fuct_okc

Not really. My family history is very interesting and filled with strange happenings, ridiculous behavior, and true pioneers.

Boring Summary:

In the early days my family was very wealthy and founded Montgomery, Alabama. Umm yeah... they were slave owners.

*Civil war - lose all their money - become poor nobodies*

Later on, my family came for the land run here in Oklahoma. When the dustbowl hit, 90% of them headed for San Deigo and many of them became quite wealthy out there. *yawn*

Puck

I have no problem with the scamps and scroundrels in my family history. There is at least one murder in each generation.

Having to deal with the slave issue is akward for me. The family 'owned' humans. From family stories, there are black members of the family out there today. Personally, I'd like to meet them, they are kin folks. Don't know how they would feel about it, though.

Frostymama, sounds like you were one of the people who find a really nasty patch in your family line. It's a risk we take when we research our genealogy. It causes uncomfortable feelings, but I'm sure you will take it in context and come to terms with it. Sounds like an ugly thing to find, though. Perhaps we are kin, and that's where the crazy/mean part of my line comes from? Something went wrong in the generation after the 'War', and we've produced some real sick bastards. There's a nasty streak in my line, and I am ever so gald that it stopped at me. Looks like it stopped at you, too.

{{{frostymama}}}

frostymama

So far (surprisingly) I have only found one case where anyone in the family had slaves. That was way back in the early 1700's and they had a house keeper and farmhand. I guess this is one time that it was a good thing that none of my ancestors had any money. Out of 10s of thousands of individuals in my files I have only found 2 slaves.

I am supposed to have a ton of relatives that I don't know from various ethnic backgrounds. My great-grandfather was a big slut. He was born in 1857. He had about 30 legitimate children with 4 (IIRC) wives. Two of his wives look like they were mother and daughter. His last child (my grandfather) was born to a 17 year old girl he "bought" back in 1928. He was 72 years old when my grandfather was born. The story goes that earlier in his life he had a woman in nearly every port along the Mississippi river. My grandfather didn't know how many half-siblings he had by these women. With a surname as common as his we may never know.

I never know what to expect in my family.

Mageth

Would it bother you if you knew that past generations of your family did awful things?

They did, and some of the things they did do bother me a bit.

As for ancestors, I'm quite sure that those of my ancestors who were of fighting age in the 1860's fought for the South in the Civil War. I doubt any of them were wealthy enough to own slaves, but they would have if they had the money.

I know my ancestors, on both sided, fought for the South. But what really bothers me is that, according to some research, my ancestors on my father's side may have made their living raising and selling slaves in Alabama prior to the Civil War. I'm just glad the South lost.

abe smith

I AM and have alwiz been the skeleton in my family's closet!

Mediancat

My great-uncle, a man by the name of Douglas Chandler, worked for the Nazis during World War II, making English-language radio broadcasts under the nom de air "Paul Revere."

After the war ended he was captured, tried for treason, and sent to jail for most of the rest of his life.

Somewhere online there's a brief clip of one of his broadcasts; it's quite vile and anti-Semitic.

Does it bother me? Yup. But I don't think it reflects badly on me . . .

Rob aka Mediancat

Pierre Bezukhov

If I've been told correctly, one of my ancestors kidnapped a famous American historical figure and held this person for ransom for a few years and then shelled a few French forts (or should I say fortes?) . It happened so long ago that it's just fascinating instead of embarrassing. Any guesses who the kidnappee was?


Also, if I've been told correctly, I do have Mayflower ancestors! (I couldn't tell you their names or back it up however. )

Tom Sawyer

This post only has an incidental relationship to the thread, but it made me think of it so I'll add it in, since I find it quite funny.

When I was young, my Dad always told us kids that we were descended from Irish Kings. He meant it as a joke, since he'd done some research into our family background and found absolutely no one of note whatsoever. Us kids, however, were at the age where we took everything our father said as gospel, so we thought it was true and we were actually Irish royalty. Since we were interested in what he was saying, he made up bedtime stories about how our family had to flee Ireland due to some revolution or another (I don't remember the details anymore). I don't think he realized that we didn't know he was making it up on the spot, he just considered it a bedtime story.

One day, my sister had a school assignment where they had to go up in front of the class and talk about their family's history. So, when my sister's turn came around, she stood up and started going on about her ancestors were the kings of Ireland and were run out during a revolution. The teacher got very angry at her for not taking the assignment seriously and making up a family history when everyone else in the class was telling something real so my sister got detention and the teacher called my parents to let them know that my sister wasn't taking her homework seriously and was making up lies to tell to the rest of the class.

At this point, my father had to embarrassingly let the teacher know that he had actually told us kids that this was our family history and shatter our dreams by informing us that we were not, in fact, the rightful rulers of Ireland. I don't think my sister has ever quite forgiven him for this.