The lore in my family always was that my great-great-great-great grandfather was a companion of Daniel Boone. (This story was confirmed when I found it mentioned in an obituary of my great-great grandfather online.)
I was told this from an early age. Imagine my surprise when, in elementary school, I read a biography of Boone and was confronted with a scene in which “a man named Johnson” (my grandmother’s maiden name) comes running into the fort where Boone was holed up, madly waving four Indian scalps about.
My research-turning-up-oh-wow moment: I had done a lot of genealogical research starting about 25 years ago, and then later started going back for the more recent events and obtaining copies of primary documents to support those events. Not that anything was in dispute, but more as a record-keeping, best-proof-on-file sort of thing. I wasn’t looking for anything other than confirmation of what I already knew and was well-established in the family.
One of the first things I ordered and received was my parents’ marriage record. Imagine my surprise when it showed that my mother had been previously married, a fact never-ever mentioned by anyone at any time. I then researched a few documents of her first marriage and learned she had been married a short time (under 2 years) and divorced. I was disappointed when I asked her if she wanted to discuss it and she said “no”. Not the biggest thing in the world, but I wish she’d at least talked a bit about it with me before she died.
As for going way back: an ancestor and her sister were hung as witches in Salem.
Supposedly, one of my great-grandfather’s brothers never came home from the First World War because he didn’t like his wife. This has not been confirmed though.
One of my favorite things about genealogy is the conduit it gives to understanding odd incidents and both major and minor events in history that you may not have been familiar with before. I learned I had ancestors who gave evidence during the Pendle Witches case in Lancashire in 1612, an event I wasn’t familiar with but it was certainly big news at the time. Some historians of Shakespeare believe that the play MacBeth may have been revised to incorporate some elements from the trials into the play, the three witches being patterned on a grandmother, daughter and granddaughter who were executed as it was a case followed with great interest by King James I/VI.
It’s also where our notion of the Halloween witch- the old crone with the crumpled hat and a flying broomstick- comes from. One of the accused, “Old Demdike”, had a reputation as a clothing thief (clothing was very expensive in the 17th century and one of the most frequently stolen items) and had supposedly stolen a hat similar to the Puritan buckle hat or the capotain which she wore openly after being acquitted for the theft of and after it was battered (the witch’s hat), and at her trial it was “revealed” she bewitched a broom and used it to seduce young girls into withcraft, plus she was old (had grown grandchildren) and looked like a crone and wore- as did many people of the time- a cape like cloak over her clothes, so it becomes stylized intothis.
I think that Old Demdike’s dying curse is why men in my family are hung til this very day. (You have to be really precise when using black magic- exact wording is everything.)
What was a married couple doing participating in a box social? Round here (rural Ontario) it was just for the unmarried youngins. Or was that some sort of wife-swapping racket in Mississippi? :dubious:
I’m not even a little bit interested in genealogy, but in learning how to use the tools for it as part of my job, I occasionally look up the ancestors I can. I found my paternal grandmother’s name listed at an orphanage in the 1920 (IIRC) census.
Not much point in trying to go any further down that particular branch of my roots, I suppose.
My most interesting ancestor was a Hessian deserter.
He was among the Hessians captured by Washington at Trenton (following the crossing of the Delaware). Subsequently he was returned to duty via a prisoner exchange. But he wound up deserting (along with some comrades) in South Carolina, and then made his way to western North Carolina where he settled down in a German community. I like to think he saw the light on the issue of American independence.
My great-great-grandmother was “dragged by a horse” and confined to an institution. I’m not sure what to make of this, perhaps she was brain-damaged? Her husband apparently felt unable to take care of the children and put them up for adoption.
Her daughter, raised by another family, great-grandmother Hazel, was miles of crazy. She shot her lover, necessitating a quick exit from Utah. She later abandoned her husband and children. Her husband felt unable to take care of the children and sent them to a Catholic orphanage.
Later, my grandmother, who had been raised by nuns, was abandoned by her husband. She kept the children, my mother and uncle. Strange how cycles of abuse repeat themselves, generation after generation.
I’m not touching Sampiro’s “hung” for all the world…
Anyone been to the Salem MA museum? They do a great job of depicting the events surrounding the trials. And they have a great gift shop.
I know a bunch of my ancestors (on both sides, mother and father) fought in the Revolutionary War. I need to ask my mother who and what. I also do not know if the Appalachian kinfolk fought in gray or in blue. One of them had a small farm and owned 2 slaves.
My Hessian ancestor was handed off to the local blacksmith (he had the skills from the old country). At the end of the war he married the man’s daughter.
"I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s time to ban box supper socials. "
This is how my maternal grandparents met! They married in 1898, and all he would say about how his courtin’ days was, “Those Lavenham ladies sure make good pies!”
My husband is from Canefield. Thing about Massacre is that it’s pronounced Ma Sack so to newcomers the meaning only dawns when they see the road sign and start going - wait … what the hell happened here. The Warners are still alive and kicking in Antigua.
My family has a portrait of our ultimately unsuccessful highway robber relative - all head shaved and waiting to be hung.
One of my ancestors was sentenced to death for stealing a handkerchief in 1830’s England at the age of 14. His sentence was subsequently commuted, and he served time in the prison hulks at Chatham Yard, a fleet of obsolete ships permanently anchored and used as prisons. His conviction is recorded at the Old Bailey, and the records are online. My mother has a letter that he sent his father from prison.
Way back on my paternal grandmother’s side (the only part of the family that I know of that’s done any real genealogical research–and it made for a very lopsided family tree in school) it looks like some of them had enough wealth to have one slave and some others were sharecroppers, at least during Reconstruction.
We don’t talk family in my family. I’m not sure why, but the 1,500+ mile distance (depending on the exact relationship) sure didn’t help matters. Nor the estrangement (totally justified, in my opinion) between my father and my uncle. Or that my maternal grandfather was raised in an orphanage. Probably the fact that I have such a small extended family also didn’t help. For something like 25 years I had exactly one first cousin. I now have a second first cousin and one first cousin once removed (and they’re almost the same age), neither of which I have ever seen. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve even seen a photograph of either of them. We went to a family reunion once for my paternal grandmother’s extended family and I’ve never felt so out of place among so many people, especially considering I’m related to all of them. I’ve thought about doing some genealogical work myself, but don’t want to spend the money.
