Your ancestors

[casualmadness]

The Irish thread got me thinking about my own roots. Tracing family history was kind of a big deal for my grandmother, who died in 2000. Unfortunately, I never got interested in geneology until after her death. But she made some discoveries about our family that I found to be quite interesting.

One of my most famous ancestors is a Guy called John FitzRobert. That's Lord, John FitzRobert, of Warkworth Castle. He was one of the barons who participated in the Magna Carta. Kind of a cool thing to learn about my family, I guess.

Then there's the most infamous. My Great, great, great...uncles...at least I think that's what they would be...not sure, but they are in my family tree...Frank and Jesse James. They had a sister, Susan, who married into my mom's side of the family. When my grandmother discovered that, she was horrified at the fact that we had such criminals in our family tree. She was a very proper, societal woman. I always thought it was kinda cool.

So who are your ancestors?

[Phalex]

My Grandmother said we were related to John Adams. I've never done any research to prove it though.

[Barkless Dog]

Mine, I have no idea, but my wife's side goes back to early colonial days, she had two relatives in the civil war, one in the North army and the other in the South. We have tin type photos of each of them and a civil war Calvary pistol that they used to play with as kids & bang on rocks!

Her great, great grandma was a Kellogg from Michigan, before the Kellogg cereal empire was built.

She has all kinds of cool stuff from her family, like lamb skin land deeds signed by president Andrew Jackson and other stuff.

I have not much from my family past except my dad's WWII stuff.

[mjolnir]

Hmmm... Most recently I learned that my great grandmother (still alive) was Catherine Hepburn's cousin.

On my mother's side there was some guy or other who was in a cross country race with Billy the Kid, won a couple pistols from Billy.

On my father's side, we are related to a Samurai several generations back, apparently was the right hand man to one of the big shoguns.

[sarcastro83]

Only thing I know is heresay and rumour from my grandmother... apparently, her family were horse thieves in France and fled here, and there might be some native blood in me from a long, long, long time ago...

Wish I had the money and time to do a proper family tree. This has always interested me.

[FL Knifemaker]

My family came from Scotland and the UK. No...........I can't believe it either

[The_D]

Pretty boring here. My Grans Uncle was the late great Jimmy Shand. An Accordian player who changed the way the instrument was seen over here. My dad was tracing our tree and it just seems like we were all from Fife/Edinburgh and thats about it.

[StanFan]

I don't have any famous relatives, but I was told one of my ancestors was a guard of Napoleon's (one of hundreds I'm sure ). My dad has a relative on his side who played a handful of games in the NHL, and one cousin who performs in musicals. My ancestors came from England, France, Italy, and Germany, and much of my family tree goes back with Canadian roots for 300+ years.

Oh, my brother reminded me that my dad's uncle played drums with Peter Appleyard. Not sure if he ever recorded with him.

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

[LongHairFreak]

I only remember two things about my ancestory; and I'm not even sure which side these stories come from since both are from the same origin.

In early/mid 17?? a young woman traveled from France to Canada to become the wife of a guide/trapper. This is as far back as my family tree had been recorded.

The only other thing of note I remember was that somewhere in the early 1800s, one guy was dropped from the tree when he aledgedly stole another man's woman. It's not clear whether he left alive though.

Quite ordinary, eh?

[peterbright]

Lucy

[Alan Vorse]

Great grandparents on my mom's side came over on a boat from Italy through Ellis Island in 1917. That side of the family has been pretty thoroughly documented going back a number of generations.

My dad's side of the family is from France and the details are a little more sketchy. Depending on which family member you ask, we range from being descended from French aristocracy to being deserters in the Union Army and becoming horse thieves.

[Bruce Lindfield]

As my surname is quite rare - there is a group devoted to finding the complete history of the Lindfield family - which is run by a cousin called Alan.

He sent me a long history which shows our family going back to the Battle of Hastings and a French noble family - De Lindfields!!

So in history, there is mention of a William de Lindfield who came over with William the Conqueror...

Sounds bizarrely contrived but it's true, look here for details of an ancestor who haunts Bramber Castle :

http://www.cotcpi.co.uk/bramber%20castle%20report.htm



"The later history of Bramber Castle includes a story of a wronged husband, Sir Hubert De Hurst, and of his unfaithful wife, Lady Maud, and of her dying in strange circumstances after the murder of her lover, William De Lindfield.

In 1954 some of the residents of Bramber reported hearing sound of a woman wailing among the ruins of he castle. One resident described the cry as containing four notes. The believed at that time was that the noises were attributable to the ghost of the beautiful Lady Maud, sorrowing for her lover, who was said to have been trapped and walled-up alive by her madly jealous and older husband towards the end of the fifteenth century.

The Lady Maud is said to have discovered her husband's grim revenge on the night that he surreptitiously laid the course of bricks that sealed the fate of the unfortunate De Lindfield. The next day Lady Maud was found dead.

Years later, when the castle was attacked by Parliamentarian troops, a skeleton was discovered crouched in a corner, the head resting on the hands, the elbows on the knees, the mortal remains of William De Lindfield."

[mvw356]

Originally Posted by peterbright

Lucy

hey i found a relative what have you been up to lately?

[Jeremy Crockett]

My distant cousin was

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
The greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three

[Phalex]

Originally Posted by OctoberMooN

My distant cousin was

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
The greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three

You're related to Dan Haggarty?? Cool!

[ROON]

I don't really know much about my family history. According to my Nan who has done some research, my Mum's side of the family once owned a castle in Ireland. That's all I know. Dunno 'bout my Dad's side!

[sublimestylee]

Through my mom's side, confederate general Robert E. Lee is one of my great ( i don't know how many times) uncle, and my dads side i'm related to wallace warfield simpson (my middle name is warfield) and she was the queen of england that married outside of royalty or something like that and then got killed

[mothmonsterman]

when the explorers, founded detroit, there was a member of my family living with indians.

[larryl]

My mother's family hail from Nashville Tenn. and were among the founding fathers of the city. I was reading a history book and came across a story about William Blount, who was one of the earliest senators from Tennessee, who was thrown out for some unspecified misconduct. Andrew Jackson succeed him.My great granfather, Hartwell Blount Hyde was the last horse and buggy doctor practicing in Nashville.

A relative did a geneology that traced the Hyde family back to a Richard Hide, who emigrated to South Carolina from Sussex England in 1633 as an indentured servant. There's even a record of the ship but I don't remember the name.

[HEIST]

How do you trace your ancestors down without asking your useless family members?