I’m a direct descendant of John Knox and John Witherspoon (a signer of the Declaration of Independance).
My paternal great grandfather came to Chicago from Scotland with nothing but the shirt on his back. He saved every penny he earned to pay for my great grandmother’s trip over. Since he didn’t spend any money himself for anything but food and shelter, basically, his co-workers bought him a coat and gloves, as he was working the railroad switches in the freezing Chicago winters. He later went on to become an important person within American Steel Foundries.
My paternal grandfather’s car was stolen by Al Capone. Went missing one night, then found the next morning, riddled with bullet holes from a car chase.
One of my great uncles (maternal side again) is the only known family member to be injured while on active duty. He shot himself in the leg while holstering his gun. :smack:
Sir Francis Drake was my most famous ancestor. Explorers seem to run in the family - an ancestor of more recent (Victorian) vintage explored the Middle East with Sir Richard Burton (not the actor).
I am also distantly related to Czar Nicolas. Apparently, he had a lot of bastard children.
This Mani Leib is my maternal grandfather’s uncle.
According to my maternal grandfather, his mother’s side of the family was very wealthy back in the Ukraine. He says they had a major financial part in the building of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
This is the sad story about why my family now has no money.
My direct descendent was the first born son. According to primogeniture, he would have inherited every last cent from his father. He went to fight in Turkey and didn’t come back. The family knew he had been captured and assumed he’d never come back. So, the next son got the wealth. A few years later when he did return, they hastily set him up with a small business and a little bit of money and that was that.
My maternal grandfather is also a very interesting person. He taught medicine during World War II despite the fact that he’s not a doctor or a teacher. Actually, he’s never even gone to college. Since then, he’s been a very talanted TV repair man, politician, college board member, Civil Rights leader, newspaper columnist, target of Fred Phelps, and an all-around damn fine grandfather. I think at one point he was even a member of Mensa but I’m not sure. He certainly qualifies but it doesn’t strike me as something he’d do.
His younger son plays (well) every instrument he’s ever laid his hands on. He also teaches computer and music stuff in college despite not being a college graduate.
Other than that, my family is pretty regular. My mother impressed me greatly for graduating college with a 3.96 GPA, and for being offered a full scholorship to Wellesley - all while working and raising 3 daughters (by herself). She had to turn down Wellesley though because she couldn’t afford to live or commute there.
My paternal Great Grandfather was a moonshiner and bootlegger, he would run whiskey in a model A Ford with his wife (my great-grandmother whom I well remember) but unfortunately got involved in a chase with federal officers. My great-grandmother jumped out of the moving car on a turn and escaped, he went to prison in Georgia for some years. When he came back he was a changed man, and not for the better. After a few years of abusive behavior to his family he was found dead, apparently run over by his own beer wagon while drunk. It was ruled an accidental death however my great aunt told me after my great grandmother passed it was no such thing… you just didn’t raise a hand to my great-grandmother, not a smart thing to do. She went on to support 3 children by cutting timbers and hauling them out of the woods on her back to sell to the railroads for use as ties. Now… this same great-grandfather’s father (my great-great-grandfather) was a cavalry in the Confederate army of Tennessee. After the war was over he like quite a few young men with nothing left after the war went west to Texas where he met a young lady and fell in love. Her father was pretty well off and objected to his daughter being courted by my g-g-grandad and forbad them to see each other. So, he kidnapped her in the night and took her all the way back home to Tennessee where she became my great-great-grandmother. :>
Also Josiah Fox (okay I am willing to bet most people don't know who that is, but in some circles he is quite famous). He was the naval architect who designed the U.S.S. Constitution. He also got tossed out of the Quakers for building warships.
I have neither the time nor patience yet to see what the exact relations are, but I have been told I am related to Doc Holliday and our Fearless Leader, which both are from the same side. One of Shrub’s direct relatives is a Holliday and many of his current relatives live here in Ohio. We’re typically an intelligent and extremely liberal family, but sometimes it skips some.
At least that’s what I said, when my great-aunt, the family historian, explained that I was eligible to join the DAR. (Daughters of the Amerian Revolution, for non-US Dopers.) It ranks right down there with the Junior League and golf clubs on my “rather be boiled in oil than join” list, so I disappointed her. A very nice, and formidable lady in her own right but our interests sure didn’t coincide.
But Lewis Morris does sound like a pretty neat guy. He signed the Declaration of Independence for New York, and threw his fortune into backing the infant nation. And went broke doing it, but that side of the family tended to make a bundle then promptly lose it again.
As far as I can tell, I didn’t inherit a damned thing from him by way courage, vision or brains, which would have been even nicer than the loot.
One of my soi-distant ancestors on my father’s side was Joel Barlow, poet, friend of Thomas Jefferson and ambassador to France (guess who gave him the job). He’s the only cool one that I know of.
One of my ancestors was the first on to sing the national anthem (of the US), after putting the words the music. His father was a surgeon in the French army (and a Hugonought) who left France and deserted the army to fight in the American Revolution.
Another faught alongside Teddy Roosevelt as a Rough Rider.
And last, but definitely not least, one of my ancestors was Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, a brilliant miltary leader (you know, all that 30 years war stuff) as well as one responsible for much domestic reform.
Well, supposedly my Scottish lineage goes back to Robert the Bruce and Lord Byron. I guess whether or not that’s cool depends on how you feel about Lord Byron’s poetry.
I am also a very, very distant cousin of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I have a long-ago Uncle Alexander who did a lot of inventing of telephone equipment. No, not *that * Alexander, but he did invent that rubber ramp stuff that cables can be put into so they’re safe to walk over as well as something related to the creation of the cable lashing machine (It’s what puts that spiral wrapping around telephone lines pole-to-pole.)
Brigadier General James A. Walker, CSA.
Among his accomplishments:
[ul]
[li]While a student at VMI, challenged Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to a duel in class. Was expelled from the school.[/li][li]Commissioned at start of War of Secession. Later recommended by Jackson to command the Stonewall Brigade.[/li][li]Was the only commander of the Stonewall Brigade to survive the war.[/li][li]Served as Virginia house delegate, lieutenant governor, and Congressman after the war.[/li][/ul]
I think my great-grandfather is as cool (or interesting might be better) an ancestor as I can get. He fought for one of the various Irish Republican groups during the Easter Rising in Ireland and as history would have it was to be hanged just as all prisoners were pardoned and sent on his way with a few coins to buy a new suit.
That and someone who was possibly a grand-uncle who flew Spitfires in Africa during WWII. He was eventually shot down in a transport aircraft full of fairly high ranking officers whom the Germans supposedly thought were a lot more highly ranking.
Just a quick correction. At the battle of Savo Island, the cruisers Canberra, Astoria, Vincennes, and Quincy were sunk. However, only the Canberra was Australian- the rest were American (including the Astoria).
