Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hmmm, mine were from england. I think they were goldsmiths and before that they used to be nobles. It's all somewhere on the net, can't find it. But it's all pre-1550.

I had a great grandfather who had the dubious honour of being buried alive twice - he had some close calls with WW1 artillery, but was lucky enough to be dug out, and I think the second time he picked up enough shrapnel to get sent home - Although it's been a while since I heard the story, so I can't remember the exact details.

Beyond that, it's all farm labourers and the like on my mum's side, railway workers, funeral directors and stonemasons on my dad's - so pretty nondescript as a rule

Relapse wrote:
I was looking through my family's history and reading some of the stories, such as one ancestor that got washed overboard from the Mayflower and subsequently pulled out of the drink, to another that was a shipwright in Nova Scotia and his contributions to the science.
There was one group I am related to who lived in Northern England and began killing tax collectors. They had a sentence of death passed on the whole family, so they legged it into Scotland for a few generations, then crossed to Ireland, where after another few generations, got shipped to Tasmania as seditionists.
I know there are probably some really cool ancestor stories here on Dakka. I opened this thread so people can share some, so have at it!
.

You and I both have an ancestor that came over on the Mayflower. Mine was Edward Doty. He was an indentured servant to Stephen Hopkins and was the second to last person to sign the mayflower compact.

Edward Doty later became a wealthy land owner, but his argumentative nature and display of temper caused him to be in the Plymouth court many times over the years.

Doty was one of the Mayflower passengers that have left an extensive record of his personality. He had a quick temper that often was out of control and had many business dealings that in some cases bordered on the fraudulent. Other troublemakers were often removed from Plymouth (i.e. Isaac Allerton was forced out) but Doty lived there throughout the rest of his life.

Doty's first problem with the law came just after the Pilgrims had begun constructing their settlement. The early eighteenth century notes of Thomas Prince describe an incident of June 18, 1621 when the first duel (with a sword and dagger) was fought in New England between two servants of Stephen Hopkins, Edward Doty and Edward Leister. The duel ended with one being wounded in the hand and one in the thigh. Their punishment was to be tied head and feet together for twenty-four hours without meat or drink. But soon their master Stephen Hopkins, apparently taking pity on their "great pains", made a "humble request, upon promise of a better carriage" and they were released by the governor.

My mother's side has a fair amount of eastern European nobility in it. A good deal of Prussian noble houses, and a direct line into the Romanov family that diverges in the early to mid 1800's. My great grandmother and her family fled Russia during the March revolution, and while most of my family stayed out, she and a few others returned in May and were then killed during the interim months between the 2 revolutions.

My father's side? Ireland and the Isle of Mann. Came over in the late 1800's. That's about it.

More recent was my grandfather who served as an MP in WWII. There's currently a family split over some real donkey-cave crap from one of my uncles, and we've only now been able to get a hold of his WWII papers.
Landed DDay+3, fought in the Bocage, the Bulge, and the crossing of the Rhine. We found out 2 months ago he was awarded the Silver Star for being a sharpshooter.
He always refused to talk about the war, and ended up becoming a pacifist upon returning home.

All my Ancestors are dead, true storey.

 adamsouza wrote:
All my Ancestors are dead, true storey.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss of your parents.

One of my ancestors was the very last Boyar: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Alexeyevich_Golovin)
And another of my ancestors was head of Catherine the Great's household: (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Sievers_%28Staatsmann%29)
And another one of ancestors was an officer in the Imperial Army who shot his commander during the Russian Revolution and led his regiment to become Red Army partisans in Crimea against Baron Wrangel (yay rebel scum)

And one day two of my ancestors decided to marry each other, thus founding an obscure subbranch of an obscure noble family with a silly hyphenated surname (probably in a failed attempt to make their family seem at least a little bit prestigious )

One of my great great uncles who fought for the Union in the Civil war was on a forced march through South Carolina that was causing several men to fall out because of heat exaustion with him being one.
According to his letter, the families in the area were coming out later in the day and cutting the throats of the soldiers as they lay there, helpless.
In his case, he was taken in by a family that hid him and nursed back to health so he could a few days later go back to his regiment.

My family came from France, our surname was originally spelled "Chevillot" my family moved into a German neighborhood (my Great Grandmother was German) and they proceeded to change the last name to the four letter name it is now.

My grandfather was a lab assistant (at least from what I've been told) on the Manhattan Project, and is also responsible for about 7k patents for the corporation he worked for. Those are probably hearsay from my father trying to inflate the image of his father. I never knew my grandfather as he passed away when I was about 1 year old. BUT the one thing I do know is that there is a chemical process named after him (using his last name). That I do know is true because there was a court case in which a Japanese company sued for something or another because they had developed the same process that he did for cheaper, but the quality was not the same so the corporation that my grandfather worked for won the case.

That's pretty much all I know about my family history.

 kronk wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:
All my Ancestors are dead, true storey.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss of your parents.

Thank you. I appreciate your sympathy.

I was attempting humor, but I forget my brand of humor is sometimes a bit dark for general consumption,

My grandmother, great grandmother, and great great grandmother were all born United States Citizens, but were raised on the island of St. Michael in the Azores. They would pop over to the states to have their kids and then go back to the island to raise them. My Grandmother broke the cycle by having my father on the island, and then shortly later, moved permanently to the United States.

My Grandparents had been sweethearts since they were tweens, my Grandfather having worked on my Grandmother's Father's farm.
My Parents dated all through middle school and highschool, and married shortly after graduation.
My four brothers, and I, all married the first woman we were romantically involved with after graduating highschool.
Three of my bothers actually married their highschool sweethearts.

Can trace back to a soldier who was part of the Norman Invasion.

I refer to my son as the guarantor of cessation of hostilities of the US Civil War. On my side, he's related to Mary Todd Lincoln. My ex-wife, on the other hand, is related to Jefferson Davis.

 adamsouza wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:
All my Ancestors are dead, true storey.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss of your parents.

Thank you. I appreciate your sympathy.

I was attempting humor, but I forget my brand of humor is sometimes a bit dark for general consumption,

My grandmother, great grandmother, and great great grandmother were all born United States Citizens, but were raised on the island of St. Michael in the Azores. They would pop over to the states to have their kids and then go back to the island to raise them. My Grandmother broke the cycle by having my father on the island, and then shortly later, moved permanently to the United States.

My Grandparents had been sweethearts since they were tweens, my Grandfather having worked on my Grandmother's Father's farm.
My Parents dated all through middle school and highschool, and married shortly after graduation.
My four brothers, and I, all married the first woman we were romantically involved with after graduating highschool.
Three of my bothers actually married their highschool sweethearts.

I had a brother in law and sister that lived in the Azores for a few years. They loved the land and the people there.

odds and ends i've heard from family
we had someone at custer's last stand (given claims of however many great grandfather whoever marrying a lovely native american girl, i can't say which side)
there was a pro league baseball player back in like the 20's
on my mom's side of the family (the irish side), we apparently have some connection to the people behind some cigarette company in ireland

I have a great-great grandfather who was awarded a couple of Knight's Crosses (I don't remember what type they were though), however, having read through his journals, and through translations of them... he apparently was in either the US Army, or the British Army in some intelligence capacity... The medals in the cabinet to this day are quite odd, to say the least

Beyond that, I've found evidence of ancestors in my line who eventually settled in the Bavarian region (both in the German and Austrian side) that took part in the Crusades. But also, a bit older than that, some evidence that shows a strong indication of being from Norway/Denmark. Honestly, I don't hold much stock in the coming from a Viking line, as when you get that old, the only way to get really reliable information is to have them be, and remain famous, which is something I cannot say for my family.

I had members on both sides go down in the HMS Hood before the families even knew of each other.

I may also be related to Lord Cutts, known as 'The Salamander', who commanded the left flank of Wellington's army at Blenheim.

My Mother's side were/are Irish. And that's all I know about that.

My Father's side: Fought with Garibaldi during the unification of Italy, avoided WWI by immigrating to the US in 1910, shot and killed one of Mussolini's facisiti (then did hard time for it, then 'vanished' after getting pardoned by the King), did some bootlegging for the mob, served in the Navy and the Army and the Navy (same guy did all three) during WWII, then did some other stuff and a few other things, then things got boring and I showed up.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Once you go back past 8 generations you are pretty much related to everyone...

If I go back 8 generations I'm related to something called the missing link....



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ahtman wrote:
My ancestors were the well known people involved in that famous incident.

So you're related to the guys who did the thing?

I've honestly never cared.

My mother was a hamster, and my father smelt of elderberries. Exciting, I know.

 mega_bassist wrote:
My mother was a hamster, and my father smelt of elderberries. Exciting, I know.

Haha!

My great great uncle was Will Hay. He was a famous actor in the 1930s, but he was also a keen astronomer, and an author.

I'm related to John Alden and Priscilla Mullen/Alden. I also have a relative who was a Sargent (I think) in the Revolutionary war.

Both grandfathers fought in WWII, my dad's dad road around in PBY-Catalina's harassing shipping lanes and saving downed pilots. Mom's dad was a medic in the army, was at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, have a Japanese officer's sword to show for it.

Descendant wise on my mom's side, we're direct descendants of John Adams. Dad's side, the whole family was set to ride over on the Titanic but my great-great-great uncle got sick and they missed the ride (thank god, lol). I hear random stories from my dad about visiting his mother's (my grandmother) family in New York and how certain relatives didn't have social security numbers, spoke only in Italian and some last names that have shown up in mob history.

William Wallace
General George Meade of the civil war
Cecil Rhodes (south African diamond mine)

Those are my family claims to fame. And apparently some Connecticut Indian (never got a name).


Do I have any cousins on here? I met a fellow relative of WW in college, we were very close friends (he tried to set me on fire once).

I don't really know much of my family history but I do know my Great (great?) Grandfather fought in WW1 and received several medals for storming a German trench/machinegun position.
My Great Uncle also fought in WW2 and died during the D-Day landings although I can't remember which beach it was. His two brothers were still in officer training by the end of WW2. My grandfather went on to join the diplomatic corp although he died due to a blood clot sustained several years after a Skiing accident when my dad was about 5. Aside from that the only other history I can remember is some of my ancestors fought at Culloden on the Jacobean side
My mum's side were all in the blacksmith trade so they were excused and some of their ancestors were sheep & Cattle stealers.

 Frankenberry wrote:
Both grandfathers fought in WWII, my dad's dad road around in PBY-Catalina's harassing shipping lanes and saving downed pilots. Mom's dad was a medic in the army, was at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, have a Japanese officer's sword to show for it.

Descendant wise on my mom's side, we're direct descendants of John Adams. Dad's side, the whole family was set to ride over on the Titanic but my great-great-great uncle got sick and they missed the ride (thank god, lol). I hear random stories from my dad about visiting his mother's (my grandmother) family in New York and how certain relatives didn't have social security numbers, spoke only in Italian and some last names that have shown up in mob history.

Have you ever taken the handle off the sword? A friend of mine at work was looking at a captured sword his sister in law got from her dad. He knows a bit about Japanese culture, having lived in Japan for years, and he removed the handle. Inside was a cloth with the owner's name and were in Japan he was from. My bud went through the embassy to find the owner, who turned out to be still living, and took the sword back to Japan to return it.
I guess it was a bit of a news event over there.
It could be interesting to see if anything could be learned of the owner that way, even though he is most likely dead.

Doctadeth wrote:I hark back to Clan Baine, and an Irish tailor who came to Australia in the second fleet.

My (recently deceased) paternal grandmother was a Baine!

My grandfather worked for the (now defunct and still somewhat classified) OSS during WWII. I will likely never know the full extent of what he did; his files were not part of the huge declassification done in 2008.

Well my Great-Great uncle was made fun of by The Simpsons and Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and a few other things) because he ran for president a lot.

He starred in the first televised presidential debate. Was governor of MN (and ran for PA a couple times). Him dropping out of the race one year is one of the reasons why Eisenhower was able to win the nomination (and then presidency).

He held a cabinet position during Eisenhower's Presidency also. Probably the most well known thing he did was sign the U.N. Charter.


On the other side of my family, my grandfather worked some of the earliest computers and, unlike Al Gore, actually did help invent the internet (the precursor military stuff).

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he and one (maybe 2) other civilians basically allowed the US Navy to actually function next to Cuba (they had computer malfunctions during testing. He did not know about the Crisis till after the fact though)

The most interesting to me about him though is during WW2 he lead a unit that liberated a town that turned out to be where his family was from (either his parents or his grand parents, can't remember)


Those are the highlights of the people closest. Through a few marriages I am related to a few US Presidents (and through a few more probably to all of them, because oligarchy). Then again, with that standard, most of us here are probably related.

My dad once knocked a man's eye out of his head, and dented a steel security door with his fist - during the same fight.

He may have also broken his hand pretty hard. He denies it.



Back further than that is all hearsay without photographic evidence.

My dad got a Purple Heart in the fight for St. Lo.

My Uncle Henry was at Pearl Harbor during the attack.

My Uncle Ben was at Liege during the Battle of the Bulge.