What was the most interesting thing you found out about your blood line?

Question

I found out about a couple of myths. I am trying to prove them.

One is that my great grandpa was kidnapped when he was a baby.

The other is about my grandpas first wife. Some say she ran off while he was a war, others say she died during child birth.

Answer 1

My maternal grandfather's father (my great-grandfather) was the son of a pair of double first cousins! A brother and sister in one family married the brother and sister in another family, and then a generation later, the first cousins of these two families married. Yes, I have five fingers on each hand and no discernible genetic diseases. All this "carrying on" happened in Alabama and East Texas.

Most of my ancestors are from the Hebrides (Mull and the Isle of Skye) off the coast of Scotland.

Answer 2

The most interesting thing I found out was about my grandmother's line - she was born in New Brunswick, Canada, and was of Acadian descent --but the interesting thing about it was that the Acadians were of mixed French and Indian blood - I never knew that before.

When they were expelled from their lands by the English in 1755 it was more because they were Indian than because they were French.

And another interesting thing I discovered was that my 16xgreatgrandfather was the person who made a treaty with the Indians to purchase what is now Staten Island and his original home, built in 1661 is still standing

Answer 3

One of my German ancestors became a Dutch Reformed Church minister in Amsterdam, then was sent to Brazil, where he met and married a Dutch woman and they had their family. When the Portuguese retook control of that part of Brazil, they kicked out all the non-Catholics, including my ancestors. His wife and children arrived safely back in the Netherlands, but his ship was taken by Spanish pirates. They were rescued by a French man-of-war (the St. Charles), but the captain would not take them to the Netherlands--only to the New Netherlands colony in present-day New York and New Jersey. This all occurred in the mid-1600's and is the single most interesting story in my personal genealogy (and it's all been verified).

Answer 4

There was a story about my great-great-grandfather. All my life I was told that he stowed away on a ship from France at age 12, and landed in Texas. When I was younger, I took the story at face value, but as I got older, the story couldn't hold water. I mean, why would he not get off at the first stop? Were there even ships travelling from France to Texas nonstop in the 1840s? All I had of him was his death certificate. There was no birth year only a date (Dec. 25), but subtracting his age (78) from his deathdate (Aug. 1916), I came to his birth year of 1837. Well, now it gets interesting. After extensive digging, I found out he was born in Louisiana in 1842. I believe he ran away from home at age 12, but it seems to me he lied about his age to avoid being sent back home, or to an orphanage. So he made himself 5 years older. After more digging, I traced my family all the way back to Europe...to Spain! Turns out my original ancestor was actually Spanish, with a different last name, who joined the French military, and travelled to Canada in the late 1600s.

Answer 5

That one of my great grandma's relatives was put into an insane asylum in the 1920s for what is known today as bipolar disorder and that my Grandpa was actually four years younger than what we all thought. .

Answer 6

I'm related to some unusual people, a would-be mobster, a martyred saint, a warrior who fought an invasion, a royal family who was so good at making counterfeit money they went legit, lots of clergy who were LGBT, and a few openly LGBT folks including an open cross-dresser!

Answer 7

I found out that my family founded the first town west of the Mississippi River. and there is a piece of their home hanging in the Farmington Chamber of Commerce.

Answer 8

1. I was watching a show about haunted castles and saw my 28th great-grandmothers gravestone. Thank goodness, I taped it, so I could view it again, for verification.

2. My 5th great-grandfather and George Washington were 1st cousins.

Answer 9

I don't have anything so interesting...I did find out that I have Jewish blood in me...funny thing is, my family has been very racist in the past, and I just found out, because someone "confessed."

Answer 10

One interesting thing about my bloodline was that my great(x5) grandmother on my paternal side was a French stripper named "Queenie LaViere".

Another interesting thing was that, also on my paternal side, my great(x5) grandfather was a Mohawk indian chief.