Have you ever discovered anything interesting, strange or surprising in your families lineage? If so, what?

Question

...Whether it's finding out one of your ancestors were of another race. Or maybe you found out you're related to William the Conqueror?
What have you discovered?

Answer 1

My mother is descended from an old samurai family that fought with the Taira clan during the Gempei War (1180-1185). The Taira lost at the Battle of Dannoura, and the entire family committed seppuku or threw themselves in the sea rather than surrender to the victorious Minamoto clan.

But not my mom's family! The battle was fought mostly on sea, and my ancestors were watching from the seashore, waiting to reinforce the Taira navy. When they realized that their side was losing, however, they ran---literally headed for the hills in Okayama, which even today are densely wooded and full of caves. Unfortunately, the Minamoto were ruthless in hunting out former supporters of the Taira, so my less than honorable ancestors chucked their armor and weapons and buried them under a large boulder, then donned peasants' clothing and spent the next 300 years pretending they were farmers.

Another weird thing is that my grandfather supposedly brought a curse on himself when as a little boy he broke apart a sacred halberd, one of the few weapons that didn't get tossed in the hole. I don't know how much of the curse was responsible for his rotten luck---he never did well at anything he tried to do, though eventually he inherited the family fortune when his half-brother drank himself to death.

He went back to Japan to collect it: then Pearl Harbor got bombed and he was never able to go back to the States with his money. He got stuck in Tokyo and lost most of it during the war. Died of a stroke just before the war ended, and after they got news that my uncle, an American citizen who was drafted into the Japanese navy, went down on a battleship at Midway.

But that's another story. I just hope the curse died with my grandfather. ;-)

Answer 2

Other than the one line which traces back to ten kings of England, on dad's side and mom's side may tie into William Wallace and Robert the Bruce (explains the continual aggravating each other)......
I'd say the most suprising is tracing a branch back on mom's side and finding out I am related to pretty much everyone in 3 counties in the SE part of the state. Turns out one man married a woman, had kids with her, and had kids with her sister, the wife passes, the man marries the sister, then gets a set of sisters as payment for a debt, and when they were old enough has kids with them. Last count the cousins have found 36 children by this one man and these 4 women. The children of the2nd set of sisters kept the mothers' last name.

Answer 3

I discovered that one side of my family that claimed Native American ancestry was actually Melungeon and I traced my line all the way back to Vardy Collins, and one ancestor supposedly went all the way back to William the Conqueror, another ancestor was related to Catherine Howard, one of Henry the Eighth's wives. One ancestor came from France as a little boy and later fought in the Revolutionary War...Another ancestor and his wife lived in a giant oak tree until they built their log cabin....

Answer 4

Sure! Found out we came from a matriarchal line! My grandfather discovered this when he and his siblings began extensively researching their family history.
They were able to trace all the way back to the boat that brought my 'X' amount of 'greats' to America. What was interesting was that she was a prisoner in a horrid prison in England (probably for stealing a loaf of bread or perhaps making a nasty comment about the Queen), and had been released into indentured service. She came here to serve out the remainder of her sentence as a slave on a plantation. She had an affair with the plantation owner, and bore him 4 sons, who he treated as his own. The sons however, kept their mothers name!


I'm also related to the Hatfield's of the Hatfield's and McCoy's fued. Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaw!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield-McCoy_feud

Answer 5

I have a 2 times Times great grand father in Bodmin Goal Cornwall
1841 census

Answer 6

On one side of my family we were Gun makers and Brewers. On the other side and I've never tried to confirm it but it has gone through the family for years, we are descended from Peregrine White, the first male child born in the colonies. To top that off, I read in a magazine interview some time ago, Vincent price claims that his family were descended from Peregrine White also. That would make Vincent a distant relative of mine. Cool Huh?

Answer 7

It turned out my great grampy (or great great? my mom doesn't like to talk about the past) was part of the California Gold rush and actually found gold (then went back to China). Awesome. All that money's gone though.... taken away by the communist government. During the communist revolution, they took our family's money so now all we have a little blob of farm land back in China.

Answer 8

One of my ancestors was Al Capone Bridesmaid becuase she was best friends with his wife.

Another was dress maker for queen Elizabeth 2nd (England, UK) before she was queen.

Another was arrested with his 3 brothers for high way robery and murder. 2 of brothers we're hung for murder and my ancestor and his brother were sent to austalia for life - later pardoned.

Thats all the sort of interesting facts I have found out so far.

Answer 9

That is indeed a fascinating activity. Miles Standish was in there somewhere. Also the Isle of Wight and the king's forest are the derivative of the family name. The oldest reference was the latin parco regis. (king's park) That got me!

Answer 10

I saw my great grandfather's name on a database entitled 190,000 people related to royalty.

Also, one of my ancestors was Dicey Langston, a female Revolutionary war hero.