I’ve been doing some genology research into my family and over the years have discovered some facts (some I knew previously, some are new to me).
For others looking into their families, what things have your discovered?
I’ll start it off.
[ol]
[li]My mother’s maiden name is Turkish. Her father was a Russian jew, so I have no idea how he got the family name.[/li][li]My great great grandmother was a high class prostitute in Paris. Her last name was the same as my wife’s maiden name (a very unusual one).[/li][li]I’m distantly related to Louis “Lepke” Buchalter – my great aunt married into the Buchalter family. My grandmother kept this secret from her second husband all his life.[/li][li]My grandmother’s real name was “Gisella.” She stopped using it by 1920 and used “Gertrude” instead.[/li][li]A great great aunt was married to a relatively famous gynecologist; his textbookwas used in med schools for years and is still in print. He had several procedures named after him[/li][li]My great great aunt divorced him when she discovered he was messing around with his nurse. It was a scandal of the time.[/li][li]My grandmother suffered from depression in the late 30s, probably due to loss of her son to measles. She was living in a sanatorium in 1939, when my grandfather met Albert Einstein, but she did manage to meet him several years later.[/li][li]Composer Benjamin Britten was in love with my father, and dedicated a song to him.[/li][/ol]
My paternal line is Pennsylvania Dutch, but they left PA & lost the German by around 1800.
My grandmother’s surname is a Latin (well, Italian) root with a Greek suffix, and her father’s village was Greek-speaking until the century he was born.
My maternal grandfather’s entire family is from the teeny tiny “country” of Hohenlohe, absorbed into Württemberg in the 19th century. This is only interesting because I’m a huge Prisoner of Zenda fan and it sounds Ruritania-esque.
In the 16th century, my ancestor with my surname was burgermeister of a small village in the Saint Gallen area of Switzerland.
On another line, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh and by some accounts the discoverer of Newfoundland, is a direct ancestor. My paternal Grandfather’s mother’s maiden name was Gilbert, and her marriage is what changed the name in my direct line. (He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for slaughtering Irish in Ireland. There’s a New York Times story about him, and it seems he would line the path to his field tent with the heads of those he had ordered executed. You go, Grandpa!)
I am also a direct descendent of what was at the time the richest man in New York City, in the first half of the 1700s. A retired ethnic-Irish admiral in the British Navy, he had a sprawling farm in what is today Greenwich Village. Alas! His riches failed to make it down to me. (I have his name buried in my records but can’t go searching right now.) It was another Gilbert who had the adjacent farm, and their two children married.
Still another Gilbert, descendent of the above, was a silversmith in New York City and active in the Revolution. I believe he participated in the evacuation of Manhattan, and since George Washington made it a point to be the last man out, this Gilbert no doubt saw him, maybe even passed right by him and saluted. I’ve often wondered if he would have known Paul Revere. A historical journal published an article about him in the 1940s, and I have a copy of that buried away somewhere too. I believe he was also on the official NYC welcoming committee for George Washington too sometime after the war.
However, one of them was wounded in the Civil war and was laid out to rest under one of the wagons. While he was sleeping, the order came to bug out and they left. He awoke in the middle of the night, lying in an empty field. He got up and followed the trail to the new site a few miles down the road.
Ancestors on my mother’s side were covered-wagon pioneers in the 1860’s or so, travelling from Sheffield, England to Utah by way of New Orleans. When my great-great-great grandfather began to be pressured to take on a second wife, he & his wife left Utah, officially so that he could find work in Nevada as a smelter. He didn’t find work in Nevada and they kept going and ended up in what would become Chatsworth, California. His wife opened one of the first public schools run by a white woman in California.
Re: #1 - it’s hard to know without knowing the name, but could it possibly be a simplified spelling or pronunciation of the original name?
Mom’s dad is Pennsylvania Dutch and ??? Irish or something. The surname is uncommon in Ireland, or with two letters flipped or one dropped and the same pronunciation, German. So it’s really hard to figure out the origin, and if that’s the original spelling.
I heard recently that my paternal grandmother’s parents had the same last name. They weren’t related in the strictest sense (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), but it is a rare name (not in the top XXX from US census) that really only occurs in Liguria. You haven’t heard of it.
Oh, and another Gilbert fought at Gettysburg in the Civil War. The wife and I visited Gettysburg last year and found his name on a list of his New York regiment, along with a brother or cousin of his (forget which).
Conversely, on my mother’s side, my and her direct ancestor deserted from his Arkansas regiment in the Confederate Army, along with one or two brothers or cousins. I’ve found the list with his name on it, and he’s officially classified as a deserter including the date he left. That was in 1863, but they didn’t all leave together. They were spaced out over some months. It’s like they all just eventually said “Fuck it.”
The first ancestor I can name was Adam Kasson, he came to North America in 1722 with his wife Jane(Hall) Kasson and eight children. A family history said he was of French Protestant descent, and the family had left France after the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, settling in the north of Ireland for a generation or so.
Robert Kasson, a son, is my direct ancestor. He was court-martialed during the Revolutionary War. He was apparently pissed off at having to fight with the French Catholic auxiliaries brought over by the Marquis de Lafayette, and refused to fight with them. He later got the decision commuted. My aunt used this guy to get into the DAR, after she finally lined up all the necessary documentation.
John Adam Kasson was descended from another son of Adam Kasson, so we are very distantly related. I figured it out once, we are third cousins five times removed. He was distinguished in politics and the diplomatic service in the latter part of the nineteenth century, serving as Postmaster General and envoy to Austria-Hungary, amongst other posts. John A. Kasson - Wikipedia
My maternal grandfather’s father(my great-grandfather) was a draft dodger, from Germany. At sixteen he didn’t fancy becoming cannon fodder while Bismarck was busy unifying Germany, so he stowed away and came the the United States. His brother was already here, so that made it a little easier for him
A great-great- grandfather, a Union soldier, was held in the infamous Andersonville prison. He lived through it, but it affected his health for the rest of his life.
Would that be Sir Peter Warren, Siam Sam? And here’s a nice little article on the silversmith. It would be nice if some of his pieces passed down to you!
Bingo! Sir Peter Warren, that’s him. Dear old Granddad. Thanks. And that’s the exact article I have a copy of, I recognize it. My uncle was big into researching our family, and he’s the one who sent it to me.
Yes, I wish I had just a couple of those silver pieces. Long lost, at least to me.
My paternal grandfather, contrary to family tradition, jumped ship in New York (he was probably a stoker, which is basically what he ended up doing at a factory in West Allis, WI) and entered the US as an illegal alien in 1910 or '11. He didn’t wait to set himself up before bringing my grandmother from Budapest to Milwaukee, and then abstained from sex until they were properly married; she was already well knocked up when they tied the knot, right there in MKE.
He apparently fancied himself a Nikolai Tesla–type; after he retired, he spent hours in the basement trying to come up with an invention that would make the family rich.
Despite my dad’s assertions that the family was “all-Hungarian” (so to speak), my grandmother’s maiden name was German, and my great-grandmother had a Slovak one that sounds suspiciously Jewish.
My maternal grandfather was a professional baseball player (minor leagues) who died after being hit in the head by a line drive. My maternal grandmother (who, from everything I’ve ever heard, was a first-class bitch) then kidnapped my mother (aged 8, living with her dad’s mother) and took her from Missouri to Chicago.
Going way, way back, assuming I traced his lineage correctly, one of my ancestors on my maternal grandfather’s line was born at sea in August 1600 while sailing from Germany to Virginia.
My mother’s maternal family came from the West Riding in Yorkshire. I visited there in 1976 and asked the local vicar if there was any data on them; after 20 minutes of checking Church records, he traced them back to 1632, and said they could probably be found in much older documents as well.
They emigrated to Virginia not long after the English Civil War, probably because they had backed the wrong side. Apparently (from research one of my cousins did), the family is mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Scottish, wrong religion. Dad’s side.Had his head forcibly separated from his body. His son decided it was a good idea to go to America.
Mom’s side: similar situation. Wrong religion but someone had the courtesy to warn that the law was after them. They allegedly caught a Norwegian pirate ship and landed in VA not far from Jamestown. They fared somewhat better than the Jamestowners did.
French: for some strange reason left the country in the mid 1600’s. Now what could possibly cause people to leave such a lovely country ? (Yeah, before anyone asks, I know)
German: Skipped town in the 18th century. It might have had something to do with Frederick the Not So Great. Oddly, a lot of them went to Ireland.
Irish: I’m not sure but I heard they arrived because there may have been some sort of food supply problem. One of them died after falling down the stairs and whacking her head. It lead to us arguing about whether she tripped on her petticoat, got pushed by the maid, or stumbled because she was drunk.
My great-great-great-grandfather was one of the earliest Mormon pioneers who settled Utah. The cabin he built in 1853 is preserved today in the Pioneer Village attraction of a Utah theme park.
We had a very successful family reunion last year.
my grandparents had 12 children. You can imagine the turnout.
Anyway we found out.
My great great great grandfather crossed the border from Mexico to settle in Texas.
We suspect we have Jewish roots. (Big shock to everyone)
He was buried in a plot next to another man. This other man is a mystery.
he had 2 sons and 1 wife, but the wife, my great great great grandmother’s grave was located in another cemetery.
There were rumors this man buried in the same plot might have been “his partner”
My fathers family came from France by way of Ireland. Arrived in Maryland in1610. One descendant of this group became the first representative of Maryland to the Continental Congress and then later missed out on signing the Declaration of Independence because of illness.
My mothers family were major land owners in Scotland and Northern Ireland until one of the sons became a Quaker. He came and settled the Winchester, Virginia area around 1730 and became a pacifist contributor to the war effort. He managed the prisoners of war for Gen Washington
I have spent 20 yrs researching my family(both sides). It is a fascinating hobby and I would encourage anyone with even the smallest interest to get in there and search. The internet has made things much easier than the days of traveling to county seats and spending days reading through old records.
Two Mayflower travelers: William Bradford and William Brewster, both of whom were at the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
One of my great grandfathers was a Union soldier (23rd New York Infantry, Company K) and was captured at 2nd Bull Run. He was later one of the first settlers of the Devil’s Lake area of South Dakota and one of the first three appointed commissioners for Ramsey County.
One of my Gray ancestors was in the Revolutionary War.
Colegrove, PA was founded by one of my Colegrove ancestors.
Related to eight Declaration of Independence signatories.
Related to 13 US presidents, including George Washington and George Bush.
Maybe Khazar? The Khazars were Turkish Jews who lived in what is now Russia. Or (more likely) Karaim or Tatar. The Karaim are Jews of Turkish origin living in Russia, Crimea, and Lithuania. There are Turkic Tatars in Lithuania, eastern Poland, and western Belarus, which was also the area of the Jewish Pale in the Russian Empire.
Through my mother’s mother I’m descended from a captain in the Revolutionary War, who fought at Bunker Hill at the very beginning and at Yorktown at the very end, where he captured a British sword. After the Revolution he moved his family over the Alleghenies and they became the first Catholic pioneers in Western Pennsylvania. They founded the extremely Catholic town of Loretto there to propagate the faith. So the strong Catholic presence you find today all over Western Pennsylvania? Yeah, that’s our fault. :o
Some of my other Irish ancestors in that line also saw action in the Revolutionary War when they were pioneers in Pennsylvania and got attacked by Mohawks who were allied with the British. They narrowly escaped getting scalped, while a couple of the other settlers they were with got scalped. They attacked my ancestor’s sister who was with them, and they tore her dress off from behind while she was escaping, and she just barely made it to safety.
My great-great-grandmother, the Revolutionary captain’s great-granddaughter and grandniece of the torn-dress girl, her brother joined the 125th Company of Pennsylvania Volunteers and fought at Antietam, where he gave his life for his country. She married a triracial descendant of a mixed Black Indian–Pennsylvania German family that had been in Western Pennsylvania since the French and Indian War.
My mother descends from a long line of staunch Democrats. She was born in 1934 and her middle name is Eleanor, which goes to show how Democratic we are. When people said to her mother that she could join the DAR, my grandmother always said, “Yes, but why would anyone want to?”
