Who''s in your family?

[redheadma]

My husband''s great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. We have all of her diaries and newspaper clippings.

 

[dragonfly411]

if I told you who was in my family, I''d have to kill you... no seriously, mafia members way back. My great uncle was murdered by them as well.

 

[joflier]

Date: 1/15/2009 8:57:20 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Musey~ What does it take to impress you, woman? Not all that interesting, he only designed one of the biggest attractions in the Northern Hemisphere!

Thing~ Were you able to hear many train stories? I love when I get to sit and listen to the crazy stuff! It's hard to believe what some of those guys did, isn't it??

Kaleigh~ OMG! That IS remarkable!

joflier~ What's his name? (if you don't mind sharing)

deegee~ I remember reading about that baby when I went through my GWR phase as a kid. I remember getting out the tape measure and realizing that he was two and a half feet tall. Then, I remember reading that the shortest person at that time was smaller than the baby.

Tuckins~ I have a friend whose ancestors came on the Mayflower, you guys might be cousins!!

This is so interesting....

I honestly don't know. I know he was Sicilian, but I for the life of me can't remember his name. Its not a name that is in my family anymore......I'm pretty sure it started with a C......Cam____

 

[Haven]

My paternal grandparents were both members of what used to be very famous publishing families in Berlin. My grandfather''s family published magazines, one of which is still published under the same name today as it was when our family controlled the company. They grew up in the lap of luxury, and lost all of it after WWII. My great-grandfathers were both Jewish, and my grandparents came here to the US in 1948 with absolutely nothing.

It''s okay, though, because my great-grandfather was paid war reparations from the German government. He chose the option to be paid every month for the rest of his life, and darn it, that man lived to the age of 99 just to get his due.

I''ll have to ask my parents if we have any other notable ancestors.

 

[cbs102]

Date: 1/16/2009 2:18:35 PM
Author: redheadma
My husband''s great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. We have all of her diaries and newspaper clippings.

Now that is frigon cool!!!!!!

 

[forensics1]

Date: 1/16/2009 8:09:01 AM
Author: cbs102
We had a historian work with my uncle and did our family history... and i am pretty sure that there is a book somewhere. We are related to Miles Standish (the captain of the May Flower),Resolved White (the first baby born on the Mayflower) and Rebecca Nurse (the condemned witch from the crucible...)_

You know....my best friends family is also related to Miles Standish on her mothers side......Its a small world after all......they too had a historian work with them.

 

[cbs102]

Date: 1/16/2009 4:00:46 PM
Author: forensics1

Date: 1/16/2009 8:09:01 AM
Author: cbs102
We had a historian work with my uncle and did our family history... and i am pretty sure that there is a book somewhere. We are related to Miles Standish (the captain of the May Flower),Resolved White (the first baby born on the Mayflower) and Rebecca Nurse (the condemned witch from the crucible...)_

You know....my best friends family is also related to Miles Standish on her mothers side......Its a small world after all......they too had a historian work with them.

hmmm... could be my cousin!

 

[oobiecoo]

Date: 1/16/2009 2:41:29 PM
Author: dragonfly411
if I told you who was in my family, I'd have to kill you... no seriously, mafia members way back. My great uncle was murdered by them as well.

Oh I totally forgot... ME TOO! Some of them are... current.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Nobody famous in my family, but one bit of history is that on my dad's side, there is a great uncle who was a member of the Nazi SS, and on my mom's side, my great grandfather was Jewish and died in a CC camp. My great grandmother & grandmother lived in Yugoslavia, escaped from the Nazis, and left for Austria. Later when my mom was 12, her and her parents and sister all immigrated to Canada. My mom moved to the US when she was age 17 and was an illegal alien for four years until she married my dad! lol Oh, and after my grandmother moved to Austria, she converted to Catholism.

 

[Elmorton]

I come from a long line of simple, hard working Midwestern folks - not a whole lot of excitement or fame. We have a bunch of Civil War soldiers (North), lots of people who worked on/for railroads when they went west, WWI and WII vets etc. So we have a really interesting and proud family history, but no one who was in textbooks or national newspaper pages.

DH''s family has a great great a thousand great grandfather who signed the Declaration. Nobody I''d ever heard of, so I assumed it was BS until his little brother mentioned it and we got on the internet to figure out who it was. Still can''t remember!

 

[somethingshiny]

Great new additions to the thread! Who would have guessed we''d have such a variety of extremes!

Another weird thing I found out. The KKK member (who also abused his kids regularly) actually saved a little boy''s life. He rescued him from falling through the ice on a pond. Later, that little boy''s family member wrote a book about how "great" my family member was.

 

[arjunajane]

Not much in my family that I know of - but yes in my Fi's family. His is interesting.!

On his mum's side, his great grandfather was a decorated Nazi. He was an architect. I don't want to mention the name, but there is plenty of literature on him, as he was actually tried and killed for war crimes. He had been given a gold pistol from Hitler, which his wife promptly got rid of after his death.
Fi's great grandmother would never mention his name (she was apparently disapproving).

Of course, this is completely removed from the rest of the family. They are awesome people, and its difficult for me to reconcile any connection in the slightest.
Fi is quite sensitive about it, and we have only discussed it in recent times.
(I sincerely hope my post does not upset/offend any members).

On a lighter note, His uncle won the Nobel prize for medicine recently (dad's side). He found the cause and cure for stomach ulcers (and no, they are not caused by stress, lol).

There *could* be some interesting stuff in my mum's side, but her family history documents were purposefully destroyed by "government types" many years ago.
This was during controversial land rights times in Australia, when they didn't want Aboriginal people to be able to make claim to land (I have a teensy bit of Aboriginal on my mum's side, but due to this we don't know who, when or how really).
I would really like to find out more about my ancestry, but its difficult on both sides (my dad's parents are Macedonian Immigrants, so not much in the way of records there either).


We have many interesting and educated people around here!

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 1/16/2009 12:08:55 AM
Author: somethingshiny

eta--Penn~ You''re excused from blabbing, but hints are welcome!!

Hmm, coal, railroads and U.S. Steel.

 

[gemgirl]

Date: 1/17/2009 1:51:02 AM
Author: arjunajane
Not much in my family that I know of - but yes in my Fi''s family. His is interesting.!

On his mum''s side, his great grandfather was a decorated Nazi. He was an architect. I don''t want to mention the name, but there is plenty of literature on him, as he was actually tried and killed for war crimes. He had been given a gold pistol from Hitler, which his wife promptly got rid of after his death.
Fi''s great grandmother would never mention his name (she was apparently disapproving).

Of course, this is completely removed from the rest of the family. They are awesome people, and its difficult for me to reconcile any connection in the slightest.
Fi is quite sensitive about it, and we have only discussed it in recent times.
(I sincerely hope my post does not upset/offend any members).

On a lighter note, His uncle won the Nobel prize for medicine recently (dad''s side). He found the cause and cure for stomach ulcers (and no, they are not caused by stress, lol).

There *could* be some interesting stuff in my mum''s side, but her family history documents were purposefully destroyed by ''government types'' many years ago.
This was during controversial land rights times in Australia, when they didn''t want Aboriginal people to be able to make claim to land (I have a teensy bit of Aboriginal on my mum''s side, but due to this we don''t know who, when or how really).
I would really like to find out more about my ancestry, but its difficult on both sides (my dad''s parents are Macedonian Immigrants, so not much in the way of records there either).


We have many interesting and educated people around here!

AJ, I read about those Nobel prize winners for medicine just a few years ago because I''ve had H. Pylori in my stomach a few times in my life. Your FI''s uncle has to be either Barry J. Marshall or J. Robin Warren.

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 1/17/2009 8:00:26 AM
Author: gemgirl

Date: 1/17/2009 1:51:02 AM
Author: arjunajane
Not much in my family that I know of - but yes in my Fi''s family. His is interesting.!

On his mum''s side, his great grandfather was a decorated Nazi. He was an architect. I don''t want to mention the name, but there is plenty of literature on him, as he was actually tried and killed for war crimes. He had been given a gold pistol from Hitler, which his wife promptly got rid of after his death.
Fi''s great grandmother would never mention his name (she was apparently disapproving).

Of course, this is completely removed from the rest of the family. They are awesome people, and its difficult for me to reconcile any connection in the slightest.
Fi is quite sensitive about it, and we have only discussed it in recent times.
(I sincerely hope my post does not upset/offend any members).

On a lighter note, His uncle won the Nobel prize for medicine recently (dad''s side). He found the cause and cure for stomach ulcers (and no, they are not caused by stress, lol).

There *could* be some interesting stuff in my mum''s side, but her family history documents were purposefully destroyed by ''government types'' many years ago.
This was during controversial land rights times in Australia, when they didn''t want Aboriginal people to be able to make claim to land (I have a teensy bit of Aboriginal on my mum''s side, but due to this we don''t know who, when or how really).
I would really like to find out more about my ancestry, but its difficult on both sides (my dad''s parents are Macedonian Immigrants, so not much in the way of records there either).


We have many interesting and educated people around here!

AJ, I read about those Nobel prize winners for medicine just a few years ago because I''ve had H. Pylori in my stomach a few times in my life. Your FI''s uncle has to be either Barry J. Marshall or J. Robin Warren.

Hi gemgirl...yep, one of them

 

[IloveAsschers13]

So, on my side of the family, I have Patrick Bergin, who starred in "Sleeping with the Enemy" with Julia Roberts. (here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102945/) and I don''t think anything else is really interesting with my family. My dad''s uncle is good friends with Bono, because he still lives in Ireland, and he used to own a large hotel that Bono used to stay at a bunch.

BUT

My boyfriends stepgrandmother was in a concentration camp, and she is still really young (in her 60''s, so she was just a little girl) and my boyfriend KNOWS how interested I am in WWII and he JUST told me this last month!!! I was like WTH! ha, I think that''s amazing to survive.

But the coolest thing ever: My BF''s greatgrandpa taught the first man in space! My BF is from Russia, and they just moved here in the early 90''s, so I can''t believe it! His grandfather is a published author in Russia, but not here which is sad for him. I''m still proud!

 

[Dannielle]

This was my great uncle:

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

I remember at his funeral there was all press and everyone was hassling our family for photos and comments, I was only 7 or 8 and I thought that happened when everyone died

 

[somethingshiny]

arjunajane~ I was wondering if some would be offended by my original post, too. But, then I got to thinking. People here are quite intelligent and even though I have a crazy family member, I can''t imagine any of them holding it against me. It seems more than a few of us have some odd histories.

Penn~ A bit shady with the hints, aren''t we now??

ILoveAsschers~ I''m always in awe of those who''ve survived such atrocities. I thank God I can''t even begin to imagine what she''s seen.

Danielle~

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Date: 1/16/2009 4:31:37 AM
Author: sunkist
Oo, what a neat thread SomethingShiny! I love seeing everyone elses responses.


For me, Dwight D. Eisenhower is my great great uncle, or cousin, I can''t remember. And I''m related to Pocahontas through marriage.

Me too!!!

Other than that, I''m related to an oil and gas tycoon in Oklahoma.. He''s on the Forbes 400 Richest American''s list. I only see him at family reunions and such, but it is kind of weird to be around someone like that!

 

[pennquaker09]

Somethingshiny, I gave you a really good hint - U.S. Steel. I guess since you''re not an Alabamian that doesn''t really mean anything, but Birmingham was a really big steel and coal city back in the day. Our family used to own a company and it was later sold to U.S. Steel. So, they had connections to Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan.

 

[somethingshiny]

Penn~ I''m embarrassed to say I really didn''t know Alabama was a leading steel producer. I always just thought of Penn. (no pun intended)

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 1/20/2009 12:44:02 AM
Author: somethingshiny
Penn~ I''m embarrassed to say I really didn''t know Alabama was a leading steel producer. I always just thought of Penn. (no pun intended)

I''d say at this point, Birmingham is more of a finance center than industrial city.

 

[pyramid]

King Robert the Bruce of Scotland

My grandmother's surname was Bruce and we managed to trace it right back to a brother of the King.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Date: 1/16/2009 12:08:55 AM
Author: somethingshiny
AG~ Smart seems to be an understatement for your family! I think everyone you mentioned did something amazing for the world.

Yeh, family dinners are interesting to say the least. I have a cousin (nuclear physicist) who likes to corner me and quiz me about my thesis research - its actually really sweet that he''s so interesting, but I sometimes wonder if I''m the only person in my family who ever thinks about shallow stuff like fashion...

 

[Selkie]

Date: 1/16/2009 4:00:46 PM
Author: forensics1

Date: 1/16/2009 8:09:01 AM

Author: cbs102

We had a historian work with my uncle and did our family history... and i am pretty sure that there is a book somewhere. We are related to Miles Standish (the captain of the May Flower),Resolved White (the first baby born on the Mayflower) and Rebecca Nurse (the condemned witch from the crucible...)_

You know....my best friends family is also related to Miles Standish on her mothers side......Its a small world after all......they too had a historian work with them.

Another Mayflower descendant here. I'm also a descendant of Sarah Cloyce, the sister of Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty who were both hanged. She was one of the last accused of being a witch and imprisoned, but was eventually released after the hysteria subsided.