People of interest in your family history

Caligastia · January 30, 2003, 16:56

While I was visiting my family in New Zealand, I was talking with my Dad (he's from England) about his father. My grandfather was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army's Intelligence Corp during WWII. He was captured by the Nazis, but they treated him fairly well because he was an officer. He died a couple of years before I was born, so I never got to know him, but I would like to find out more. I will try and research British Army records if possible.

Who's the most interesting person in your family history?

BeBro · January 30, 2003, 16:57

Me

I hope

Bereta_Eder · January 30, 2003, 16:59

My family line can be traced back to the 300 Spartans that defended Thermopyles against the Persians.

BeBro · January 30, 2003, 17:00

Can´t you be a little more specific? Which one was your ancestor? I mean - 300 is a bit much...

Arrian · January 30, 2003, 17:05

My family had a couple of pirates, one of whom managed to get himself marooned on Madagascar for allegedly being "too nice" to prisoners.

-Arrian

Bosh · January 30, 2003, 17:07

Mine's cooler

I've got the draft-dodging member of the guard at the Tsar's Winter Palace, the great-great uncle who returned to Russia and was killed in a tragic carriage accident almost immediately, and an Italian great-grandfather who ran a grocery during the depression who gave food on credit to people he knew would never be able to pay, went out of business and then drank himself to dead.

Bosh · January 30, 2003, 17:08

Arrian: wow another apolytoner in the **** hole we know and love as Middletown. You go to Wes?

The Mad Monk · January 30, 2003, 17:09

Depends. If you're talking direct bloodline, my great...great (insert as many greats in the ... as required) grandfather on my father's side fought in the American Revolution...for the Brits.

He was one of the Hessians hired by old King George to help put down those uppity colonists. After the war, he took up the offer for farmland (in New Jersey, in this case) given to any of the defeated soldiers who wished to stay and help the new nation grow.

If you include cousins, I have Frank and Jesse James on my mother's side.

Oops...almost forgot my brother, Pete Abrams:

http://www.sluggy.com

Does he count?

Gangerolf · January 30, 2003, 17:10

My great grandmother used to say that we were descendants of Rollo, ruler of Normandie. She was a psychic so she should know

Arrian · January 30, 2003, 17:12

Boshko,

No. I'm a Trinity grad, actually (class of '98). I'm moving in to my gf's house in Middletown (previously, I lived in the shithole known as Bristol

). It's in the southern part of town, which is a lot nicer than the Rte66 shithole area.

-Arrian

Bosh · January 30, 2003, 17:13

Yeah, good point, but at least the two Thai places are closer to where I live

Kassiopeia · January 30, 2003, 17:14

My great uncle, Akseli Anttila, was the Minister of Defence in the government of Terijoki, the group of people Stalin selected as a puppet regime that would be installed in Finland as soon as the Russians would invade and end the Winter War.

During the same war, my grandfather (my father's father; Anttila was a relative of my mother) was a member of a demolition patrol in the Finnish forces...

Bereta_Eder · January 30, 2003, 17:15

Quote:

Originally posted by BeBro
Can´t you be a little more specific? Which one was your ancestor? I mean - 300 is a bit much...

the one on the right

Eli · January 30, 2003, 17:17

Hmph.

My great-great grandfather was a good teacher and everyone in the village liked him.

That's pretty much sums it up.

Arrian · January 30, 2003, 17:19

Quote:

Yeah, good point, but at least the two Thai places are closer to where I live

Stop&Shop is closer to us, though, so ha!

How do you like Wesleyan?

-Arrian

Bosh · January 30, 2003, 17:21

Quote:

Stop&Shop is closer to us, though, so ha!

Yes, where else can you buy many different kinds of strange imported tubers?

Quote:

How do you like Wesleyan?

Love Wes, except for that 80-120 page paper that I've got to get back to writting

Spiffor · January 30, 2003, 17:25

My grandfather always boasted he had a role in the liberation of Paris : he drove the German Hauptmann (von Choltitz) to the army's HQ for its surrendrance. I don't know how true the story is.

I also heard Maïmonide (dunno the English spelling) was part of our family : a Jewish philospher, doctor and theologist who lived in muslim Spain. However, it is so old, there is no way to find this rumor has anything true in it or not.

Arrian · January 30, 2003, 17:27

Boshko, if I had known about 'poly when I was at Trin, I wouldn't have graduated.

Beer (and CivII) almost did me in. Beer, CivII AND 'poly would have been too much.

Good luck on that paper - and remember: no matter how much work may suck in college, the suckage of real life work is worse by several orders of magnitude.

[/end threadjack]

-Arrian

Bereta_Eder · January 30, 2003, 17:28

Aivo½so · January 30, 2003, 17:29

My paternal grandfather, an archetypal Ostrobothnian, was both a priest and a member of parliament, first for the fascist IKL in the 30s and from 1952 on the right-wing National Coalition (Kokoomus).

Andrew1999 · January 30, 2003, 17:30

All the interesting people I know of are on my mother's side. Robert E. Lee is my cousin. Further back, I have an ancestor who executed for witchcraft in Salem.

Jon Miller · January 30, 2003, 17:30

Sir Francis Drake
Governor Bradford
Civil War general (I think...)

many more

I can trace parts of my family back to the 13th century (they were french, considering that I have so little french that I don't even usually mention it says something, if only I knew what that was)

Jon Miller

chairmanmeow · January 30, 2003, 17:30

I'm a distant cousin of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

Pekka · January 30, 2003, 17:32

I don't know much about my family history

I'd be interested to do some research though.

I have this picture of my great great great grandmother and his sister (not sure about correct amount of greats), it's interesting, they looked exactly the same and other one was a dancer in paris (!), and other one was a dancer in too, but I keep forgetting where.. in Europe anyway and this was in late 1800s... That picture is all I have.. My family has a history of getting killed, so it's tough to do any good research.. my great grandfather was killed when he was chasing bootleggers during times when booze was illegal.. So we are pretty much hunters and chasers all family. I'd love to know more about them and go deeper.. maybe some day.

Caligastia · January 30, 2003, 17:47

My wife is a distant cousin of Madonna. Any married people out there with interesting relatives/ancestors from their spouse's family?

SlowwHand · January 30, 2003, 17:47

My grandfather, T.E. Landreth, was proclaimed the
"World's Champion Fancy Top Spinner" by BELIEVE IT OR NOT, and toured the country for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
His most amazing trick was to loop the string around a top spinning on the ground, flip the top 30 feet in the air, and catch it on his palm, still spinning.

His son, my uncle Richard, followed in his footsteps to a degree, working for many years at Six Flags Over Texas putting on spinning top demonstrations.

Caligastia · January 30, 2003, 17:49

For some reason I knew you would have someone interesting in your family history Sloww...

SlowwHand · January 30, 2003, 17:55

Well, actually, I'm the most interesting.

And my ex-wife was related to Justin Wilson.

ZargonX · January 30, 2003, 18:04

Though it isn't a blood relation, I am related by marriage to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Ah well, we can't all have winners in our family history, eh?

SlowwHand · January 30, 2003, 18:08

You sound a lot like MRFun.