Find anything interesting ( family tree )?

Question

I've just started and so far my great uncle was torpedoed and killed by the Sharnhorse battle cruiser. early days yet.
Have you found anything interesting and how far back have you got.

I am not marking answers bad, so who ever is WHY?

Answer 1

One of my uncles was an infamous Confederate general. His troops said he "breathed fire" when he went into battle. Another uncle played drums when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appamattox.
My Great Grandfather, who was also from the South, fought on the Union side and was an abolitionist. The first two HATED the third!

Answer 2

I have been doing this for 16 years, 5 of which I have done on the Internet. My family tree goes back, according to published material, to the late 1400's.

The only interesting things I can think of are that I have 2 Quaker lines, 1 Mennonite line, 2 separate lines of Alexanders (both on my Mom's side), I am a descendant of the Germanna Colonies of Virginia, I have 3 American Civil War Vets, a possible Veteran of the War of 1812 (but I am taking that with a grain of salt). Other than that, I cannot think of anything that would be considered spectacular. I did had a gr,gr,gr,gr uncle, by marriage, who owned a hotel resort and he was a sheriff or another gr,gr,gr,gr uncle who made cabinets. There is also a gr,gr, grandfather who was a cigar maker or another gr,gr grandfather who was bartender, both were from Louisville, KY. Nothing spectacular though.

Add on:
I forgot to mention that I am a descendant of 1st cousins on my Dad's side, a set of great grandparents.

Answer 3

I didn't do it, but my Dad's family tree stretches back to Robert De Brus, otherwise known as Robert The Bruce, King of Scotland. Other interesting members of the family include Howard Ferguson, a composer who played piano at the lunchtime concerts in the Royal Festival Hall during the war - see the Oxford Dictionary of Music for more about him. There's also a distant relative who ski-ed cross-country from Germany into France to escape just before the second world war started.

I'm sure there are plenty more interesting people, but that's all I've got for now.

Answer 4

genealogy is sooo cool. I have found that my mother family and my fathers family have distant (8 and 10 generations back) married. I guess we are inbred LOL I am back to the early 1700's on dads side and the 1400's on my mothers side. There is a hole on both sides of the family that I am trying to fill. The neatest thing had one of these people died at birth or an outcome been different I wouldnt exist today as I am. Its frightening to think.

Answer 5

Yep:- the first tree I traced was on my Mum,s side (Scottish) and I found she was a direct descendant of the Black Campbell clan, who killed bonny prince Charlie, when I told her she didn't speak to me for a month as she had always told the story of how he was hunted down & killed & how bad it was so by me telling her that she was livid. Also on my Dads side of the tree was twins born in a crofters cottage, 1 survived the other didn't, the father buried the still born in the garden & was hanged 3 years later because he did not declare the still birth to the church. Got lots more if you wanna know

Answer 6

have gotten back to great great greats on my mother's mother's mother's side. we are related to Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is a poet/writer from the mid-late 1800s. Actually have my grandmother's autograph book from her school days and Uncle Waldo signed it and wrote a neat little poem in it for her. He was my great grandmother's brother.

on my dad's side, he has run into walls, because there isn't too many of the old folk left to pass on stories or history. There is a family story that we are related to Leif Ericson, the explorer, but if that is true, we can't find anything on it. My grandfather on my dad's side was born in Sweden, and I know we have relatives stillthere, but I don't know them. Dad has met them tho.

My grandfather on my mom's side is German, and when the family came here, the spelling changes but in Germany the Klaussen's and the Clawson's here are related, and the Klaussen's of Germany are the Klaussen's of the pickle.

Grandma on dad's side is a brick wall, dad can't locate anyone.
She was a Brothers, but we don't know much more than that.

Answer 7

I found a Spanish circus rider who fell off her horse and had only one leg, always wondered why my daughter looks so Spanish; a Scottish earl shipbuilder who built the first hovercraft, 2 g.g.uncles who were murdered in London and their murderers are in the Chamber of Horrors & author, Rider Haggard. Not very far back, just mid 19th C.

Answer 8

Absolutely fascinating - shake that family tree hard enough, who KNOWS what will fall out of it!

I can trace a line on my mother's side back to 1115.
MUCH credit is due to the research done and presented on www.familysearch.org

My G-G-G-G-Grandfather got himself caught up in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in Londonderry and had to skeedaddle out of the country - that was his "ticket" to America. Not a real ticket though - he smuggled himself on board a ship by hiding in a pickle barrel.

Answer 9

Still looking for information about William Smith. Yes, William Ira Smith who was born 10 Dec 1896 in Chesterville, Ontario, Canada to Mina Hopper and Alex Smith. If you have him or them or any relatives in your family tree contact me.

Answer 10

Keep digging My wifes family went back about 8 generations and found out that they were kicked of the Courtney Islands for being horse thieves.