Genealogy Discoveries

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

The old-fashioned kind, not the shocking results of a DNA test...This turned out pretty cool. 

Way back in the Depression, my great-grandmother died pretty young -- in her early 50s. She didn't get to live on to old age and tell her stories. All but one of her kids were still minors when she died, so they wouldn't remember much detail about what she told them. I think one of her brothers was kind of a ne'er-do-well -- one of those guys who was always trying to drag his in-laws into bad investments or something like that, so I think our family sort of distanced from them. Also, widower, my great-grandfather, and all of the kids ended up leaving Austin, where they were all born, by World War II: two to NYC, one to Houston, and another to Lubbock. Daddy wound up in Dallas. 

Anyway, great-grandmother's name maiden name was Brown, so tracking down her people was all but impossible until millions of people got on the Internet sharing their trees. One of them had a very unusual middle name, and through that, I was finally, only about five years ago, able to track down her people.

And there were some really cool stories in there. She was a direct descendant of Polly Moore, the last Indian captive taken from the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Shawnee raided the family farm, killed almost all of her family, hauled her up to 1794 Detroit, then as now, a hive of scum and villainy, and traded her to a dissolute Englishman for a few barrels of rum. (Along the way, her mother, also a captive, was burned alive in front of her by the Cherokee, who were drunk and had beef with the Shawnee, who they met up with in modern-day Chilicothe Ohio, then a big Indian market town.)

She was 12, I think. Eventually a surviving brother -- who was only alive because he had been taken by the Shawnee on an earlier raid -- tracked her down, bought her from the Limey scumbag, and hauled her back to the Shenandoah Valley, where she married a Presbyterian minister and had about eight kids, most of them also Presbyterian ministers. Because she had PTSD, a local carpenter made her an "adult cradle" so she could rock herself to sleep and "possibly a reminder of her pre-abduction innocence".  It now has pride of place in the Rockbridge County Historical Museum in Lexington, Virginia:

 

And he had a descendent who fought in pretty much every battle of the Civil War under Stonewall Jackson...He ended up living with his kids in Austin, dying there in the 1920s, I think. 

And here is my latest discovery, made just tonight -- that man's grandaughter, my great-great-grandmother, was Harvey Penick's aunt. So Harvey and my great-grandmother were first cousins. 

I've played golf twice and sucked. If I'd known I had this illustrious cousin, maybe my life would have ended up differently. I'd probably have taken some lessons and won a few Majors by now. Oh well. Moral is, don't lose track of any wing of your family. 

[52-80 19162]

I’m Spartacus

[KYHorn 17074]

5 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

The old-fashioned kind, not the shocking results of a DNA test...This turned out pretty cool. 

Way back in the Depression, my great-grandmother died pretty young -- in her early 50s. She didn't get to live on to old age and tell her stories. All but one of her kids were still minors when she died, so they wouldn't remember much detail about what she told them. I think one of her brothers was kind of a ne'er-do-well -- one of those guys who was always trying to drag his in-laws into bad investments or something like that, so I think our family sort of distanced from them. Also, widower, my great-grandfather, and all of the kids ended up leaving Austin, where they were all born, by World War II: two to NYC, one to Houston, and another to Lubbock. Daddy wound up in Dallas. 

Anyway, great-grandmother's name maiden name was Brown, so tracking down her people was all but impossible until millions of people got on the Internet sharing their trees. One of them had a very unusual middle name, and through that, I was finally, only about five years ago, able to track down her people.

And there were some really cool stories in there. She was a direct descendant of Polly Moore, the last Indian captive taken from the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Shawnee raided the family farm, killed almost all of her family, hauled her up to 1794 Detroit, then as now, a hive of scum and villainy, and traded her to a dissolute Englishman for a few barrels of rum. (Along the way, her mother, also a captive, was burned alive in front of her by the Cherokee, who were drunk and had beef with the Shawnee, who they met up with in modern-day Chilicothe Ohio, then a big Indian market town.)

She was 12, I think. Eventually a surviving brother -- who was only alive because he had been taken by the Shawnee on an earlier raid -- tracked her down, bought her from the Limey scumbag, and hauled her back to the Shenandoah Valley, where she married a Presbyterian minister and had about eight kids, most of them also Presbyterian ministers. Because she had PTSD, a local carpenter made her an "adult cradle" so she could rock herself to sleep and "possibly a reminder of her pre-abduction innocence".  It now has pride of place in the Rockbridge County Historical Museum in Lexington, Virginia:

 

And he had a descendent who fought in pretty much every battle of the Civil War under Stonewall Jackson...He ended up living with his kids in Austin, dying there in the 1920s, I think. 

And here is my latest discovery, made just tonight -- that man's grandaughter, my great-great-grandmother, was Harvey Penick's aunt. So Harvey and my great-grandmother were first cousins. 

I've played golf twice and sucked. If I'd known I had this illustrious cousin, maybe my life would have ended up differently. I'd probably have taken some lessons and won a few Majors by now. Oh well. Moral is, don't lose track of any wing of your family. 

That's pretty cool. I have one that I'll share soon. But first, did she have her period in that rocker or something?

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Very cool story...  but an Indian maiden named Polly Moore ? ?  Sounds kind of fishy, I mean Running Deer, or Hopping Bunny are your typical, period, Indian names I thought.

[UTGrad98 2276]

My mom's side of the family are descendants of a Count of Transylvania. They were princes. My uncle was named after the ruler, first and last name. He was a nice guy. We played bocci ball in the summers.

[RollLeft 5045]

33 minutes ago, UTGrad98 said:

My mom's side of the family are descendants of a Count of Transylvania. They were princes. My uncle was named after the ruler, first and last name. He was a nice guy. We played bocci ball in the summers.

Summers in Rangoon?  Bocci ball after luge lessons?

[Doc Reeves 6434]

While badgering my grandmother about our family history it came out my great great grandfather was George Washington’s personal coachman until after his presidency. A letter from him acknowledging the end of his service and expressing his thanks are a treasured family heirloom. 

Had no idea until my late 30s

[CooterBrown 18014]

All on my mom's side:

Multiple ancestors were the mayor of Zurich, Switzerland.  That family line had a castle at one time also.  There's still an area south of Zurich named Hirzel. Dunno if it was named after the family or the family was named after the town.

Rhys ap Gruffydd was a powerful Welsh landowner who was accused of rebelling against King Henry VIII by plotting with James V of Scotland to become Prince of Wales. He was beheaded for treason at the Tower of London. 

Also, descended from the Black Douglas clan who had two family members that were killed at a dinner hosted by King James II of Scotland. It was called the Black Dinner and was the source inspiration for the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones.

All of that and we still ended up complete white trash within 600 years.

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by CooterBrown

[CooterBrown 18014]

DP

Edited April 1, 2021 by CooterBrown

[mdmost 43004]

My grandfather was the family historian. He typed up this massive genealogy of our family line going back to how our name changed from the Old World to the New when the first person landed in Philadelphia from their journey out of Amsterdam. I have some copies that I kept after my father and grandfather had died. Lots of farmers, some people in the Revolutionary army. It was interesting to see how they fanned out across the newly formed America going from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to eventually Texas. There's bad history like how many slaves they owned until freed after the Civil War. I shared all this information with my older daughter as she was doing a class project on her family heritage. Nothing super notable as far as occupations or historical significance. 

Back in 2016, I was on a work trip to New York but had some time to walk around on the final morning before my flight. I made my way down to the New York Central Library in Bryant Park. I was just messing around as this was the same library that was featured in Ghostbusters. So I did some looking around and noticed they had a genealogy wing. I wasn't sure exactly when and where the first person in my family made his way to America but I thought I'd go check thinking if any place had information on immigration to America, it would be New York City. I thumbed through some books that were manifests of ships that arrived in America, broken down by time frames and countries of origin. I knew Amsterdam was the launching point. I then found a manifest from the exact ship that my ancestor sailed on and his signature stating he was immigrating to America in 1737. It was pretty cool to see that first link to my family in America.

Edited April 1, 2021 by mdmost

[gsoda3 3262]

11 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Also, descended from the Black Douglas clan who had two family members that were killed at a dinner hosted by King James II of Scotland. It was called the Black Dinner and was the source inspiration for the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones.

 

that's cool.  iirc james ii's regents killed the 14 year old and the 8 year old male b/c they were worried about them challenging for the throne (james ii was 10 i think?).  so are you descended from the cousin's line?

[CooterBrown 18014]

1 minute ago, gsoda3 said:

that's cool.  iirc james ii's regents killed the 14 year old and the 8 year old male b/c they were worried about them challenging for the throne (james ii was 10 i think?).  so are you descended from the cousin's line?

I'd have to go look it up to be sure how the relation is exactly. I remember when researching it, there's so many births, illegitimate kids, marriages, general fuckery, it's a bit convoluted.  My line is through Sir William Douglas, 3rd Baron of DrumlanrigI.  

[locodos 5387]

Well, In one family tree the branches don't split for a generation...  thanks Alabama!  Literally bother and sister married...  cool cool.

My paternal Grandfather, who told my father "he had walked across the country around a pool table", appears to have been a complete hustler/cad/playboy

My Great Grandmother who had a Jewish name, liked to take my brother and I to Neiman Marcus for lunch and cheese cake, and insisted that I call her "Nana" turns out to be from a long long (very long) line of native Virginian slave holders...  so maybe not as advertised.

But on upside a lot of my family goes back beyond well beyond 1600 in the US, including some folks put on trial in Salem for Witchcraft, and more than a few familial relations to the founding fathers, and few who settled in Texas in the 1800's (after leaving their wives and children behind in NC, VA, TN, for new wives and kids)

My latest immigrant forefather was in the early 1800's from Germany (which is also a surprise)  If figured the Germans in my family showed up post WW1 and I hoped were not fucking nazis...  Turns out they hated the Prussians.

Old school Massachusetts and Virginia up in here...

Edited May 4, 2023 by locodos

[locodos 5387]

5 minutes ago, locodos said:

nvmd

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by locodos

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

48 minutes ago, locodos said:

 

I started off just Driving Miss Daisy, but damn!  

[YGIFS 19450]

Nobody famous.   No nobility.  No vast wealth, fame, nor fortune.  

i come from a long, long, centuries old line of logicians, maritime navigators, fixers, and mercenaries.  For 600 years, when shit goes sideways, we get the call.  

and weirdly, we are allergic to the egg white and can only eat the yolk.  

[Armybrat 40850]

On 4/1/2021 at 9:21 AM, mdmost said:

My grandfather was the family historian. He typed up this massive genealogy of our family line going back to how our name changed from the Old World to the New when the first person landed in Philadelphia from their journey out of Amsterdam. I have some copies that I kept after my father and grandfather had died. Lots of farmers, some people in the Revolutionary army. It was interesting to see how they fanned out across the newly formed America going from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to eventually Texas. There's bad history like how many slaves they owned until freed after the Civil War. I shared all this information with my older daughter as she was doing a class project on her family heritage. Nothing super notable as far as occupations or historical significance. 

Back in 2016, I was on a work trip to New York but had some time to walk around on the final morning before my flight. I made my way down to the New York Central Library in Bryant Park. I was just messing around as this was the same library that was featured in Ghostbusters. So I did some looking around and noticed they had a genealogy wing. I wasn't sure exactly when and where the first person in my family made his way to America but I thought I'd go check thinking if any place had information on immigration to America, it would be New York City. I thumbed through some books that were manifests of ships that arrived in America, broken down by time frames and countries of origin. I knew Amsterdam was the launching point. I then found a manifest from the exact ship that my ancestor sailed on and his signature stating he was immigrating to America in 1737. It was pretty cool to see that first link to my family in America.

My paternal line came over from Heidelberg via Rotterdam to Philadelphia in 1753, then down to North Carolina. Some stayed there, but my branch went west eventually to Iowa & Missouri.

[deadshank 24653]

All English and Scots traced back to the early 1500s.   During the 1800s some Cherokee and Choctaw was folded in during the migration west to Texas.   
  

[conVINCEd 21469]

On 5/3/2023 at 8:02 PM, locodos said:

Well, In one family tree the branches don't split for a generation...  thanks Alabama!  Literally bother and sister married...  cool cool.

My paternal Grandfather, who told my father "he had walked across the country around a pool table", appears to have been a complete hustler/cad/playboy

My Great Grandmother who had a Jewish name, liked to take my brother and I to Neiman Marcus for lunch and cheese cake, and insisted that I call her "Nana" turns out to be from a long long (very long) line of native Virginian slave holders...  so maybe not as advertised.

But on upside a lot of my family goes back beyond well beyond 1600 in the US, including some folks put on trial in Salem for Witchcraft, and more than a few familial relations to the founding fathers, and few who settled in Texas in the 1800's (after leaving their wives and children behind in NC, VA, TN, for new wives and kids)

My latest immigrant forefather was in the early 1800's from Germany (which is also a surprise)  If figured the Germans in my family showed up post WW1 and I hoped were not fucking nazis...  Turns out they hated the Prussians.

Old school Massachusetts and Virginia up in here...

We have a Salem witch as well.  Great-grandfather was some kind of war hero in Germany in WWI.  He got them the fuck out of Germany before WWII.

[Goredho 17408]

[CooterBrown 18014]

Found a bit of info for my dad's side. Gx3 grandpa came over to NYC from Alsace and immediately joined the union Army and was given the easy to pronounce name "James Brown".  The King of Funk was a member of the German Regiment of the New York Infantry.  He was a POW in Virginia for about 6 months. Within weeks of being released, he joined up with a different New York Regiment until the end of the war.   He then moved to Cuero, Texas.  Cuero Fucking Texas.  In Cuero, he married a chick that was 18 and he was 40. Nice.

On 23andMe a while back a decently related genetic relative contacted me and we compared family names and none matched up. She lived in PA and I don't have any relatives in the northeast at all. Made me wonder if the King of Funk abandoned a family in NYC and got on the first boat to as far away as possible at the time, Indianola.  Abandoning a family back then was extremely common since you could just be 50 miles away and never be heard from again.

Edited May 5, 2023 by CooterBrown

[Not a cat 5658]

15 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

   He then moved to Cuero, Texas.  Cuero Fucking Texas.  In Cuero, he married a chick that was 18 and he was 40. Nice.

 

Herr Brown was apparently also the inspiration for the Cuero mascot.

These Germans coming over to Texas must have just loved their first few summers.  My mom's side is out of New Braunfels. There's at least one example in my family line of a spouse saying "fuck this heat, I'm going back to Deutschland."

[locodos 5387]

1 hour ago, conVINCEd said:

We have a Salem witch as well.  Great-grandfather was some kind of war hero in Germany in WWI.  He got them the fuck out of Germany before WWII.

Was it a Hobbs?  If so, we're related.

 

Spoiler

Deliverance Hobbs, about 50 years old at the time of the trials, was the wife of William Hobbs and the mother of Abigail Hobbs. All three members of the Hobbs family were accused of witchcraft. Abigail had a reputation for being a wild, irreverent and disrespectful young girl. She would brag that she was not afraid of anything. She was also known to mock the holy sacrament of baptism by sprinkling water on her mother's head and reciting the appropriate words. Abigail was one of the first arrested, and acted as a witness against both of her parents. She also enthusiastically contributed to efforts to accuse and convict other supposed witches.

A warrant was issued for Deliverance on April 21. She was arrested two days later and committed to prison. For a while Hobbs professed her innocence. After a time her resistance and her will were broken by the harshness of the proceedings. Hobbs was the fourth Salem resident to confess to practicing witchcraft, preceded only by her daughter, Abigail, and Mary Warren. She then readily confessed to anything the magistrates, afflicted girls, or the crowds would suggest. She even acted as a witness against her husband, who never swayed from his claims of innocence.

Despite the circle of accusations in the family, all three Hobbs managed to avoid the noose. Confession became seen as one option open to accused witches for avoiding the gallows, but of course confessions also had the effect of confirming suspicions of witchcraft and widening the circle of accusations.

Deliverance's breakdown and confessions was gradual, and can be followed through her confessions. Her first confession, given before George Burroughs had been brought back to Salem and accused, made no mention of Burroughs, although it was a lengthy and detailed confession. However, once it had become publicly known that Burroughs had been charged, she confessed again, this time freely implicating Burroughs in the circle of witchcraft in Salem, and claiming that he was the leader of the meetings. Hobbs also claimed that her mother-in-law served the refreshments of red wine and red bread at the witch meetings.

Despite his wife's and daughter's confessions, William Hobbs steadfastly denied all accusations of witchcraft. He remained in prison until December 1692, then left town.

Fuck them nerds

 

[conVINCEd 21469]

5 minutes ago, locodos said:

Was it a Hobbs?  If so, we're related.

 

  Hide contents

Deliverance Hobbs, about 50 years old at the time of the trials, was the wife of William Hobbs and the mother of Abigail Hobbs. All three members of the Hobbs family were accused of witchcraft. Abigail had a reputation for being a wild, irreverent and disrespectful young girl. She would brag that she was not afraid of anything. She was also known to mock the holy sacrament of baptism by sprinkling water on her mother's head and reciting the appropriate words. Abigail was one of the first arrested, and acted as a witness against both of her parents. She also enthusiastically contributed to efforts to accuse and convict other supposed witches.

A warrant was issued for Deliverance on April 21. She was arrested two days later and committed to prison. For a while Hobbs professed her innocence. After a time her resistance and her will were broken by the harshness of the proceedings. Hobbs was the fourth Salem resident to confess to practicing witchcraft, preceded only by her daughter, Abigail, and Mary Warren. She then readily confessed to anything the magistrates, afflicted girls, or the crowds would suggest. She even acted as a witness against her husband, who never swayed from his claims of innocence.

Despite the circle of accusations in the family, all three Hobbs managed to avoid the noose. Confession became seen as one option open to accused witches for avoiding the gallows, but of course confessions also had the effect of confirming suspicions of witchcraft and widening the circle of accusations.

Deliverance's breakdown and confessions was gradual, and can be followed through her confessions. Her first confession, given before George Burroughs had been brought back to Salem and accused, made no mention of Burroughs, although it was a lengthy and detailed confession. However, once it had become publicly known that Burroughs had been charged, she confessed again, this time freely implicating Burroughs in the circle of witchcraft in Salem, and claiming that he was the leader of the meetings. Hobbs also claimed that her mother-in-law served the refreshments of red wine and red bread at the witch meetings.

Despite his wife's and daughter's confessions, William Hobbs steadfastly denied all accusations of witchcraft. He remained in prison until December 1692, then left town.

Fuck them nerds

 

Not a Hobbs.

[CHIEF 5091]

My paternal side of the family got here between 1654 and 1658, my son is the 13th generation. All Scotch/Irish. They stuck to living in Virginia for the first five generations, hit the Cumberland Gap and moved to Kentucky by the late 1700s. Tennessee by the first decade of the 1800s, then to Pulaski County, Missouri by 1845. My 2xgreat-grandfather got to Bosque County in about 1850.

My maternal side is mostly Irish, they were here during the Revolutionary War, and moved south, coming to Texas through Georgia, and Alabama.

My wife's family history is very interesting. Her paternal side came with Prince Karl to New Braunfels in 1844, they are buried from Bexar, Comal, to Blanco Counties. Her mother's side didn't get here from Germany and Poland until the late 1800s, and made a fortune cabbage farming around Corpus Christi. They moved after a huge hurricane in about 1903, and bought a ranch at Tilden, sold that and bought several thousand acres around Blanco and Wimberly.

CHIEF

[HRSchenker 2268]

Wattie Boone is my 6th great grandfather on my dad's side. My great great grandfather on my mom's side loved bourbon. He loved bourbon so much that his children (one of them being my great grandpa) would send him money for food and clothes and he would use it to buy bourbon for himself and friends at what used to be a nursing home for Freemasons. 

Lots of bourbon in my blood lol

 

[YGIFS 19450]

I just found out from the smartest guy with the best words that celebrity date rape has literally been occurring for "A Million Years" (his words, not mine).  so makes you wonder where we all really came from.  Totally stable anthropologist.  May also be the dumbest fucking non-retard in the Northern Hemisphere.  But makes you wonder about all this genealogy business.  

[PRONG HORN 3146]

6 hours ago, HRSchenker said:

Wattie Boone is my 6th great grandfather on my dad's side.

 

If I go back 6 greats on my tree, one of mine was born in 1743.  By the looks of this pic, it makes me wonder how old it is.  I'm guessing this guy might be a 3rd or 4th great.  I have a 3rd great that was born in 1828 died in 1909 and a 4th great that was born in 1803 died in 1882.  Is this guy really a 6th?

 

 

[HRSchenker 2268]

3 hours ago, PRONG HORN said:

 

If I go back 6 greats on my tree, one of mine was born in 1743.  By the looks of this pic, it makes me wonder how old it is.  I'm guessing this guy might be a 3rd or 4th great.  I have a 3rd great that was born in 1828 died in 1909 and a 4th great that was born in 1803 died in 1882.  Is this guy really a 6th?

 

 

The pic isn't Wattie Boone. It's my great great grandfather. 

[Braff Zacklin 13592]

All you boys is miscegenated!

[CHIEF 5091]

19 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

The pic isn't Wattie Boone. It's my great great grandfather. 

Wait, this is tough after the Delta 9 Big Gummy. 
 

CHIEF

[freyguy 4277]

We've apparently got ties to folks from Tennessee, but they came into the country via Galveston?  One side was German...no, now its Swiss.  And really far back allegedly some Teutonic Crusader or some other bullshit.  Then mated up with some Indians from Oklahoma, and some relatives also fought on both North & South.  

So no, I'm not really special at all.  

Oh, and I apparently have an older half-brother who owns a Vodka distillery in SC who my crazy aunt found on Ancestry.com.  But my dad will likely keel over if he ever finds this out.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

Found out I’m related to Mitch McConnell going back to the Revolutionary War and I just want to die. 

[YGIFS 19450]

You've always struck me as 6.25% tortoise on your mother's side.  

[DixonHur 11317]

Only one famous person in my lineage.  Turns out I'm a direct descendent of Martin Luther, which as an atheist makes me laugh.

[YGIFS 19450]

Man you lying, you ain't never met no Doctor Martin Luther, the King!  

[Bevo&Pevo 5173]

I was raised by wolves, so I got nothing.

[ABSR 5315]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:53 PM, Braff Zacklin said:

All you boys is miscegenated!

And I have it on good authority that, that negro sold his soul to the Devil!

[Scheiss Meister 8408]

Descended from Robert The Bruce and William Wallace on one side of the family and related to William Quantrill on the other.  No wonder I'm a hooligan and troublemaker.

[locodos 5387]

17 hours ago, DixonHur said:

Only one famous person in my lineage.  Turns out I'm a direct descendent of Martin Luther, which as an atheist makes me laugh.

How is that even possible?  If so that's more impressive.  Each generation you go back expands by a factor of 2.  Go back 13 generations and you're talking 32K+ direct relations.  Throw in the ridiculous numbers of siblings Americans had in the 16, 17, 18 hundreds and oh boy.

That's why when people say things like "I'm related to royalty", I'm like "no shit, aren't we all"

I've been only looking at direct relatives and am still amazed, but like I said out of 32k somebody should have done some cool shit.  Like founding New Hampshire, immigrated  on the Mayflower, or a Revolutionary War General who died of small pox whilst invading fucking Canada.. lulz.

 

[CHIEF 5091]

22 minutes ago, locodos said:

How is that even possible?  If so that's more impressive.  Each generation you go back expands by a factor of 2.  Go back 13 generations and you're talking 32K+ direct relations.  Throw in the ridiculous numbers of siblings Americans had in the 16, 17, 18 hundreds and oh boy.

That's why when people say things like "I'm related to royalty", I'm like "no shit, aren't we all"

I've been only looking at direct relatives and am still amazed, but like I said out of 32k somebody should have done some cool shit.  Like founding New Hampshire, immigrated  on the Mayflower, or a Revolutionary War General who died of small pox whilst invading fucking Canada.. lulz.

 

This is so true. I mean, I can take mine back to Duncan I of Scotland, and that Neil of the Nine Hostages that sired so many kids that one out of every twelve Irishmen have his marker in their Y-chromosome. I have it as well. 

https://whoareyoumadeof.com/blog/how-many-generations-back-are-we-all-related/

CHIEF

[Armybrat 40850]

On 5/5/2023 at 5:49 PM, PRONG HORN said:

 

If I go back 6 greats on my tree, one of mine was born in 1743.  By the looks of this pic, it makes me wonder how old it is.  I'm guessing this guy might be a 3rd or 4th great.  I have a 3rd great that was born in 1828 died in 1909 and a 4th great that was born in 1803 died in 1882.  Is this guy really a 6th?

 

 

My great grandpa (mom’s side) was born in 1822. Died in 1913.

[DixonHur 11317]

8 hours ago, locodos said:

How is that even possible?  If so that's more impressive.  Each generation you go back expands by a factor of 2.  Go back 13 generations and you're talking 32K+ direct relations.  Throw in the ridiculous numbers of siblings Americans had in the 16, 17, 18 hundreds and oh boy.

That's why when people say things like "I'm related to royalty", I'm like "no shit, aren't we all"

I've been only looking at direct relatives and am still amazed, but like I said out of 32k somebody should have done some cool shit.  Like founding New Hampshire, immigrated  on the Mayflower, or a Revolutionary War General who died of small pox whilst invading fucking Canada.. lulz.

 

I'm not sure I understand the question..."how is that even possible?"

My grandmother hired a genealogist and that was on of the results.  Apparently the Germans are great at keeping records.  But that side of my family didn't make it to the US from Germany until the 20th century.  

[locodos 5387]

39 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

I'm not sure I understand the question..."how is that even possible?"

My grandmother hired a genealogist and that was on of the results.  Apparently the Germans are great at keeping records.  But that side of my family didn't make it to the US from Germany until the 20th century.  

It was a flip comment about having "only one famous person in your lineage"  With the way your direct ancestors expand it would be incredible to have only one famous person in your lineage.   Not meant as a slight, I assure you, just an observation.

[PRONG HORN 3146]

7 hours ago, Armybrat said:

My great grandpa (mom’s side) was born in 1822. Died in 1913.

 

Wait.  Most of my 3rd greats are from the same time, and are about the same age as your 1st great?  The maths are confusing me.

[dcbc 14487]

So I (born in the early 70s), had an old dad (born 1910).  My mom was his second wife.  I mention this so that the fact that there aren't a lot of "greats" in this equation makes more sense.  His side came over from Liverpool at some point.  They migrated across the midwest through Illinois to Nebraska and South Dakota by the late 1800s.

 

So my great aunt (my dad's mom's sister).  Was living in Nebraska and, at age 13, became in a family way and was kicked out of the house (nice).  Anyway, she was pretty industrious.  She changed her name to Dora Dufran, moved to Lead, SD, (yada yada yada)  and eventually opened a brothel.   Business was good, and she opened up two more across the state, one of which was "Diddlin' Dora's in Deadwood.  She was acquainted with and employed Calamity Jane and was friendly with Wild Bill Hickok.  She is portrayed by Melanie Griffith in Buffalo Girls and has a character based on her in Deadwood.  When the rat infestation hit the brothels, she bought a bunch of cats to deal with the problem, which supposedly is why the brothels were called "Cat Houses."  She is buried at Mount Moriah cemetery in Deadwood, and her grave is rad.

 

My dad moved to California in the early 1930s and later settled in Denver.  He moved to Texas in the 1940s.

 

 

 

 

 

[Armybrat 40850]

23 hours ago, PRONG HORN said:

 

Wait.  Most of my 3rd greats are from the same time, and are about the same age as your 1st great?  The maths are confusing me.

He was 54 when he sired my granddad in 1874.

Mom was born in 1910. 
Me in 1944.

[Degenerate Gardner 4085]

I’m a descendant of Cotton Mather and another progenitor started the 1st Christian church In Alabama. Plus the whole slaves thing.  So yeah, I’ve got a large karmic generational debt to pay which I’m slowly repaying in tiny increments with insightful posts in the Cliak Room.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Degenerate Gardner

[CHIEF 5091]

On 4/1/2021 at 1:32 AM, MaybeACoordinator said:

The old-fashioned kind, not the shocking results of a DNA test...This turned out pretty cool. 

Way back in the Depression, my great-grandmother died pretty young -- in her early 50s. She didn't get to live on to old age and tell her stories. All but one of her kids were still minors when she died, so they wouldn't remember much detail about what she told them. I think one of her brothers was kind of a ne'er-do-well -- one of those guys who was always trying to drag his in-laws into bad investments or something like that, so I think our family sort of distanced from them. Also, widower, my great-grandfather, and all of the kids ended up leaving Austin, where they were all born, by World War II: two to NYC, one to Houston, and another to Lubbock. Daddy wound up in Dallas. 

Anyway, great-grandmother's name maiden name was Brown, so tracking down her people was all but impossible until millions of people got on the Internet sharing their trees. One of them had a very unusual middle name, and through that, I was finally, only about five years ago, able to track down her people.

And there were some really cool stories in there. She was a direct descendant of Polly Moore, the last Indian captive taken from the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Shawnee raided the family farm, killed almost all of her family, hauled her up to 1794 Detroit, then as now, a hive of scum and villainy, and traded her to a dissolute Englishman for a few barrels of rum. (Along the way, her mother, also a captive, was burned alive in front of her by the Cherokee, who were drunk and had beef with the Shawnee, who they met up with in modern-day Chilicothe Ohio, then a big Indian market town.)

She was 12, I think. Eventually a surviving brother -- who was only alive because he had been taken by the Shawnee on an earlier raid -- tracked her down, bought her from the Limey scumbag, and hauled her back to the Shenandoah Valley, where she married a Presbyterian minister and had about eight kids, most of them also Presbyterian ministers. Because she had PTSD, a local carpenter made her an "adult cradle" so she could rock herself to sleep and "possibly a reminder of her pre-abduction innocence".  It now has pride of place in the Rockbridge County Historical Museum in Lexington, Virginia:

 

And he had a descendent who fought in pretty much every battle of the Civil War under Stonewall Jackson...He ended up living with his kids in Austin, dying there in the 1920s, I think. 

And here is my latest discovery, made just tonight -- that man's grandaughter, my great-great-grandmother, was Harvey Penick's aunt. So Harvey and my great-grandmother were first cousins. 

I've played golf twice and sucked. If I'd known I had this illustrious cousin, maybe my life would have ended up differently. I'd probably have taken some lessons and won a few Majors by now. Oh well. Moral is, don't lose track of any wing of your family. 

MAC's great-grandmother and my great-grandmother were both Browns from Bosque County. I use Find-A-Grave for a lot of my genealogy research, and like MAC, I can't really find anything on the Browns. I don't even know who her parents were. For all I know MAC and I may be fourth or fifth cousins.

CHIEF

[locodos 5387]

The more I dig, the more I think I'll need a DNA kit...  Not to check for relatives, but to see what kind of damage the inbreeding has done...  1500's Scotland...  for fucks sake, there were sheep literally everywhere! /noaggy

Quote

Janet Stewart married Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, despite being related within a forbidden degree of affinity. They had eight children

Totally worth... amiright?

PS that's not malcom!