My last name is not Gilbert, but I am descended from a line of Gilberts through my father. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, discoverer of Newfoundland and half-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh (same mother), is my direct ancestor. His son was a co-founder of Jamestown. Another Gilbert, some sort of Irish admiral, was in the early 1700s the wealthiest man in New York City. (Sadly, his riches seem not to have filtered down to me. :() Another Gilbert was a silversmith during the Revolutionary War and a contemporary of Paul Revere; an interesting article appeared about him in some historical journal in I think it was the 1940s. Another Gilbert (maybe the same one) was among the last few troops evacuated from the British siege of I believe Manhattan and so must have at least met George Washington, who was THE last to leave. (This Gilbert was appointed state librarian of New York in the early 1800s.)
One great-great-grandfather fought with the New York regiment at Gettysburg.
Side note: Sir Humphrey Gilbert was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services in slaughtering the godless Irish. They say the path leading up to his field tent was lined with the heads of those he had ordered executed. (I have plenty of Irish in me, too, a Patrick for a grandmother, so I can say “godless Irish” :D.)
My 3xgreat-grandmother Emily Dow Partridge was married to Joseph Smith. After he was killed she married Brigham Young.
My great-grandparents had a ranch in what is now northern Mexico. They were run out during the Mexican Revolution. At one point before they left Pancho Villa showed up at the ranch house with his men and told grandma to feed them. The men camped in the orchard and grandma baked them biscuits.
My grandfather was involved in the project that put the radio tower on top of the Empire State Building.
Not my family tree, but my wife’s; Her grandfather, Roy Fulwider, built the first electric scoreboard. He made it for the basketball fieldhouse (The Wigwam) of the Anderson High School Indians. It required many lightbulbs and many soup cans.
I’m very distantly related to Samuel Morse, inventor of morse code.
There’s a county in Tennessee named after one branch of the family (paternal grandmother’s line). According to family legend, that ancestor went in with Davey Crockett and some of the other first white settlers in that region. I’ve got some Cherokee blood in me from that part of the family. There’s a very old picture somewhere of my great-grandfather (or great-great-grandfather, can’t remember which) that shows him dressed up in his best finery, which was apparently a mix of white and Indian clothes and jewelry. I remember that his skin was so dark that there were white highlights on his cheekbones and almost stereotypical nose.
Somewhere along the way, some Iroquois got mixed in with the German and Irish from my paternal grandfather, but since all my grandparents are dead now, I’m not likely to find out what the deal was there. All in all, not a very interesting family in history, unless some stuff happened that I don’t know about. Considering how much my father’s mom liked to talk about family stuff, I doubt that anything much of interest happened.
One of my ancestors (whose name slips my mind) was taken captive by the British in the Revolutionary War and never heard from again.
I’m supposedly in the line of old Welsh royalty and also somehow related to Sir Francis Drake. I have no proof to back up either of these, though. My mom might have something for one or the other.
Damn. Looking back through the family records again, I see it was not a Gilbert who was the wealthiest man in New York City in the early mid-1700s, but rather Admiral Sir Peter Warren. It was a daughter of his who married into the Gilbert line. Seems he and a Gilbert had adjoining farms in what is now Greenwich Village. I assume there’s not much farmland in Greenwich Village these days? I believe that particular daughter died of smallpox, and it was her son or grandson who was the soldier and state librarian.
And it was my great-grandfather who fought at Gettysburg, not my great-great. One loses track of these matters.
An ancestor had his head chopped off for having an affair. The woman whom he was poking also had her head chopped off. They had a cousin in common who was later the wife of the cuckold.
Slave owning? Shamefully, yes. Our family had major holdings throughout the Carribbean, South America, and the USA.
I’m pretty certain he was not with the Irish. Despite having some Irish in the background, it’s always been the English ethnicity that was emphasized among the Gilberts from what I can tell.
There were troops from New York in every division of the Union Army at Gettysburg. Any further info? Unit, maybe? I’m always up for a Gettysburg hijack.
My maternal grandfather fought in the old IRA during Ireland’s War of Independence (as did several other family members at the time on my father’s side).
This guy was a distant cousin of mine. Flight Lieutenant William Joseph ‘Timber’ Wood helped defend Malta during World War Two.
My paternal grandfather was a high ranking officer of the Nationalist army during the Chinese civil war, and after it, was re-instated by the Communists as a local administrator. Unfortunately he did not survive the Cultural Revolution so I’ve never met him, but there is a small museum/exhibition dedicated to him in the city he oversaw.
I’m related to the famous (here, anyway) Australian writer/poet Henry Lawson (he was our Mark Twain, sorta kinda), to the explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell, and possibly also to the explorer Charles Sturt.
I’ve got direct descent from a transported convict - a fact of which I am terribly proud. It used to be a mark of shame in the old days, and it was funny to read a Malaysian newspaper blog when an Australian was sentenced to death and they were calling us “convicts!”. Ouch, that hurts.
My great great great great great great grandmother is Laura Secord who in the Niagara region of Canada in the War of 1812 walked 32km to warn the British of an impending attack at Beaver Dams. There are several monuments to her in the area, two of her residences are historical landmarks, and there is a (Candaian) nation wide chocolate company named after her. It was quite an interesting experience for me to visit the area and be able to purchase and eat a piece of confectionary molded in the shape of the face of my direct ancestor.
