Tell us some famous event an ancestor of yours was involved in? My grandfather found

[applegrove]

to RCMP at his door one night in 1945. A communications clerk from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa had just defected. My grandfather was a local lawyer and the powers that be in Ottawa wanted international/constitutional legal advice on what to do with this guy Gouzenko (in fact the powers that be in Ottawa just wanted it all to go away because they were afraid it would start a war with the Soviet Union and it did in fact start the cold war).

[madrchsod]

1. whiskey rebellion...

a relative was one of the major players in the whiskey rebellion

[applegrove]

2. What was the Whiskey rebellion?

[mrmpa]

16. You don't know the Whiskey Rebellion?

In Western Pennsylvania the people protested a federal tax on liquor. (1794) The farmers attacked the revenue collectors and burned the home of General Neville who had been dispatched to quell the uprising. President Washington sent in federal troops to quell the rebellion. The rebellion finally quieted down, and it helped establish the authority of federal law in the states and helped advance the federalist view of a strong central government.

I live 1/4 mile from the church that the rebels held up in and which they could watch Neville's home burn. I also live about 1/2 mile of Neville's 2nd home (still exists) where LaFayette stayed when he returned to America.

Hope this helps.

[Staph]

3. One of my ancestors was a Regulator.

He signed one of the petitions during the War of the Regulation. In North Carolina, in the 1760s, the citizens protested against corruption in the colonial government, in what is now viewed as a precursor to the American Revolution.

While his name is not one that anyone remembers, I'm proud that he stood up for what he believed in, that he was willing to put his name on a document that could have put him (and many others) into prison.

For more on the Regulators, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulators_of_North_Carolina

[applegrove]

4. Cool. Nice to know the personality of ancestors.

[csziggy]

19. I've got a couple of Regulator ancestors, too!

A couple of others fought in King Philips War, which was a series of skirmishes against the Indians in Massachusetts/Connecticut in 1675-76.

One ancestor bought land from William Penn while still in Ireland and signed Penn's Great Charter for the Penn colony. His in laws included one of the provincial governors of part of what became Delaware.

[frogmarch]

5. Two of my

distant great-grandfathers were jurymen in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Another distant great-grandfather of mine was a witch trials grand juror in 1693 who participated in the indictments of even more women suspected of witchcraft...this, after his own sister had been hanged as a witch the year before. A distant great-grandmother of mine was also hanged and a couple of others accused. Stupid, hateful puritans.

[handmade34]

6. Great, great....... grandfather

R. Westfall was a Hessian soldier from Germany (Revolutionary War) and defected to settle in Pennsylvania with a local girl
___________________________
My Aunt Hazel pinned a poppy on President Hoover and it is recorded in his Presidential papers... (My Grandmother was a housemother at the VFW National Home for all of her working years)...

"Message Endorsing the Annual 'Buddy Poppy' Sale April 23, 1931
[Released April 23, 1931. Dated April 15, 1931]
My dear Commander:
I warmly commend the annual "Buddy Poppy" Campaign which is conducted under the auspices of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States as a means of general civilian contribution in the relief work for disabled and needy veterans and their dependents. It not only gives employment to disabled veterans, but also it aids in the maintenance of a National Home for Widows and Orphans of deceased veterans in Eaton Rapids, Michigan.
Yours faithfully,
HERBERT HOOVER
[Commander-In-Chief, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Washington, D.C.]
NOTE: The message was released in conjunction with ceremonies at the White House when Hazel Viola Xxxxxxxx, 7 year old daughter of a deceased veteran, presented a "buddy poppy" to the President.

edit to add link to newspaper article
http://www.newspaperarchive.com/SiteMap/FreePdfPreview.aspx?img=105950736

___________________________
My brother's band opened for Frank Zappa...

______________________________
another Grandfather, Ephraim Hill fought in the Civil War

[applegrove]

7. That is so neat that you have a photograph from that time. I didn't know photography was even

invented then.

[handmade34]

9. some history of photography

Mathew B. Brady (1822-1896)

Mathew Brady was born in Warren County, New York and was the father of photojournalism. He was the greatest American photo-historian of the 19th century, and undoubtedly Abraham Lincoln's favorite photographer. Nobody in the history of photography could claim to have taken more photographs of important historical personalities during the 19th century than Mathew Brady.



http://www.mathewbrady.com/history.htm

[sakabatou]

8. Supposedly, my ancestor was Aaron from the Bible.

I don't know much about my grandparents.

[applegrove]

10. My other grandfather was a country doctor in rural Nova Scotia. He was on one of the first

trains into Halifax, after the Halifax explosion of 1917, to help victims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

[handmade34]

12. good stock

those people from Nova Scotia... fell in love when I visited

[applegrove]

13. I know. They are so nice. I'm proud to say I am 3/4 Nova Scotian.

[PETRUS]

11. My dad's side of the family were all southerners

Many fought in the Civil War (or, as my great aunts* called it, "The War of Northern Aggression&quot . For some reason the family home - in which my father was born - wasn't burned to the ground during Sherman's march, but the Union troops did ride their horses through it. You can still see the hoofprints in the floorboards.

*Growing up, these darling old ladies always told me there are two kinds of people you can't trust - Yankees, and Republicans. They were old school anti-Lincoln southern Democrats. A little weird to think about that.

[OmahaBlueDog]

14. I am distantly related to James Oglethorpe, who helped found what is now the State of Georgia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Oglethorpe

[Liberal Veteran]

81. And strangely, I remember that name to this day.

Growing up in Georgia, I heard that name quite a lot in history class. Of course a few of my relatives have the surname "Ogletree" which I believe is a derivative of Oglethorpe.

[dana_b]

15. not too famous here but

my great great grandfather was one of the original surveyors in Manawatu, New Zealand. The mountain, Whakaari (white mountain), is also known as Mt. Stewart. His name was John Tiffin Stewart and he immigrated there from Scotland. Kind of sad since really it was another way that white Europeans dominated a culture.

[Kablooie]

17. My sixth great uncle was in the American Revolution.

Last edited Sun Jan 8, 2012, 03:26 AM - Edit history (1)

His name was George Washington.

For real.

My great grandmother was one of the last kids raised at Mount Vernon and I got a personalized tour when I visited with my cousin a few years ago.

(I actually got to climb up into the little cupola on top. It's a mess inside.)

[mrmpa]

18. My Great Uncle landed at Normandy on

D-Day, he was killed 3 months later at Brest, France.

[applegrove]

22. Oh man. To survive D Day only to perish later on. Not fair war.

[mrmpa]

31. No, it's not and

he was 34, he would be 101 if he were still alive. He was not married and had no children. He had 2 brothers who survived the European theater and 2 nephews, 22 and 30 when they enlisted who survived the Pacific theater.

My Great Uncle had been buried in France, but after the war his brothers, one being my grandfather had his body returned to the US to be buried. I've seen the papers that were delivered with him. One listed what belongings were with my Great Uncle when he was found, he had $10 and a bible, that was it.

[TBA]

20. Great great great (some number of greats) Grandfather was with Lee

when he surrendered at Appomattox. The troops cut down a cherry tree that was in the courtyard and took pieces as mementos. I have a piece of that tree. I know of one other piece that was carved into a pipe that is in a museum.

[denbot]

21. I had relatives on both sides of the Apache wars.

My maternal grandfather was in the Battle off Samar (WWII), and one of my cousin's was at the siege of Khe Sanh.

[Waiting For Everyman]

23. My ancestor was on the 'Sea Adventure' ship which was sent to rescue the starving Virginia colony

400+ years ago in 1607. The ship was hit by a hurricane off of Bermuda (which was unclaimed until then), and delayed quite a bit. All aboard the ship survived, not one life was lost out of 100+ people, but it took months to rebuild it out of native wood to set off again for Virginia. Unfortunately, few of the Virginians were left alive by then. Because my ancestor was a stockholder in the Virginia Company, he automatically became a stockholder of the Bermuda company as well. It is said that he made more than a million pounds from ambergris on Bermuda. I'm not sure I believe that's even possible, but that would be in 1600's currency. Over and over again my branch of the family kept being swindled out of its land/inheritance, so it didn't do me any good, I'm broke as a church-mouse.

Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' was inspired by the shipwreck incident. What I can't get over is... imagine being out in the ocean in one of those smallish ships and, first of all, being unlucky enough to be shipwrecked, but then at the same time being lucky enough to land on tiny Bermuda in the midst of all that water.

I do know this much - every boat I've been on (6 in my lifetime) has sunk. I don't "test it" anymore, as of decades ago. I just stay off the water. And Waters was the family name involved. Weird, isn't it? My ancestor's arms were three swans divided by silver and blue wavy lines on a black shield.

125 years before that, in the mid to late 1400's, an ancestor in the same family, was the York herald for Edward IV and Richard III. He was the first York herald actually documented in records which still exist today, even though two slightly earlier ones are known but no records of them survive.

[Art_from_Ark]

24. My grandfather went with General Pershing to Mexico to chase after Pancho Villa

He always laughed about how the locals always gave them the wrong directions to Pancho's hideout.

[REP]

26. My grandfather too!

Later in the Rainbow Division (WWI).

[Art_from_Ark]

27. There's a monument in Kansas somewhere with his name on it

for serving with Pershing. I don't think he served in WWI, but his stint in Mexico was enough to get him membership in the American Legion. He took me to the "club" (as he called it) a couple of times when I was a small child, and the old guys there entertained (and sometimes frightened) me with stories about Pershing's expedition, and World War I.

[REP]

28. My grandfather was from Osage, Kansas

Small world.

Odd fact: he was born in 1895 yet I'm just 47. We bred late, if at all

[Art_from_Ark]

29. I think Grandpa's monument is in Nemaha County

Less than 100 miles up the road from Osage.
And he "bred" late as well, but most of his brothers and sisters didn't have any kids!

[REP]

64. There's one in Rosedale (neighborhood of KCK) for the Rainbow Division

It's a replica of the Arc d'Triumph (my French sux).

I should look up the one in Nemaha and see if there's a Pace on it!

[neverforget]

48. My grandfather guarded General Pershing as an MP in France

during WW1.

[Art_from_Ark]

84. Wow, that's amazing

It's interesting to learn how many grandfathers had a connection with General Pershing!

[redwitch]

58. Mine too!

I wonder if they knew each other?

[Art_from_Ark]

83. I would imagine that the guys in the Pershing expedition were a pretty close-knit group

So the chances would be good that they at least recognized each other, I think

Grandpa was a sergeant at that time. I've seen one picture of him in uniform, but I don't know what happened to it.

Was your grandfather also from Kansas?

[quaker bill]

25. A distant relative on my Mom's side

rode with Jesse James.

[Charlemagne]

78. Relatives on my mom's side

chased Jesse James gang. We almost caught em too!

Cheers

[riverwalker]

30. Nelson Bankruptcy Law

Senator Knute Nelson was my dad's great uncle. He was born in Norway in 1843 and immigrated to the US with his mother in 1849. Was Governor of Minnesota 1893–1895 and United States Senator 1895–1923. Served and wounded in the Civil War. Have clippings of news items, him attending Teddy Roosevelt's inaugeration in 1906, at Grants funeral 1885. Formed the commitee to investigate the sinking of Titanic. Weird thing is, I never knew we were related until I started Geneaology hobby. You never know what you will find. His statue is at the state capital. The top is the Senator, the figures on the side are him as a new immigrant with his mother, and the other side is him as a civil war soldier.

[TBF]

32. On my mom's side I'm related to Bill Gates

Jonas Halstead is the common ancestor, came over from Bristol, England in 1615. That's it, my one claim to fame.

[monmouth]

51. My grandmother on mom's side was a cousin to Michael "Mick" Collins, revolutionary in Ireland.

I can remember my grandmother and her sisters often referring to him and the sadness of his death. "A fine and brave lad, he was." They would sit and groan and moan about the trip from Ireland in steerage.

[Charlemagne]

76. +1

[hunter]

33. My grandfather was an engineer for the Apollo project.

One of many, of course.

He wasn't especially successful in his social life (Asperger's, depression, who knows? In those days nobody talked about it...) but he was a high wizard of aerospace metals.

This work was his greatest joy.

[mentalsolstice]

34. Martha married George. nt

[oneshooter]

35. My Uncle was with the 3rd Army that

relieved Bastogne in 1944. He was a cook that was pressed into a line unit and was one of the first to arrive in Bastogne on 26 December 1944. He was wounded 4 days later and evacuated to the States.

Another uncle was involved in the attack to releave the pressure on the D-Day beaches, Operation Dragoon. He died on the beach, and is interred at the Rhone American Cemetery and Memorial. Have been there, the French keep it up very well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhone_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial

Oneshooter
Armed and Livin in Texas

[Quartermass]

36. My father was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed by the Japanese.

[neverforget]

50. My dad's cousin was killed on the Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor.

A few years ago they finally created a memorial to the USS Oklahoma crew. I worked at Hickam AB for a few months and was able to visit the memorial and see my relatives name inscribed in granite. Sad to see all those names.....

http://mva.sd.gov/sdwwiimemorial/SubPages/profiles/Display.asp?P=910

[Glorfindel]

101. My uncle was stationed there at the time, serving on the Enterprise

which was, fortunately for him, out to sea when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was a young lieutenant, having just graduated from Annapolis in 1939.

[Adsos Letter]

37. My great-grandfather

accompanied Edward S. Curtis on some of his trips through the Northwest. Curtis was compiling his photos for The North American Indian. We have several original photos as a result of this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_S._Curtis#The_North_American_Indian

This same great-grandfather also took part in the Alaska Gold Rush. We have a letter he wrote from Alaska in 1898 describing his party's trip into the Yukon via the Chilkoot Pass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush

[Lionel Mandrake]

38. An ancestor of mine (and yours) once swallowed up a cousin,

but instead of digesting the cousin (which was the usual procedure), our ancestor kept the cousin alive. The two became inseparable. This worked out very well for both of them. Our ancestor provided a home for the cousin. The cousin could make good use of oxygen, which had been a poison to our ancestor. With the cousin busily using up the oxygen, our ancestor could now thrive in an oxygen-rich environment.

This all happened about 1.5 billion years ago. Before that, there were no cells with mitochondria.

[hunter]

47. rofl!!!

Seriously,

[LiberalEsto]

49. Brings to mind that great song: "When I was a tadpole and you were a fish"

"When I was a tadpole and you were a fish
In the Paleozoic time,
And side by side on the ebbing tide,
We sprawled through the ooze and slime,
Or skittered with many a caudal flip,
Through the depths of the Cambrian fen,
My heart was rife with the joy of life,
For I loved you even then."

That's the first verse. More of Langdon Smith's poem at

http://tan-delta.com/old%20site/tadpole.html

[Lionel Mandrake]

54. when YOU were a tadpole and I was a fish ...

[Lionel Mandrake]

62. Different versions of Langdon Smith's poem were published in 1895 & 1909.

A wikiquote informs us that ...

"The first few stanzas of this poem were written and published in the New York Herald in 1895. It was worked upon for many years and later published in full in the New York Journal sometime before 1906, and posthumously published in illustrated and annotated book form as Evolution : A Fantasy (1909)."

read more:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Langdon_Smith#Evolution_.281895.3B_1909.29

[applegrove]

82. LOL!

[LeftishBrit]

85. SNORT!

That was great.

Your post reminds me of 'The Mikado', where Pooh-Bah claimed to trace his ancestry backto 'to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule'.

[Lionel Mandrake]

89. Except for "atomic", that sounds reasonable.

I hadn't heard that particular line, even though a friend of mine sang in "'The Mikado".

[charlie and algernon]

39. Battle of Gettysburg

An ancestor fought at Gettysburg in one of the PA regiments. Apparently he was also on Little Round Top, but we haven't been able to confirm exactly which regiment he was in.


Also, a more distant ancestor from the same line was a Lt. Colonel under George Washington.

[kwassa]

67. My greatgrandfather died at the 50th reunion of Gettysburg in 1913.

He had been there 50 years before.

First Maine Cavalry, detailed as a courier to the Pennsylvania Bucktails, supposedly the First Maine fought in more battles than any other unit in the Union Army.

[Curmudgeoness]

40. My grandfather was union agitator

back when the unions were first getting started. That is how my family ended up where we are. My grandmother worked as a maid for the company president, and his wife warned her that they were bringing men in to kill him that night. He took off and ended up here. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed of this, but I figure with a wife and family to worry about, he was not ready to die. All I know is that this is where I assume I got my radical streak.

[trackfan]

41. My wife's ancestor was on the dais with Lincoln for the Gettysburg Address.

They spent the previous night at the same house, where he likely gave up his room for Lincoln's use. William Saunders. He was a founder of the National Grange; landsacpe architect; designer of the Gettysburg Cemetary and the Washington D.C. park system; and he introduced the navel orange to the U.S.

[originalpckelly]

42. Ludlow Massacre

He was a secretary of the mine workers union.

[rug]

43. My mother returned an umbrella to Lucille Ball.

My family's always led an uneventful life.

[madinmaryland]

44. I had a great-great Aunt who was a moonshiner.

She eventually got busted, and was released after she promised to marry a blind man. Seriesly!

[Wait Wut]

45. IL Gov. William Bissell

Was my gr-gr-gr grandfather:

In 1850 Congressman James A. Seddon of Virginia declared in Congress that the Mississippi troops commanded by Jefferson Davis saved the day at Buena Vista. Bissell, who had been in the heaviest fighting at Buena Vista, countered as an eyewitness, saying that Congressman Seddon's remarks were not true, and denounced Southerners for glorifying themselves and belittling Northerners. Later, two of Senator Davis's friends told Bissell that he insulted the Mississippi Rifles and Colonel Davis, and they requested that Bissell duel Davis. Bissell accepted Davis's challenge and stipulated that the weapons would be army muskets loaded with ball and buckshot. President Zachary Taylor soon learned about the duel and threatened Senator Davis with arrest. A peaceful settlement was quickly reached.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Bissell

There are others, but this one cracked me up! My gggGrampa almost dueled Jefferson Davis! I come from a very long line of politicians and political activists on both sides of my family.

Edit to be fair to my Irish heritage: One of my ancestors (a gr+ uncle) was one of the founders of the IRA and the first (? disputed) to die in a British prison. They threatened his brother, my gr+ grandfather that if he didn't leave the country he would suffer the same fate. He was married and had 5 children (he ended up with 8 surviving...11 total), so he packed up and moved to America. When he got here, he bought up a bunch of swamp land and sold it to the British sight-unseen for a huge profit. He used the money to build the first school in his county, of which his wife was the only teacher.

I'm also a cousin to Silas Bissell, one of the first Weathermen. I have two IL State Senators, two IL Sup. Ct. Judges, one US Sup. Ct. Judge and a Gov. of LA in my family. There are others that I'm not proud of that I'll not mention.

[GoCubsGo]

46. The eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pomeii.

Some of my ancestors are from that neck of the woods. Obviously, at least one of them survived. the eruption.

[mitchtv]

52. I have an ancestor who was booted out of Mass.

for belonging to the wrong religion, left with Roger Williams to found Rhode Island. His name was Thomas Olney

[GliderGuider]

53. My new and dearly loved mother-in-law

survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. That's about as much as the universe can ask of any human being, IMHO.

[Charlemagne]

75. ........

Glad she survived.

[GliderGuider]

80. So am I. And so is her daughter. Thanks! n/t

[Doc Holliday]

55. I don't have one

that I know of...certainly not in recent generations, anyway.

But my daughter will. Someday she'll be sitting around smokin' a joint and having a glass of wine with some of her hippie friends, and tell them how her dad was there when they brought down the Berlin Wall. Then she'll show them the chunk of Wall that I took with my own hammer.

She can proudly say that her dad was a 'woodpecker'... way back in the 1980s.

[GliderGuider]

60. +1

Last edited Sun Jan 8, 2012, 08:27 PM - Edit history (1)

I still have a pair of cobblestones pried up from the streets of the Latin Quarter in Paris, that I retrieved from a barricade on May 10, 1968.

Nice to feel we have a tiny place in the history of our times, isn't it?

[Doc Holliday]

86. It does indeed, GG.

I have to chuckle when I remember that, less than a year after the Wall came down, clever entrepreneurs started selling pieces of what was alleged to be the Berlin Wall-- complete with a Certificate of Authenticity.

[YankeyMCC]

56. USS Maddox

My Dad was one of the sonar men aboard the Maddox during Gulf of Tonkin Incident

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Incident

[ellaydubya]

57. Stephen F. Austin

My family came with Stephen F Austin to Texas and started up the town of Austin, Texas in the 1830s. For years the family owned land in downtown Austin and my great grandmother owned and lived in a house (where I lived after I was born) that is now grounds of the state capital. I have always been very proud of this being a native Texan.

[NNadir]

59. My grandfather was shot in the head in World War I.

He was in the Scottish Black Watch.

He left my Grandmother in 1914 and went to Canada to enlist - he was living in Brooklyn at the time.

My Grandmother had a 3 year old daughter.

He was shot in the head by the Germans, but survived.

He returned from the war; became a terrible alcoholic and conceived my uncle, my father and an aunt - who didn't live through childhood - on the rare occassions that he was sober. He was rarely home, but would show up every couple of years, beat everyone up and then get my grandmother pregnant.

Everyone hated him, except my grandmother who told me when she was in her late 80's, that "he was a wonderful man until he got that silver plate in his head."

The last time my father saw his father, he threw him down the stairs and told him never to set foot in my Grandmother's home again. He never did.

My grandfather was murdered in a bar fight in Brooklyn just around the time of the 2nd World War. Actually nobody cared that he was dead, but my grandmother notified the British consulate, who looked him up, and decided to throw a grand military funeral, burying him in Brooklyn in a cemetary to which they had transported Scottish soil.

I could never find out much more about him; mostly everyone refused to discuss him, except to mutter curses and epithets. One of my great aunts told me that he was brilliant and talented but mostly evil.

After my father died, I found that he owned many photographs of his father, my grandfather. He looked handsome and there's one photo of him and all his brothers, all in military uniforms. I have no idea how many lived through the war.

In recent years, I - probably alone in my family - I've begun to have some sympathy for him, thinking that it is very possible that he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. This doesn't, of course, excuse his behavior, but maybe it explains it to some extent.

[Charlemagne]

73. Scottish Black Watch

No fucking way. That is awesome. Good on him!

[KT2000]

61. My father was

Last edited Sun Jan 8, 2012, 08:32 PM - Edit history (1)

the Boeing representative for the first trans-Atlantic flight of the Yankee Clipper (flying boat). This was the first commercial plane that was able to transport mail and people across the Atlantic and Pacific. They were greeted at European cities with bands, festivities and dignitaries.
Now it may not be regarded as a famous event but then it marked the beginning of world-wide air travel.
My father was an engineer on the project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314

[trof]

63. George Washington was my cousin.

I'm descended from his grandfather.

[REP]

65. One my g x n grandmothers was Washington's mother's sister

[REP]

66. A lot of them

Battle of the Boyne - awarded a silver sword by the king for his service

US Revolution - one direct ancestor carried the above-mentioned sword into battle; another led the New Jersey Minutemen (town in NJ named for my family made briefly famous during the anthrax letters)

US Civil War - a close branch of the family raised General Sherman; the son of that family issued Order No. 11. Direct ancestors built the first buildings in the town where that order was issued (ask 5 historians and you'll get 15 answers as to who built what when there, though - but all agree they were among the first

Jamestown settlement - a Native American adopted/fostered/enslaved by one of my ancestors warned the settlement about an impending attack (DNA proved). Ancestor is believed by some to be First Settlement, but no records exist before 1605.

[ret5hd]

68. My (some number of greats way back there)...grandparents were Adam and Eve!!!

[Orrex]

69. My grandfather fought at Iwo Jima

I also have a 2nd cousin who was a well-ranked professional golfer in the 80s.


That's about it.

[BlueJazz]

70. One of my ancestors was an officer who brought the first English...

settlers to Australia. He fell in love with a political prisioner and stayed.
(Although in his time he was still British)
Australia did not become a country until 1901.

[kaiden]

71. Adonijah Peacock. Explosive Expert for George Washington during the American Revolution.

Got blown to bits mixing up one of his concoctions. Thank goodness he'd bred before then.

[struggle4progress]

72. The very loud unexpected night noise that broke windows in town: a true story!

My most illustrious ancestor, in the early years of the prior century, had a friend with some surplus dynamite. Folk knew, through unfortunate experience, that the stuff would eventually became dangerously unstable as the nitro slowly seeped out from the binder onto the surface, so illustrious ancestor's friend wanted to rid himself of the surplus

As a lark, they planned a little party late one night, hitched up a wagon, and went up into the empty foothills outside of town

There they attached a long fuse to the surplus dynamite, lit it, and then back got into their wagon and rumbled slowly back through the ruts and gullies back towards home

Presently, they heard a quiet thud in the distance and had a good laugh about what a puny noise that dynamite stuff made

They got into town somewhat later in the wee hours and were surprised to find everyone up with the lights on: there had been some horrid loud boom in the dark that actually broke some windows

What could it have been? Hadn't they heard it?

They disavowed any knowledge of the event and disappeared as quickly as they could to their beds

The shock wave had apparently traveled over their heads while they were down in a gully

This event was famous in that town for some years, so I am very proud to claim my most illustrious ancestor's involvement

However, my most illustrious ancestor, for some reason, did not relay this story to anyone until many decades later

[Charlemagne]

74. gggggggf

Came over from Scotland to fight the English in the Revolution (we have the same name, Im the 8th).

Great uncle was Bob Timberlake, all-american QB at Michigan.

Great-grandad was a lawyer for the coal miners in eastern ohio.

My dad was in the NSA and spied on people at the 68 Dem Nat Conv.

[Xipe Totec]

77. The assasination of Pancho Villa

That's about all I can say...

[greendog]

79. Great Great Grandfather fought at the Battle of Stones River in the Civil War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stones_River

[Burma Jones]

87. Two Ancestors

Nathaniel Greene - Commander of U.S. Southern Forces in the Revolutionary War

Andrew Jackson - Not so nice things.......

[GliderGuider]

88. Both of my (great^3000) grandparents survived the Toba supereruption

Last edited Mon Jan 9, 2012, 11:51 AM - Edit history (1)

and helped found the modern human race...

I blame them for everything that's gone wrong since.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory

[Hayabusa]

90. My grandfather

and his brother enlisted in the army during WWII and fought at Normandy together, as well as the Battle of the Bulge. I remember my grandma telling me a story that he had told her about finding out that his brother was in a nearby unit and getting permission to visit with him for a while.

[frogmarch]

91. In the early 1900s a statue

of one of my relatives, Henry Cogswell, a dentist, was thrown into Sheipsik Lake because his temperance message was unpopular. It was later recovered but soon disappeared in the lake again. During WWII it was once more removed from the lake and this time, melted down for its metal. In 2006 it was recast and is now Temperance Fountain in Rockville, Connecticut.


Cogswell relatives at the 2006 unveiling in Rockville

Wiki snip:

Cogswell believed that if people had access to cool drinking water they wouldn't consume alcoholic beverages. It was his dream to construct one drinking fountain for every 100 saloons across the United States and many were built. These drinking fountains were elaborate structures built of granite that Cogswell designed himself.

Cogswell's fountains can be found in Washington, D.C., Tompkins Square Park New York City, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Rockville, Connecticut. Other examples were erected and then torn down at: Buffalo, Rochester, Boston Common, (removed 1900) Fall River, Massachusetts, Pacific Grove, California, San Jose, California, and San Francisco. The concept of providing drinking fountains as alternatives to saloons was later implemented by the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

These grandiose statues were not well-received by the communities where they were placed. The Temperance Fountain has been called "the city's ugliest statue" and spurred city councils across the country to set up fine arts commissions to screen such gifts



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_D._Cogswell

[Cracklin Charlie]

92. My dad survived the Bataan Death March

He never even told us about his experiences. His brothers told us after he died. Anytime any character came on the television portraying Douglas MacArther, Daddy would change the channel. This happened several times on M*A*S*H*, which was his favorite show.

[get the red out]

93. Wrong place at the wrong time

I had an ancestor that came into Kentucky with Daniel Boone and ended up scalped. My family remained in Kentucky.

We're idiots.......

[RebelOne]

94. Too many to list.

Edward Teach (Black Beard) was an ancestor on my father's side.

http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/lennon/897/teach.html

[guitar man]

95. Lewis and Clark Expedition

William Clark is in the lineage on my paternal grandmother's side of the family.

[ThoughtCriminal]

96. Grandfather - Yukon Gold Rush, 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, WW-2 Murmansk Convoy

He was what we used to call... Colorful.

[Canis Mala]

97. Great Grandparents

I have a great grandfather who was surgeon in France during WWI. He only lived about 8 years after he returned. I guess it was grueling. Before he died, he and my grandfather held off the Klan with shotguns when they wanted to attack the local Catholic academy, even though my family isn't Catholic.

A great great grandfather was in the Civil War and was a prisoner at Andersonville. I think he was captured in Tennessee. There were others in the Civil War and the Spanish American war. I guess my ancestors were good cannon fodder. My uncle was blown up in Guam in WWII, but survived. My dad was wounded in Korea.

We have a photo of my grandparents and grandmother visiting Riley Dunham sometime around 1920. Riley Dunham was a big deal in Hoosier politics. He was also the great, great, great uncle of Barrack Obama. If we're related to the Dunham's - yet to be verified - then I'm related to the president and we share an ancestor who fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hasting (1066).

[RFKHumphreyObama]

98. My great aunt dated our longest serving Prime Minister

He was a conservative but, in today's terminology, he'd be a Rockefeller Republican type. My great aunt dated him long enough that she gets a mention in many of his biographies. More than one person in our family has told me that, if she'd married him, he wouldn't have gotten away with being a conservative (she was somewhat of a hippie type for her times)

My other grandfather was a trade union leader in his country and took on the communists there to such an extent that there was apparently a plot to kill him in the 1940s-1950s. He was awarded an MBE by the Queen before his country became independent

[shanti]

99. my mother's side

is ethnically french, and were waldensians before immigrating to the u.s. in 1875. there are references to her family in foxe's book of martyrs, which tells (in great detail) of the horrific torture of waldensians and other protestants during the inquisition.

[Archae]

100. My Dad's parents and grandparents missed the boat.

They had a bureacratic mixup in Europe, so they missed the boat they had steerage passes for, in 1912.

Yup. I've seen the boarding pass. "HMS Titanic."

[Doc Holliday]

102. Wouldn't that be

RMS Titanic?

I'm just sayin'.....

[Archae]

106. You're right.

Me goof...

[UnrepentantLiberal]

103. I'm related to President Garfield.

Too bad they shot him. My father's middle name was Garfield. So is my older brother's.

[MrScorpio]

104. My Great Uncle was the longest reigning Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world

He's buried in Arlington Cemetery.

[Glassunion]

105. Too many to mention...

Mom's side:
Underground railroad
Civil War
February Revolution

Dad's side
There is a historical landmark named after GGGGGG Grandpa.

[elfrangel]

107. I have a few....

On my mom's side:

Have an ancestor who was a notorious gun slinger - changed his name, married his girl and disappeared. That family thread fizzles out suspiciously, so we can go no further with it.

My grandfather was with MacArthur when he landed on D-Day - in the boat with him. He also worked for Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller as a carpenter - built him a bar in his plane, complete with hidden doors and storage.


On my dad's side:

I have an ancestor who walked the trail of tears, she was the chief's daughter and the only one who survived.

We are distantly, very distantly, related to President Obama, think England 1600-1700s. His ancestor had a brother who went south and started my family branch here.