People of interest in your family history - Page 3

Tiamat · January 31, 2003, 02:24

Hmmm......well there's my dad who fought in WW2, Vietnam and Korea as a fighter pilot and flew in Franklin Roosevelt's funeral fly over. Then there is my distant cousin who would be Chuck Yeager. Small claims to fame but mine none the less.

Kramerman · January 31, 2003, 02:37

Quote:

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.

Traitor!

my great great... great grand father was Augusts Caesar. And my cousin a million times removed was Alexander the Great

Oh! I almost forgot, Elvis is my great uncle

Rogan Josh · January 31, 2003, 03:48

One of my ancestors performed unspecified 'favours' for the King in the colonies way back in the 17th (16th?) centuary. We reckon he was a pirate or somesuch but aren't sure.

Anyway, the King rewarded him by giving him land in American - Manhatten Island. Unfortunately, his ship sank on the way home and the documents were lost.

A few years ago, a copy of the documents were found in the vatican, so my family now have legal documents proving they own Manhatten Island. There is a lawsuit for compensation pending.....

TheStinger · January 31, 2003, 03:54

my mums cousin lost the most ever on who wants to be a millionaire

AnnC · January 31, 2003, 04:12

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Originally posted by Sten Sture: My kids are now the eighth generation decendents of Thomas Jefferson, and I think are eligible to be buried in the family plot at Montecello - but that is through my wifes side.

Which of Jefferson's children is your wife descended from (if I may ask)?

Sikander · January 31, 2003, 04:52

Like AnnC, I am descended from Andrew Jackson's clan (American President who currently resides on the 20$ bill). Several of my uncles fought in WW2, and one of them drove the second tank over Remagen bridge (and of course the Rhine). He also fought in North Africa, Normandy and Battle of the Bulge. His brother joined the marines and fought on Guadalcanal, Saipan and Okinawa. Their Uncle killed a man in New Orleans and evaded capture, hiding out in the hills of Northwest Arkansas near the Missourri border. He was friendly with the James gang, and kept fresh horses (and food etc.) for them, which they used to elude the Pinkertons who were pursuing them. He got paid 20$ everytime they came through. When Frank James got out of prison he wrote a book and went on tour. My great great grandfather and his brother went to see Frank, and when they saw him Frank James broke into tears and hugged them both. He hadn't seen them in very many years.

On my Dad's side we have relations who came over on the Mayflower. We are supposedly related to Welsh Royalty (Llywellyn sp?), though this line was deposed permanently in the 1200s IIRC, after they revolted against the English.

uh Clem · January 31, 2003, 08:18

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The loinburgers apparently migrated over from France and Belgium awhile back, and started working as lumberjacks in Canada and Michigan, where they drank, cut down trees, and whoremongered. If they did anything interesting, then I am (probably thankfully ) unaware of it.

What about the women's clothing?

Solly · January 31, 2003, 08:28

Not got a clue, but something about freemasons and I've also heard a couple of rumours about someone Jewish in my history (perhaps one of my great grandparents)...but I haven't a clue and it seems something has been covered up!

Solly · January 31, 2003, 08:28

How do we find out where names come from?

Sikander · January 31, 2003, 08:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Boddington's
How do we find out where names come from?

Oxford Press has a huge dictionary of (family) names, but it's so expensive that I haven't bought it yet. There are numerous books that trace the origins of first names, and they are inexpensive for the most part.

Solly · January 31, 2003, 09:03

Cheers.

Saras · January 31, 2003, 11:00

My Grandpas case is mentioned in Solzhenytsins "Gulag Archipelago"

His dad was estate manager for the second richest man in Russia (Duke Something) and was ordered to bury all his jewellery and gold somewhere on his estate in Ukraine when the Bolshevik revolution came. He never went to russia cause he thought he'd be arrested and tortured to show the place.

Clear Skies · January 31, 2003, 11:33

You've got to go a long way back to find anyone of even remote interest in my family...
My gran's a Campbell, the clan who massacred the Mcdonalds at Glencoe (hm, not exactly something you want on your wall), and one of my ancestors helped illustrate the Book of Lindisfarne...oh and another was Bishop of Durham at one point.
That's pretty much it.

Oerdin · January 31, 2003, 12:01

Geneology has been one of my pet hobbies for a while now so far the furthest back I've been able to research on my mother's side is Salvi-Salvy Barsolou. We don't know when Salvi was born or when he died but in 1603 he and his wife had a son named Joseph in Ste Foy Agen, France. We also know that Josph was a Protestant convert who listed his occupation on the French census as a "land owner and wine maker"; in the early 1670's Joseph's grandson Gerard was accused of Heresy & disloyalty to the crown because he wouldn't convert to Catholicism and so he and his family were sentenced to trasportation to New France. So I know I have relatives in North America by the 1670's.

On my mother's side I'm related to President Jackson and my first ancestor to graduate from college was Paul Keeley Barsaloux who graduated from Notre Dame University in 1910. Other then that their's nothing to interesting that I know of.

Oerdin · January 31, 2003, 12:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Sikander
Like AnnC, I am descended from Andrew Jackson's clan (American President who currently resides on the 20$ bill).

Hey Sikander! It looks like we're both related to Andrew Jackson. I guess we're long lost cousins.

Wernazuma III · January 31, 2003, 13:24

A grand grand uncle of mine, Eduard Wagnes, was a composer and Reichskapellmeister in the monarchy. His most famous composition was the "Bosniakenmarsch". Don't know it? Don't mind, nobody does. Yet the tantiemes were so high that his direct heirs could live pretty well from that.

Others, yet not related through blood:
Toni Schruf: Skiing pioneer
? (Forgot the name): A Nazi who took part in the assasination of Austrian facist leader Dollfuß. The Nazi coup d'etat failed at that time though. Not really someone to be proud of I lament

Footie Mad · January 31, 2003, 14:02

My uncle did som research and apparently my blood line can be traced back to some scottish nobles, McDonalds, that hade to flee from Scotland after losing a war.

Bas · January 31, 2003, 14:42

AFAIK, I don't have someone even remotely famous in my family. My ancestors are mostly peasants, fishermen, etc., from rural places in the Netherlands. My name suggests that sometime in the past my father's family immigrated from Flanders, and I've got some Hungarian blood about seven generations away, but god knows how he ended up over here.

Richelieu · January 31, 2003, 14:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
We also know that Josph was a Protestant convert who listed his occupation on the French census as a "land owner and wine maker"; in the early 1670's Joseph's grandson Gerard was accused of Heresy & disloyalty to the crown because he wouldn't convert to Catholicism and so he and his family were sentenced to trasportation to New France. So I know I have relatives in North America by the 1670's.

A protestant being sent to New France in these days probably had a really hard time when he got there. AFAIK it was pretty close to 100% roman catholic.

I've been able to trace back my mother's side back to France in the 1600's too, our first ancester moving to New France in 1654.

Sten Sture · January 31, 2003, 15:47

Quote:

Originally posted by AnnC

Which of Jefferson's children is your wife descended from (if I may ask)?

Martha Jefferson Randolph and then Anne Cary Randolph Bankhead iirc.

AH - my mother was born in Africa, but I am actually fairly white. It may be of interest to you that Sally Hemmings was Martha Wayles Jefferson's half sister, and was approx 3/4 white. Ole Thom could have saved us all a lot of racial trouble if he would have just married Sally. For a great thinker, he certainly left a few things undone.

redbaron · January 31, 2003, 16:22

The only thing I know about my father's side of the family is that my great-great-grandfather was a doctor in Germany and was part of a fairly nasty little feud among the British and German medical fraternities that developed when Kaiser Frederick developed throat cancer. We got a title out of that (unfortunately no money).

My maternal grandmother, on the other hand, put together a fairly impressive family tree which yields:

A cousin who was an SOE agent in WWII, caught by the Gestapo and put in Colditz as a VIP prisoner because his surname was Churchill and his courier (Odette Sansom) managed to persuade the Germans he was related to Winston. She was sent to Ravensbruck and gave evidence at the Nuremberg trials. They married after the war. The film Odette is a somewhat romanticised version of the story. (Actually it's a heavily romanticised version).

Maternal grandfather was at Gallipoli in WWI and went on to run an inn in Abingdon which used to get the likes of Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks staying. He emigrated to South Africa just before WWII and got a job as an actor/announcer with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Maternal great-grandfather was a Colonel in the British Army and was in charge of one of the columns which invaded Matebeleland at the instigation of Rhodes. He still has a road named after him in Harare. He was also used as a Colonel Blimp type character in one of Wilbur Smith's books.

Also a great-great-grandfather who was a doctor to the Shah of Persia.

Family legend also has it that there is a saint somewhere down the line who is apparently buried in Barcelona Cathedral.

With ancestors like that, is it any wonder I suffer from feelings of inadequacy?

Bosh · January 31, 2003, 16:49

hmmmmm, I think the most famous thing anyone in my family has ever done is make really really nice cabinets and violins and then there was the idiot who came from a rich family (my grandmother tracked them down, they're all doctors and lawyers and whatnot) near Rome and ended up as an impoverished cobbler in New York...

Ozz · January 31, 2003, 17:49

My dad held the record for most times promoted to Flight Sergerent (and demoted from) for the year 1940.

He learned this while being demoted for machine gunning the Kings geese in early 1941.

Kramerman · January 31, 2003, 19:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Boshko
hmmmmm, I think the most famous thing anyone in my family has ever done is make really really nice cabinets and violins and then there was the idiot who came from a rich family (my grandmother tracked them down, they're all doctors and lawyers and whatnot) near Rome and ended up as an impoverished cobbler in New York...

Same here, except part of my father's side were of wealthy semi-noblility living outside of Naples. They lived very well, but moved to the US around 1910. Their lives became much harder, that is, until they formed mob connections in the 20s

. Then their lives became quite comfortable again... probably at the expense of others

That is until the depression, when they lost most everything. Relative to most tho, they still were comfortable...

Now my mom's side has Polish and Itallian/sicillian peasants all the way

Go poor people!

Provost Harrison · January 31, 2003, 19:54

Nothing whatsoever to my knowledge...although you seem to have a lot better knowledge of your ancestry than I do.

Oerdin · January 31, 2003, 20:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Richelieu
I've been able to trace back my mother's side back to France in the 1600's too, our first ancester moving to New France in 1654.

Richelieu: What part of New France did your family go to? Mine ended up in Trois Rivers, PQ and then crossed the border into Illinois in the 1830's after a failed French Uprising against the British.

My Dad's side of the family is was just a bunch of Scottish free holding farmers as far back as the 1780's. His side of the family does have a coat of arms though so maybe if I could go far enough back there would be somebody interesting. I do know my father's maternal Grandfather served as a quartermaster for the British Army during the Boer war.

chairmanmeow · January 31, 2003, 23:05

My mom's side of the family came from Ireland during the Potato Famine. My dad's side of the family is a little more complicated. Most of his ancestors arrived in Virginia in the 1600s. The rest were wondering what took them so long.

Zkribbler · January 31, 2003, 23:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Ozz
My dad held the record for most times promoted to Flight Sergerent (and demoted from) for the year 1940.

He learned this while being demoted for machine gunning the Kings geese in early 1941.

OMG, he's not Ex-Sargeant Wintergreen, is he?

Darsnan · January 31, 2003, 23:30

one of my anscestoral uncles is Ethan Allen, the American Revolutionary War hero who captured the British Fort Ticonderoga without the Brits being able to fire a single shot, the attack was so successfull!
A very close second would be my father, as he was involved in the western allies invasion of Europe in June of 1944: my father was in an aircraft (C47) that flew supplies to allied airbourne assault forces on June 7th, 1944, and he was also involved in the material relief of the Bastogne position in December of '44.

D

Velociryx · January 31, 2003, 23:32

James Michener, who I'm proud to be related to (gotta love those author's genes!), and Gary Hart, who I'm not-so-proud to be related to.

Otherwise, a remarkable collection of scoundrels and horse thieves, booted out of England a long time ago....

-=Vel=-