Anything embarrassing in your family tree?

Question

An uncle a few generations ago was tarred and feathered for "giving succor to the enemy." He and his family had provided shelter and food for the widow of a Union soldier.

Actually, the embarrassment wasn't ours, but that of the ones who did the tarring and feathering.

Answer 1

the only thing i can think of is a very weird aunt who use to carry around a Ouija board where ever she went and tried to get strangers to do the board with her.if you came to her house she was always having seances and doing weird rituals.she use to scare me to death as a young child.some where back in the early 70s she took off and no one in the family has ever heard of her since.she also use to come to our house and tell my parents that she saw u.f.os landing on our garage.[she lived up the street]

Answer 2

My family generational lines, both sides, all grandparents, trace back to the late 1600's in this country. We have been here a long time. Both sides of the family have intermarried with Native Americans, Mexicans, Blacks, Asian and just about every other culture on the face of the earth.

I had family on all sides during the Revolutionary war - both white and Indian.

I had family on all sides during the Civil War, the Indian Wars, Spanish-American and all the wars since then.

We have had horse-thieves, murders, judges, lawyers, teachers, drunks, adulterers (tipi creepers). My GGG Grandfather had 25 children from 4 wives and untold number of Indian Consorts. He also had other children with other women from Indiana to Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina.

We had one preacher - who was hung for bank robbery in Texas in 1869.

My mother's generation were all born on or near a reservation on the Creek lands in Oklahoma (Indian Territory). There were "mini-wars" between the tribes and between the preachers and the tribes, the Indian agents and the tribes.....

My GG Grandmother and her sons and brothers practically built the town of Holdenville, OK and two of her brothers sat on the first town council.

One of my relatives murdered Morgan Earp and was, in turn, shot in the back by Wyatt in return.

None of it is to be ashamed of. It is what it is. If you go far enough into research, I think everyone can find quirks in their family. Makes for an interesting family.

Remember this, the nut never falls far from the tree.....

Answer 3

I wouldn't call it embarrassing, but my Great Grandfather on my Dad's side of the family was an arbitrator in the hills of Greece. He always carried a sawed-off side by side shotgun and was known throughout the region as Jimmy the Assassin. That is the English translation. His real name was Demetrius, which is James in English. Saw a picture of him a few years ago, he was dressed in the typical Greek regalia, ramrod stiff sitting in a chair and when I showed the picture to some friends, their only comment was 'this guy looks like he could actually chew nails for breakfast'. Quite a startling relevation to find out what he did in the hills.

Answer 4

Wow, that is very interesting. Shame in the the folks who did the tarring.
Recently my brother applied for a pass port. At about 2 am, someone knocked on his door. It was the secret service or someone from the F.B.I., he was arrested and taken downtown. My brother is your typical Texas redneck, so every time they gave him grief he dished it back.They said that they suspected him to be a terrorist!!! My brother is blonde and fair skinned. Besides, he was very upset that he was being accused of being a terrorist.
Come to find out, it all lead back to our Father. They say he was court marshaled in the military for changing his last name. He was a very head strong Cherokee, so the court marshall had no effect and he was discharged from the military.
He has been dead for about three years now, so we will never get the answers to these questions.
Apparently our last name is not what it was suppose to be.
It was suppose to be Richardson.
Needless to say, the F.B.I gave my brother a rough time, but my brother refuses to hold his tongue. He has a wife and 4 children who he has passed his name on to.
The F.B.I finally released him the next day around 2 pm and of course he had to call a cab to get back home, clear across Houston which cost him about 65.00 .
He informed the fine people at the F.B.I. as to what he thought a typical terrorist would look like.

Answer 5

My family is rife with god knows what! My father was a philanderer, I have no idea how many brothers or sisters I may have. My uncle was always in love until the gal became pregnant, then he was gone...off to the navy, off to here, there! My aunt screwed everyone in the mid west. A great grandfather was hanged by Germans, here, for he had run from Germany under one of the Bismark ruler's draft...Germany had a habit of tracking down deserters/runners and murdering them here. (Mid 1800's) His death was chalked up to suicide, but that is preposterous! To my knowledge, none of us has been in prision, none of us has murdered or committed felony...but who knows? Every family has some fun background. I am 6% American Indian and 94% German...anything could be back there. Goldwing

Answer 6

My father's father had multiple families, all at the same time, in different provinces here in Canada. There were separate families in each of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta that we know of...and we are just becoming aware of a possible fourth (obtained later in life) in British Columbia.

He must have been some really randy old bugger, because the total number of kids is somewhere around 70!

It was only with the internet generation that any of these families even became AWARE of each other. So skeletons in my closet? Well...yeah!

Answer 7

Plenty of embarrassing things due to a long line of mental illness. One of my sisters was bipolar schizophrenic and before she was diagnosed we did not understand the wild tales she told. I still don't understand most of her tales but I have a semi understanding of why she told them.
Her daughter just found she needs hip replacement. She traced it back to an accident when she was less than a year old. Her mother told her they were hit by a train. Never happened. They were in a head on collision 30 yrs. ago. My sis has passed. My niece, Mother and I wonder why she just did not tell the truth. Many other weird examples of similiar behavior.

Answer 8

the number one challenge was one I did for someone else, when I was helping with finding info on her ancestors murder in the 1870s. The murderers responsible were a family that were hung, except for the youngest 2 kids. In a few weeks.. I bumped into a desc of one of the surviving kids, and put the two researchers together. Both were more interested in being factual, than hostility.. but the whole concept blew me away. The fun about research is that when you solve one, there ALWAYS is another challenge, waiting in the wings.

Answer 9

I had one granny who was so
holy, she was a saint. My
mother's mother, on the other hand was into many underworld activities. It was
a time when she had to be tho.This was the time of prohibition and she made bathtub gin and
sold it. This was the time of
pre-mafia in St. Louis and
Chicago. My grandmother
was acquainted with Bugsy
and Big MoJo and others of the underworld. I think she was part renegade and I think
I inherited a lot of it.

Answer 10

Yes...

Because I'm of mostly English descent, with a wee bit of Irish thrown in...

My family came from primitive blue painted naked savages all dancing around giant stone obelisks during the summer solstice...

...and then Savage Bloodthirsty Vikings who were well-known for chopping people to bits with huge longswords...

A proud family heritage...