goggled, found out g.grandfather tried to kill ggm, before my g.mother was conceived

[Jeannie in NJ]

I was goggling my great great great grandfather who came over from Scotland. Anyway an article, I guess from an old newspaper came up. My great grandfather (ggf) had a gun, killed his oldest son then put the gun to great grandmother's head pulled trigger, gun jammed, tried again gun jammed again so threw the gun down and ran off. This all happened years before my grandmother was born (don't know if ggf and ggm got back together or if ggm married again (no one is my family had ever talked about this incident). Anyway, it was freaky thinking about what if the gun had not jammed and ggm had been killed, there would have been no grandmother to have my mother who then had me. Or would I have just been born to another family.

[Pamela H in Texas]

The stories we find doing genealogy are so interesting! The skeletons are neat when they are further back like that. I like those ones. It's a bit harder when many of the key players are still alive (Woman X was accused of killing hubby when youngest baby was 6weeks old. There are two stories. Who knows which is true, but of course, everyone had to take a side. As such, baby-now middle-aged- never knew one side of his bio family.).

[lionfamily1999]

Dh's family is Scottish and I've found tons of really interesting bits. He has some family in Australia (heeheehee), but my favorite find was the entry in a church register when his great-great-great grandmother was married. She is described as "pure, innocent, unblemished, &tc" and he is something like a "wretched, decietful man." Wonder who wrote that entry?:lol:

[AuntPol]

My great grandfather actually did kill my great grandmother by poison. My mother tried to shoot my father once and something happened to the gun. They separated many times, finally divorced, Dad remarried and divorced again. Then my parents got back together and are at about 20 years of marriage for the 2nd round.

 

These things make me worry about my genetic sanity genes.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

My great great great uncle twice removed (or something like that.. :glare:) was turned into a pair of shoes.

Try to beat that! :D

 

http://www.francescacontreras.com/roadtrip/7-museum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_George

 

I have to say that the jury is still out as to whether we're really related. There's definitely a family resemblance, but he went by so many names it's hard to know which one is his real name.

[BikeBookBread]

My great great great uncle twice removed (or something like that.. :glare:) was turned into a pair of shoes.

Try to beat that! :D

 

http://www.francescacontreras.com/roadtrip/7-museum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_George

 

I have to say that the jury is still out as to whether we're really related. There's definitely a family resemblance, but he went by so many names it's hard to know which one is his real name.

 

AND THE GOVERNOR PROUDLY WORE THE SHOES! :eek: What a story!

[....]

I got one...:lol:

 

We were told our entire lives that my grandmother's family was Western Band Cherokee. We visited Cherokee historical sites, passed through the Cherokee Nation several times, took the kids to The Trail of Tears, told the kids stories about how intelligent and noble the Cherokee Tribe was... My mother was investigating tribal membership.

 

Some very old family members let us in on a family secret...:glare:

 

Our family wasn't Cherokee at all - they told everybody that's what they were when they started blending in with society because they were hiding what they really were - members of another tribe who were killing Cherokee while they were traveling the Trail of Tears. Apparently, my relatives were taking potshots with rifles at the poor, starving Native American tribes who were being marched into Oklahoma. When I started researching this tribe some more, I found that they could be cannibals to terrify their enemies in warfare, the entire tribe was fluent in several languages (including French) and they were feared even by the Sioux.

 

Hmmmmm....:001_huh:

[....]

My g-g-grandfather traveled with the Wild Bill Hicock Show (I'm not spelling that right...)

 

When his wife died he left his three children with his wife's parents (my g-g-g- grandparents) They kept the baby boy and quickly shipped the older two children, a boy and a girl, off to the orphanage. By the time gggf got back my great grandmother had been adopted. She was 9 yo. Her name was completely changed. My middle name is her adopted first name. Her adoptive parents also adopted another girl but she never saw her brothers again that we know of.

 

We don't have any records of what happened to her brothers but that must have been an interesting conversation when gggf came back to find his children were gone. I'm guessing he wasn't real happy with the in-laws after that!

 

 

:lol: This sounds nasty, but my grandpa said that was common back then... My g-g grandmother died when my g grandmother was 8 or 9. So...a frontier man can't raise kids all by his lonesome (rolling my eyes)... my g-g grandfather "traded" her to a Native American family (actually, the family I was talking about in an earlier post).

 

My 8 yro g-grandmother lived in my (soon-to-be) g-g grandmother's house and did all their cooking, cleaning, chopping wood, etc - in exchange for food. When she was 12, the old lady of the house made my g grandma marry their teenage son (who became my g-grandfather).... AhHHHHH (sound of me screaming)!!!! :001_huh:

 

Our kids all have such a posh life compared to "back in the day". :D

[....]

Dh's family is Scottish and I've found tons of really interesting bits. He has some family in Australia (heeheehee), but my favorite find was the entry in a church register when his great-great-great grandmother was married. She is described as "pure, innocent, unblemished, &tc" and he is something like a "wretched, decietful man." Wonder who wrote that entry?:lol:

 

 

That's an absolute riot! :D

[lionfamily1999]

I got one...:lol:

 

We were told our entire lives that my grandmother's family was Western Band Cherokee. We visited Cherokee historical sites, passed through the Cherokee Nation several times, took the kids to The Trail of Tears, told the kids stories about how intelligent and noble the Cherokee Tribe was... My mother was investigating tribal membership.

 

Some very old family members let us in on a family secret...:glare:

 

Our family wasn't Cherokee at all - they told everybody that's what they were when they started blending in with society because they were hiding what they really were - members of another tribe who were killing Cherokee while they were traveling the Trail of Tears. Apparently, my relatives were taking potshots with rifles at the poor, starving Native American tribes who were being marched into Oklahoma. When I started researching this tribe some more, I found that they could be cannibals to terrify their enemies in warfare, the entire tribe was fluent in several languages (including French) and they were feared even by the Sioux.

 

Hmmmmm....:001_huh:

:lol: If only I could make that smiley bigger. LOL... now I have to wonder if what my mother's father's family says about Cherokee is true... Oh to find out we're cannibals.

[happyhomemaker25]

This is great thread. I have no interesting stories. *sigh*

[Amber in SJ]

Oh man, these are great!

 

We have a couple of doozies too.

 

My G-pa told us stories all through my childhood about how his father died while working on the railroad when G-pa was 6 and his mother died of a broken heart (or pneumonia) the next year. G-pa and his 8 siblings were split up and shifted around from one relative to the next to be used as free labor until he was 16, lied about his age and joined the Navy. When I was about 25 my G-pa received a letter from a mental hospital in Nebraska informing him his father had died a month before and they would be sending his effects :eek: All that time he thought his father was dead.

 

My g-g-grandma lived in Denmark. She defied her family & social convention to marry the son of the gardener (I think I have read this romance novel.) They lived in poverty, in Denmark for a year and had a baby, then came to America where she died having a second child. Her husband married right away a horrible woman who treated her two step-children badly to the extent of refusing to allow either of them to go to school. When an inheritance came from Denmark for the two children the evil step-mother used the money to send her own children to college and to build herself the biggest house in town!

 

Family history can be dangerous. You never know what you might dig up!

 

Amber in SJ

[....]

There's gotta be more of these, Peeps! Come on! :lol:

[lionfamily1999]

Well, this one is more recent, but my dad's pepe moved to the USA twice from Canada. The first time he was a teenager and moved with his parents. Once here, he signed up to go with Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders. His parents were so upset they packed up and took him back to Canada. The second time he was married and too old to go off on adventures :p

 

My dad likes to say we have a tradition of ducking service (he and his brother were Marines, his sister was in the Navy and his step-father was Army, so it's not really true) :lol:

[Jeannie in NJ]

okay I found out a little more of the story. G. grandfather was sent to prison for killing his son, after he got out, he was walking when he got caught in a snowstorm, collapsed on the train tracks and a train ran him over, cutting him in half. Justice, I guess. Oh and even before he killed his own son, he was known as The Meanest Man in Clay County, Texas. Yes, I am orginally from Texas and out of my entire extended family only myself and an uncle have left Texas. Most of the family still lives in the incredibly small towns that our family has lived in since the Civil War.

[Ibbygirl]

What I want to know is how you all know all of these stories from so far back. I know my family stories back to my great grandparents but that's because my great grandparents were the ones who were telling us the stories. I've never seen any archival information or anything like that. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look. :ohmy:

[Mommyfaithe]

My great great great uncle twice removed (or something like that.. :glare:) was turned into a pair of shoes.

Try to beat that! :D

 

http://www.francescacontreras.com/roadtrip/7-museum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_George

 

I have to say that the jury is still out as to whether we're really related. There's definitely a family resemblance, but he went by so many names it's hard to know which one is his real name.

 

Oh! eeeeewwwww!!!!!

[Tree House Academy]

These stories are great! I know very little about my past beyond my grandparents and great grandparents. :( I know that my dad's dad was adopted and never knew his real parents. That gets a little tricky since we are from a really small town (and he was born there). It often made me wonder, when dating boys, just whom I really might be RELATED to and not know it. LOL

 

My relatives never "tried to kill" each other...they were just stupid. Stories like "and then grandma hit grandpa over the head with her iron skillet. That'll teach him not to come in drunk!" and "I held a gun to his head when I was 21 (loaded, cocked, and finger on the trigger) all the way from x location to x location. I was DONE with him beating on me and cheating on me. Man, if I'd hit a BUMP, I'd be in prison now." Yep...those are the neat stories I get.....

 

I am with the one who posted about worries regarding genetic sanity! LOL

[beachrose]

Wow these are interesting! My isn't nearly I went searching a while back because the kids were curious. Do you remember in the piligrim peanuts/snoopy video the man who fell off the mayflower and survived well we're related. The kids found that soooo cool because we had already watched the video.

side story that is kind of interesting My Great Grandfather had a mistress (before and after my GG died) for years. When he died quite a few of his assets had just disappeared. We think he provided for her in case of his death. He must of loved her because despite being very wealthy he was super stingy yet he provided for her. Why did he never marry her? He was society and I'm sure felt he could only marry a certain kind of woman.

 

Fast forward to the next generation they sent my 16 year old unmarried mom away to "camp" to have my brother and give him up for adoption. A week after the adoption my grandfather unexpectedly died and my mother took my brother back.

It's weird to think I might have never known him. The weirdest part in the end is he did kind of end up adopted. My father no relation to him raised him after my mother abandoned him with my father,after she received a huge sum of money from my Grandfather's estate. (my dad never asked for a dime to raise him. My partying mom ran through it all and now lives off my Grandmother) My dad and half brother are super close and he took my Dad's name. It's weird how much timing effected the now my life is.

[Lorien]

I know this isn't nearly as interesting as people trying to kill each other..... My g-grandfather was quite proud of the fact that he rode with a notorious bushranger. Yep! G-grandfather was peacefully riding down the road one day when a man suddenly rode out of the bushes on the side of the road. G-grandfather instantly recognized the man as Ned Kelly, but it was all quite peaceful and they simply exchanged polite conversation until they were almost to the next town. Ned Kelly then rode off into the bushes again. G-grandfather was quite proud of having ridden with him! :lol:

 

G-grandfather said Ned Kelly acted quite respectably. He did end up being hanged though so not everyone was as impressed with him as G-grandfather! :D

 

Years later, G-grandfather accidentally shot himself when climbing through a fence to go and put an injured horse down. He dragged himself to a nearby tree where he leaned against the trunk. His family didn't find him in time to prevent his death. His death did prevent my Grandfather from being sent to WWII though. He was honorably discharged so he could go home to tend the family farm (very large dairy farm).

 

On the other side of the family, my step-grandfather is a descendant of one of Ned Kelly's sisters. Considering the two families come from opposite ends of the country, it's a small world!

[BritAnnia]

I'd love to learn more about both sides of my own family and my husband's. I know there are a few people looking into the heritage on Dh's maternal side of the family. That USA line stems from two Scottish brothers who moved to NC from the Highlands during the clearances. We're not been able to trace their story back through their Scottish history yet. When we visited Scotland a few years ago we traveled to the area the family clan seat is from and visited an old kirkyard to see all the headstones with the family names and dates from the 1700 & 1800's. Our children laid a flower on each gravesite bearing the family name.

A cute story from when Dh interviewed his grandfather a few years before he died was telling of his own birth. The family were very poor, living in a rural part of central NC. When his mother went into labour, one of the children ran for a local midwife who came to their home and helped deliver the baby. The midwife received a piglet as payment for her services.

On Dh's dad's side, a few generations back they moved to this area from somewhere up north and owned a fair amount of farmland. (We still live on what was then their land). Over the years it was split between children again and again and sold/built on as the town expanded. A church a few hundred yards down the road has the family name because the land and some of the building costs were donated by the family.

 

On my side I know very little about my dad's side of the family. I keep meaning to get more information out of him but it's difficult being so far away. He's estranged from both of his brothers and his parents died before I was born. A lot of the time his response to direct questions is "we just never talked about that". I know my grandfather was in the navy aboard the Ark Royal aircraft carrier(forget which #). I don't even know my grandmother's maiden name let alone her history.

 

On my mother's side, I know little about her father beyond him being born and raised in London and had a few sisters. Interestingly, my mother was looking through old photos she'd never before seen at my grandmother's home a couple of years ago and found a picture of my grandfather and two of his sisters. He looks to be about 3 or 4 years old. They're standing by a street sign in another area of London from where my mum grew up... and it's the same street my mum's brother has lived on for 30 years.

My mum's mother was illigitimate. My grandmother's mother, Molly, was Irish, having moved to London to be a nurse during WW1. Story is she met a Canadian soldier and when she became pregnant he was quickly transferred because he already had a wife at home. I have a photograph that we're fairly sure is of him. Molly then met and married another man who was a widower with a couple of small children but she died a year later in childbirth. We don't know if the child survived, would be my Grandmother's half-sibling. Obviously this guy didn't want to raise my grandmother who was then aged 2, so she was adopted by her mother's aunt. (A large group of the Irish family having moved to Settle, North Yorkshire.) The family was close knit but life was not always pleasant. Stories of being locked in a dark cellar for hours because she was little more than illigitimate, yet other stories describe a loving family. Understandable why my Grandmother has had 'off' moments over the years!

[gaillardia]

My g-g-grandfather traveled with the Wild Bill Hicock Show (I'm not spelling that right...)

 

When his wife died he left his three children with his wife's parents (my g-g-g- grandparents) They kept the baby boy and quickly shipped the older two children, a boy and a girl, off to the orphanage. By the time gggf got back my great grandmother had been adopted. She was 9 yo. Her name was completely changed. My middle name is her adopted first name. Her adoptive parents also adopted another girl but she never saw her brothers again that we know of.

 

We don't have any records of what happened to her brothers but that must have been an interesting conversation when gggf came back to find his children were gone. I'm guessing he wasn't real happy with the in-laws after that!

 

My mom researched her grandmother going through an adoption agency in Philadelphia. She provided as much information as she could, even things like: "well they used to call her..." and "it was rumored..." which actually helped locate paperwork which they copied for my mom. It was entries in a legal book kept by the agency about my ggma. Turns out her parents were alcoholics who couldn't keep it together, gave up three kids. The brother to ggma ended up being a well known doctor in the early 20th century in Baltimore.