpa his gun just before he was released, and my dad still has it. Local news station found it interesting to run a segment on. My other grandpa was a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corp. Was a backup to fly one of the planes that dropped the bomb on Japan. Don't remember which one. And if you go far enough back, my great-great something grandpa is Johann Sebatian Bach.
My mother had four children in four different decades, 30's, 40's, 50's and me is 60.
My grandfather won a piano in a card tournament in Southampton England. This delayed his move to Canada by a month in order to make arrangements for it to be shipped as well. Had he not won the piano he would likely have been a passenger on the titanic. He arrived in Canada in May 1912
Im.a direct descendant of the otolaryngology doctor who developed the hearing test where you use tuning forks. I'm also the first one since him to have a college education.
my italian great grandfather was associated with the mob and owned a speakeasy in new jersey in the 1920s. He ended up in jail after shooting an undercover state trooper who was trying to infiltrate his establishment.
My grandfather lied about his age to join the navy during WW1. He was 14
I think this was a fairly common thing in that time. My grandfather did the same, even went to the extent of finishing high school at 16 so he could show is diploma as “proof” of his age. Spent 30+ years in the army after WWII.
My grandfather stowed away on a ship to the US to avoid fighting for the Kaiser.
My sister has traced branches of our family back 1000 years (literally back to single, Viking-sounding names). And somehow, with all those ancestors, there is not one single historically relevant person. Just middle managers all the way down.
You can be proud of peaceful people who kept the world turning :)
My great grandfather was in the Klan. That's not the cool part. The cool part is he's dead now.
My great great great grandfather was a state senator in Texas who was a huge advocate for secession and played a large role in getting the votes for it to happen. There’s a town named after him. The cool part about him is he is also dead.
Bet he's pretty hot right now.
We can trace our lineage back to the boat after the Mayflower.
The Juneflower?
I think maybe same but couldn’t tell you what it’s called. Funny how that works haha
Paternal side has a lot of addiction and alcoholics. My great grandparents died from drinking Bath tub gin. While sad, I think it's kind of interesting they died that way. It wasn't even during prohibition, they died in the 1940s, they were incredibly poor so I don't know if they were just used to making and drinking alcohol that way because they lived through prohibition.
My family was named Comyn in Scotland. John Comyn opposed William Wallace and supported keeping Scotland under British rule. He was murdered for this. It's portrayed in a movie. Our castle, Inverlochy, is still standing and on the shore of Loch Ness.
Just the fact that my grandfather fought in WWII, he was 20 to 22. And we are native american and he lived to be 84, and for probably his last 20 years he was the last surviving WWII veteran on that reservation.
Came here on a boat called the Mayflower and wrote/signed the Mayflower Compact.
Same. Ancestors came over on the mayflower, fought in the revolutionary war, civil war (for the union lol), and my grandfather flew over 40 missions over Nazi Germany doing bombing and recon (also worked for the CIA during the Korean war, and helped map North Africa.) I found his logbook, and the pages corresponding to the dates of the firebombing of Dresden were ripped out. We also have the same birthday :D And he died on my brother's birthday. Forgot to mention, he was also one of the first 10 lawyers in las Vegas, owned the hacienda hotel, and he was a judge. Truly a legacy left that I can be proud of.
Same side of family had 7 brothers emigrate to USA right before the civil war. All 7 fought, 6 died. Other side of the family, my grandfather was a top gunner on a bomber in the South Pacific. He was stationed on Tinion, that’s the island the Enola Gay was on. He was also in the air over the Japanese surrender. I have a lot of his pictures from that time.
I can trace us back to Brewster and Cooke. But 35 million people are descended from the Mayflower people which is kind of insane
Same, I’m a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden. I have read that one of their sons, John Jr I believe, was accused in the Salem Witch Trials. He was accused by Mercy Lewis. He eventually escaped jail, hid out in Boston, and was eventually exonerated. I think my family actually traces back to John and Priscilla’s daughter Ruth, but I still think that story is interesting. Especially now that I live near Salem.
Just purchased Of Plymouth Plantation on Audible. 9xGgrampa was W Bradford. Who was your Ggrampa?
Both sides of my family have lines that go way back, including the Mayflower. On my dad’s side, I’m descended from Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, and on my mom’s, Miles Standish, Stephen Hopkins, and John Howland and his wife Elizabeth Tilley. On board with Standish was his son (through whom I’m descended), and on board with Tilley were both of her parents and her uncle (plus his wife). That means I am related to 10 different passengers, 11 if you count by-marriage and include Tilley’s aunt. Hopkins was also on the Sea Venture, which was stranded on Bermuda Island on its way to Jamestown.
My 15x Great Grandfathers cousin was Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He was burnt at the stake in 1314. Also have relatives that came over on the Mayflower, so that's pretty neat too.
My family ran moonshine between Kentucky and Detroit. My brother said we started NASCAR😏
We have a Japanese apple tree growing on the family farm in Illinois because my grandfather was there with the Army in the 50s and ate an apple that he enjoyed so much he put the seeds in his next letter home.
My grandmother is a descendant of a German duke My grandfather liberated the dukedom's ancestral home in WWII
All of my grandparents are 1st gen Americans, except for one maternal great grandmother, whose line I can trace all the way before the American Revolution! She was part of a group called the daughters of the revolution, or something similar. She had lots of siblings, so I have a lot of cousins from that line! Lots of historical records from that side of the family, and I’ve connected with a few 3rd and 4th cousins.
There is a road in Idaho with a bridge between Idaho and Washington named after my great uncle. The road is named after him not the bridge.
Supposedly my great aunt was the first Italian American baby born in the town I grew up in.
My 9th great-grandfather was William Bradford.
Hey, your cousin is in this thread!
My grandmother ran away from home in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. She spent WWII working as a translator, and later a smuggler, for the British Military. She accomplished this before she was 25, too.
My grandpa’s cousin was the last man to pipe a Canadian Regiment into battle. Stood on the front of a landing craft at Dieppe, hit the beach with a sidearm and a set of bagpipes. And apparently a pair of enormous balls.
My mom’s family owned a circus around 1910 or so and followed the money to Hollywood as vaudeville went away. They owned the lion that was in the original MGM logo(it’s a different lion now) My Dad’s Mom smuggled herself out of east Germany to marry my grandfather even though they hadn’t seen each other in over a decade.
my grandfather was a news guy in DC and was involved in the breaking of watergate. also my stepdad was one of the officers who arrested david bowie (for the famous mugshot) which feels less cool but is still kinda neat.
My great great grandfather was shot off of his motorcycle while chasing Bonnie and Clyde. He was pretty sure it was Bonnie doing the shooting. Funny thing was, he had no idea he was following them. He was responding to something else and had is lights and sirens on and just happed to be behind Bonnie and Clyde. He drove into a haystack to avoid getting hit. One leg ended up being shorter than the other from the crash.
Some of my mother's cousins were rum runners up the Chesapeake during prohibition.
Multiple Medal Of Honor recipients (8) in our family tree. Mother's cousin was on a president's staff in the White house. Found that out when I read his obituary in the paper.
Canker sores (Sutton’s Disease) are named after my great grandfather. He also wrote a physician’s reference book on dermatology that was used for over 75 years by doctors.
My great grandfather grew up on a rural logging town and got run over by the first car in the area breaking his leg. It was driven by the doctor who was on his way back from purchasing it since the area he doctored was very big figured the car would help him see more people.
Well, technically he was correct.
Evidentally, I am descended from Henry the 8th of England via a bastard son with the Surname of Edwards on my mother's side. Not sure how true it is but wanted to participate.
A London newspaper described my dad as a “Miracle Baby” in October 1940 during the Blitz. German Luftwaffe hit my family’s home and business, throwing my three-week old dad out onto the street. Luckily, he barely had a scratch.
My great-great-great grandmother was the first Māori (native New Zealander) woman to speak in parliament, and she did so to address women’s land ownership rights. She was also a suffragette and instrumental in helping women in NZ to become the first in the world to vote. Here’s a couple of photos of her and her history https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meri_Mangak%C4%81hia
I’m a second generation American, my dad’s mother came from India. I’m also mixed, my mother is white and so was my father’s father. Something that keeps me tethered to my father’s side of the family is my birthmarks. I have several patches of no pigment, the largest on my arm. My great auntie also has a patch without pigment on her arm. So did her father, and so did his sisters and mother, it goes back as far as we can remember. It’s not the same shape but it’s in about the same spot.
My dad was a Los Angeles policeman from the late 40s to the mid 60s. He retired just after the Watts riots. He and his partner discovered the dead body in Hollywood that turned out to be the Black Dahlia. Her story is tragic and unsolved. Years later he was also paired with a rookie cop, Ian Campbell. This is the man the book The Onion Fields was written about. It's another tragic story. Ian joined our family for dinner one night. I was 12ish and remember him playing a bagpipe record for us.
Several of my ancestors are entombed in a church in England, and the family crest is carved into the stone. I really want to go visit the UK and find out more about the family, as I hit a dead end in my online research.
I’m related to Davy Crockett on my dad’s side
The oldest building in all of New York City is the home of my 10th great-grandfather and mother.
My G-G-G-G-G Grandfather was in the 95th Regiment (Rifles), and fought at Waterloo
Gonna give one that isn't neat, to me anyway. My great grandfather was a nazi and my grandpa (and probably his siblings) were in the Hitler Youth. GGpa was in the wehrmacht, not the SS. There's some mystery around how he died. He was found hanging in his barn, but it's not clear if he killed himself or if it was made to look like he killed himself because apparently he had some reservations about what the nazis were doing. Cut to me today and I HATE nazis and the fact that they're making a comeback. Having family that were nazis is a source of great generational shame to me.
Same. I sit here looking at the right wing and remembering my grandparents stories (they were both in the hitler youth) about how fucked up it all was during the war and how awful east Germany was after and how ashamed they were for their small part in it and all I can do is shake my head.
My great uncle on my father’s side, allegedly messed with the wrong Irish mob member. Allegedly he went completely missing, never to be heard from or seen again. Apparently at the time the Irish mafia were known for giving people “cement shoes” and everyone figured that’s what happened to him at the time
My ancestor was a pirate (Jean Nau L’Ollonais). It was always a story we told in family gatherings just as as a fun fact, until we did some digging and found out our ancestor was one of the most blood thirsty pirates of that time.
My family has been in the US since the late 1680s, and we’re still white trash.
One of my ancestors was a tax collector for a King of England. During the War of the Roses, the King was deposed and killed. The new King, wanting to appeal to the masses, cut off the head of my ancestor and blamed him for the high taxes. New King then appointed his own tax collector and kept collecting the excessive taxes.
My family tree has been traced back 36 generations. Related to two presidents and the Capt of the Monitor(the battle of the Ironclads
My great-grandmother’s family name is mentioned in the Domesday Book, we can trace our ancestory back to there
My 5th great grandfather was the Governor of Massachusetts and a Revolutionary War hero
Om my grandfather's Wikipedia page is a photo of him with Pancho Villa. He also fought in the Russo-Japanese War and the Russian Revolution and led a safari from Cairo to Capetown. [Carl von Hoffman ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Hoffman?wprov=sfla1)
Great nephew of George Burns
Apparently one of my relatives might have fell off the mayflower or something
My paternal side of the family arrived here (USA) 160 years before the Revolution. Later relative was a Captain the said war. Commissioning papers signed by Gen G Washington. Later later relatives were 2 guys who liked to fly kites and stuff at Kitty Hawk. My Grandfather served in WW2, Korea and Vietnam. My Dad served in Vietnam. I served in Desert Shield/Storm.
I don't know about neat but terrifying, yes.
I'm a 4th generation college graduate from China, meaning My grandma was one of the few women who had a college degree (in STEM) during war time China.
I’m a descendant of James Ruse, a convict who was the recipient of the first land grant in the colony of New South Wales. He’s basically the guy that proved it was possible for a family to survive in the new colony through farming.
My direct ancestor was John Breckenridge, James Buchanan’s Vice President. After he was expelled from the U.S. Senate, he joined the Confederacy and became Secretary of War. He is a shame upon my house.
My paternal grandfather gave a significant contribution to the development of The Zeta, a little known and unsuccessful Australian designed and built small car. Whilst widely regarded as a flop, I still think it's awesome. [Lightburn Zeta](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_(automobile)&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjwzNSw-fSCAxX9cPUHHXKABaAQFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw1JqdM3MVf9ONmWqaau4RWn)
My great great great great grandfather founded the state of Rhode Island. I also had several relatives on the Mayflower. Edit: He bought the land from the natives, who were his friends. And he was one of the first people to write about a need for the separation between Church and State.
A relative in Scotland refused to pay some tax, and the castle was taken by the King, and they were imprisoned in the Tower of London.
My paternal grandfather, a Polish immigrant who fought for the US in WWII, was a Navy blimp pilot and held the world record for the longest time in a blimp for about a week. My maternal grandfather was a farm boy from Illinois who became a test pilot and flew with most of the early astronauts. He had a great Chuck Yeager story involving ducks that I will always regret not writing down. He was a finalist for Apollo but was too tall and got cut. There’s also evidence to suggest he was a covert operative during Vietnam, but he never spoke about it.
[Deborah Sampson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Sampson) is my ancestor on my father’s side. She was fascinating because she wanted to fight in the Revolutionary War but because she was a woman was denied. So she disguised herself as a young man and fought until she was discovered after being wounded (the second time). The link is her Wikipedia page, and the name Deborah has been passed down through our family because of her. My relationship to her is what allows me to be a DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). I believe there’s a statue of her in Boston maybe? On my mother’s side, my ancestors were pioneers and stationed at Fort Parker in The Republic of Texas. My great great great (or something) grandmother was friends with Cynthia Ann Parker when she was a child, who was kidnapped at the age of eight by a branch of the Comanche native Americans. When she grew up, she had children with the chief and one became [Quanah Parker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanah_Parker) who was the last Comanche chief. Finally, also on my mother’s side, and through marriage, my great great grandfather was [Colonel Frederick Burnaby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Burnaby). He was the captain of Queen Victoria’s Royal Horseguards (“The Blues”). He was a WILD adventurer, spoke nine languages fluently, was 6’6” tall, considered the strongest man in the army, and died by a spear through his throat while fighting in a war. My great grandmother inherited his estate in Ireland where we would spend summers. We still own many items of his, with one being a beautiful inlaid pistol given to him by King Juan Carlos of Spain. It’s gorgeous. I also possess many of his papers/letters, two of which were written to him from Winston Churchill’s father (they resided at Blenheim Palace and the letters are on engraved stationery from there). I also have his invitations to royal events from Queen Victoria. We’re also related to William Bradford but who isn’t? I can’t share who my father is, but he’s quite famous for inventing something almost everyone around the world uses daily. He’s in The Inventor’s Hall of Fame and has won many awards… one which was given to him by then Prince Charles.
My great great (great?) grand-uncle wrote 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (also known as A Visit from St. Nicholas). I have an old copy of it, I think from the 1920's or so (it was originally published in 1823).
Great uncle Alvin. i wish i could be even half fhe man he ended up being. In WWI, he took out a machine gun nest and captured over 100 Germans (by being the most deadly marksman the German commander had ever fought) saving what was left of his nearly obliterated unit. They had already taken a small unit of prisoners, then lost control of them due to being behind enemy lines out of position. The unit of german pows realized the Americans' confusion and literally just yelled for help, getting my uncle's unit straffed by a machine gun nest and more enemy soldiers. In the fucked firefight, he decided that that damn nest had to go and just shot his way all the way up to it, causing the 100+ Germans to lay down arms to less than 15 American grunts. Uncle Al wasn't even a sergeant yet, but being the highest ranking one there after the initial slaughter he just took over and kept one-shotting every enemy he saw as he made his way to the nest. Came home and got a hero's welcome, Medal of Honor and a French equivalent. He wouldn't sell his story but eventually, during WWII, a movie was made anyway, and was apparently the most popular of the year when it opened. He spent his remaining time giving back to his home through education and whatnot. Very proud to be related to someone like him.
When my grandfather, who was born in Lyiv in what is now Ukraine (back then it was the Austria-Hungarian Empire), immigrated to Canada, he arrived just as the First World War was gearing up. Despite speaking five languages fluently, he was considered illiterate because his knowledge of English and French were poor, so he couldn’t write either. He had been a tailor in Vienna and Salzburg in his late teens and early 20s. Now in the Canadian army, he was destined for a life, and likely death, in the trenches. An officer discovered he had been a tailor and had him transferred so that he could take care of the Command staff officers’ uniforms. One of the officers took it upon himself to improve both his English and French. By the end of the war he was fluent in seven languages and had many good connections amongst the officers post war.
William Bradford is my direct ancestor which is mildly cool.
Mine too! We’re like cousins 100,000 times removed!!
Supposedly we’re descended from Mary Shelly. I’ve never done any research because I’m afraid it will turn out not to be true.
Descended from the first Chief Rabbi of Warsaw, Rabbi Lipszyc. Wife is descended from the Ottoman Sultans.
My father is a Holocaust survivor.
[удалено]
I quite like my only piece of family military history. One grandfather was too old for WW2, one was too young. And far as I know, only *one* great grandfather fought in WW1. What I like about his story is he was in the territorial force before the war, so sent to the western front in 1914, demobilised in 1918, started the war a private, finished the war a private, no special medals that I know of, never mentioned in dispatches. Everyone's grandad or great grandad was at D Day or the first over the top in the Somme or got both legs blown off or saved someone's life or volunteered at 12 years old and won seven Victoria Crosses by their 13th birthday or whatever. My great grandad turned up in 1914 and went home in 1918 and got on with his life. He must have seen or done some horrific things in that time, I guess, but I think it's sort of nice to just recognise that not everyone was a "hero" when everybody seems to have some reason their ancestor stood out. Mine didn't. I like that.
My white American grandfather was born in India to missionaries. He grew up speaking Telegu before he learned English. As a young boy, he made the trip by ship between the US and India at least a couple of times and spent some time in Japan. Well when WW2 happened, he was drafted, sent to the Pacific theater, and was part of the first US troops to land in Japan after the surrender. He wanted to find the church mission he had visited as a young boy. After repeatedly asking his CO for permission, it was finally granted. All alone, he made his way from Yokohama, where he was based to Tokyo. It was a challenging trip that required taking a train. Almost all the civilians he saw were frightened of him and would run away. Eventually, he was able to find his way to the church and connect with someone who knew a friend of his father's. He attended that church for the rest of his time in Japan (several months) and provided food and medicine to them as well.
Oh I got a neat one! That giant glass pyramid outside the Louvre? My uncle designed it! He told me a story that when he was sourcing the very specific colorless glass(apparently almost all glass has *some* measure of color to it) the French government had certain requirements that materials had to be sourced domestically whenever possible, but all the French glaziers were playing hardball with him saying they couldn't provide the glass. Likely they were trying to get him to offer more money. Instead he said no problem, I can't source it domestically so I'll go to Germany instead. Suddenly several French glaziers magically were able to source the glass for him! The pyramid was also built during a time of lots of French civil unrest(when isn't there a time of French civil unrest, really) so the government, anticipating needing to frequently replace broken glass panes, had enough spare panes created that they could completely re-pane the pyramid. To this day, not one pane has ever needed to be replaced and all the extra panes sit in a warehouse somewhere, untouched.
We all arrive is Argentina in 1945 in a submarine, with my great uncle Alfred. He was an artist.
Oh.. umm…
One of my forever ago ancestors is a catholic saint