The USS Arizona was a battleship. :smack:
No carriers were sunk at Pearl Harbor—fortunately, they were at sea on maneuvers.
On May 16, 1917 the local policeman came down to collect the poll tax from my grandfather. He refused to pay and the policeman told him he’d pay the next day. My grandfather said “We’ll see.” The next day he enlisted in the army, which he knew all along that he was going to do. He was placed in the 2nd Division and trained as a mounted engineer. He said it took 22 days to cross the ocean and their horses were sunk by the Germans over the Irish Sea.
His first time “over the top” [out of the trenches] was on June 6, 1918 at Vaux. At Belleau Woods they came out of the trenches again and, while helping to hold the southern Allied line, seven or eight of them woke up one morning in front of a whole line of Germans. They hadn’t gotten the word to fall back. He decided “they’d better get” and he managed to lead them back to the Allied side. For a while they wouldn’t let them back because they thought they were spies. A Lieutenant recommened him for the Silver Star for gallantry in action (which he received) but his Sergeant said he should have been put down as AWOL. My mom has 8-10 silver spoons that he found while digging trenches.
His grandfather was a member of the 9th Kansas Cavalry during the Civil War and I’ve just sent for his records.
Another great-great grandfather and his brother served in the 73rd Indiana Vol. Infantry and fought at Stone’s River, Athens, Day’s Gap and were part of the infamous Lightning Mule Brigade that surrendered to Nathan Bedford Forrest at Rome, Georgia. This great-great grandfather ended up deserting his wife and children after the war and had no contact with them for 18 years and was presumed dead. He never would have been heard from again if he hadn’t sent a letter to his brother, who had died the year before, which was somehow forwarded to my great-grandfather. I’d heard rumors of his “disappearance” but didn’t know he was gone for 18 years until I received his quite hefty pension file. Great-aunts of mine still deny that this ever happened. Other interesting tidbits in the pension file speak of his mother’s and sister’s insanity.
I’m also descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullens via a Peabody that married one of their daughters. My great-great grandmother wrote:
"Grandmother [Peabody - the 3rd great-grandaughter of John Alden] was born in Conneticut in 1767. and was therefore 8 years old at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. I have heard her tell that she was once left in care of a baby brother, and soon a neighbor boy came saying. “Hide! the Redcoats and the Indians are coming!”, and then went further on to give the alarm. Grandmother took the baby and went to a hollow log about a quarter mile from the house and crowded in with the baby. In a few minutes she heard the yells and shouts of the enemy. They helped themselves to what they wanted on the premises, and some of theim came within a few rods of her hiding place. But the babe did not cry…though she greatly feard it would, and she was safe.”
I’m related to the Mendenhalls who were killed by Indians during their travels with Daniel Boone (The Boone Massacre of 1773).
Some of my relatives were part of William Penn’s colony in Pennsylvania and also part of Roger William’s colony in Rhode Island.
I’m also related to Mary Todd Lincoln and Richard Nixon.
Sheesh…Connecticut.
Our relatives traveled together nearly two centuries ago. Small world.
Hm…
My mom witnessed what was, until 9/11, the deadliest plane crash in US history. (Chicago, 5/25/1979). Her work was right by O’hare, and the crash shook her building and knocked out the power. By a freaky coincidence, two of her coworkers died in the crash, but not on the ground–they were on the plane going to LA for a business thing. My dad was frantic in trying to find out if she was okay–there were fatalities on the ground, and it took her something like four or five hours to get home (normally, it took 45 minutes).
One of my distant-great-uncles was present at Vatican II (he was a cardinal and the archbishop of Montreal at the time). A quote from a www.sundaylaw.net/books/other/standish/twobeasts/tb45.htm+archbishops+montreal+l%C3%A9ger&hl=en&ie=UTF-8"]webpage:
This establishes my family’s tradition of being fairly liberal Catholics.
Crappy link. here.
I just did a google on this guy. Apparently, he stepped down as Archbishop of Montreal in order to serve at a leper colony. And his brother, Jules, was Governor-General (or however you spell it) of Canada.
Of course, all my grandma knew was “some relative of Lucien’s was the archbishop of Montreal.” So, no proof…but still, I think he’s way cool. Yay!
Not, by chance, the John Alden who had something like four wives through the course of his life?
On second look at the Alden presence in my family tree, can’t possibly be. However, does the name “Henry Mills Alden” ring any bells?
According to legend, my mom’s side of the family came over on the next ship after the Mayflower. On the same side, one of my ancestors went off with Penn to found Rhode Island (I think I got the guy’s name. It was Penn, right?)
As a tangent to history, my entire immediate family (except me, I wasn’t borned yet) saw Skylab fly overhead before it crashed in Australia.
Roger Williams founded Rhode Island. Not William Penn.
Quite possibly, **AOTL ** your distant great uncle and mine, a priest, were at Vatican II together. My uncle was working behind the scenes with ( I guess) the arch bishop/ cardinal/big cheif who-ha from the Toronto sector. (Great uncle was ordained in Toronto.) They were trying to get on the table (I’ve been told) that there was no real biblical/gospal/whatever justification for priests to remain celebate. Naturally, it was poo poohed. As a runaway catholic, my eyes just glazed over whenever these conversations ever came up.
Small world.
Sorry, “Henry Mills Alden” rings no bells. You could try looking for him here. http://www.alden.org/
My great-great-something or other-grandfather was a Union soldier at Gettysburg. His name is on some memorial. Always interesting.
My grandmother had an aunt that died on the Titanic…too bad she didn’t live to tell the story.
Leif Eriksson the viking explor…same last name as me but different spelling.
Eh, that one’s a long shot.
My father developed the communications system which was used during the accident at Three Mile Island. In fact, we spent Easter of that year at TMI visiting him because he was one of the team installing it during the accident. As proof, if I ever get to know any of you people well enough in real life, I’ll be happy to show you the Three Mile Island camera test chart which still hangs on the wall of my parents’ basement – a pin up photo of Loni Anderson.
CJ
Well here is my 2 cents
A) I am supposedly descended from Meriwhether Lewis - but I have no evidence of that one.
B) My brother-in-law has traced my family ancestry back to Irish royalty and he shows me the tree but I have no proof of it.
My old man helped design the descent engine for the Lunar Module, specifically the throttling mechanism. At the time, and perhaps still today, it was the most precise rocket throttle ever built.
He also worked on the Labeled Release Instrument, which some–including my father, naturally–maintain sucessfully detected signs of life on Mars during the Viking missions in 1976. The other two instuments on each of the two Viking spacecraft did not register positive for signs of life. As he likes to put it, “we did find signs of life on Mars.” Whether or not those findings are valid is a matter of dispute–in his rather biased opinion.
Dad did a lot of other things, too, which he regrettably can only talk around to this day. Much of it involves ICBMs. There is one story in particular which he tells with a particular relish, involving some playful targeting engineers in California dropping an ICBM test warhead only a couple of hundred yards away from the docked recovery ship in Kwajalein in response to someone’s complaints about how difficult it was to find the reentry vehicle in the enormous lagoon. He can’t say it, but I think he was there.
One day I asked him if a nuke dropping in on a city could be seen. He grew quite serious and said, “I guarantee you’d know exactly what that sumbitch was for the last ten seconds of your life.” I suspect it was an awe-inspiring experience.
I’m directly descended from both John Knox (of the Protestant reformation in Scotland) and John Witherspoon (who signed the Declaration of Independance).
My great-grandfather (I think; give or take a generation) woke up one morning to find his brand new car stolen. He found it again sometime later, riddled with bullet holes. Afterwards, he discovered it had been stolen by Al Capone.
My grandmother on my other side, while still a very little kid, was out picnicing with her family when they saw Bonnie and Clyde show up. They decided to leave very quietly and very, very quickly before anything happened.
i’m related to david livingstone, so sort of.
and my (jewish) great uncle was Goebbels psychoanalyst in the early 20s…it didn’t work out…
My paternal great-great something or other was a Colonel in the French and Indian War at Fort Pitt.