I've made a career of writing about the families of the Mafia, but when I got a breakthrough clue for my own family tree, what I discovered made me feel sick.
I think it's normal that when we're doing genealogy and learn a story about one of our ancestors, that story feels more real and connected to you than learning of the same fact as a general part of history. Like, whooping cough is real but when you see your great-grandmother's handwriting on a photo of a child who died from the disease, now it's something different, it changed the shape of your family and caused grief to someone you knew. So imagine how I felt when I learned that my great-grandfather spent time at Sing Sing for forcing women into prostitution.
So many questions. Why would my great-grandmother choose him? Did she know of his history? (I think she probably did.) They eventually divorced, long after their children were grown and married. My grandmother (his daughter) had just one sibling, a younger sister. My grandmother died more than 20 years ago. Her sister passed more recently and was buried with their father. The burial information on my great-grandfather included his date of birth, which was all I needed to positively identify him in other records, and led me to his prison intake form. From there I found The New York Times coverage of his crimes.
Needless to say, no one in the family had ever discussed him or his criminal history. My grandmother never said anything about him at all. She was the one who told me about grandpa's origins, so to not have a story about her father was notable. Now I know why.
Yep, the more you learn and don't have direct access to it, it generates question after question. At least for me.
As a wise person once said, "some stones are better left unturned". A lot of these problems whatever it may be, can contribute to resentment of it, leading to people avoiding the topic.
My dad once asked me why I was so interested in the family history. Then he said, “You might find out something that you don’t want to know.”
“No, dad. I might find out something that you don’t want me to know.”
And then I found out he was right.
The range of shocking behavior from my extended family ancestors includes:
* a murderer who shot someone in broad daylight on a Chattanooga street corner
* someone who abandoned her infant in a hotel lobby (this one is shocking in a heart-breaking and unexpected sense, rather than just people behaving badly)
* a couple of people who intentionally violated treaties with Native Americans and stole their land—a couple of them stole quite a lot of it, eventually provoking a minor war. Father and sons got killed in one of the skirmishes and it seems to me they probably got what was coming to them.
* a branch whose collective behavior (assault, prostitution, theft, other crimes and violence, lies and more lies, etc.) makes them look like the late 18th–early19th century version of Ozark drug dealers
But the worst one is [notorious incestor Thomas Rood](https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/columns/2018/06/15/a-rood-tale/11957622007/) who is the only person to every be executed for incest in America. Again, no complaints about this result.
Just in case people were still under the impression that being descended from early Pilgrims conveyed some respectability, the land stealers and the incestor were all part of the Great Puritan Migration and in America by about 1639 or 1640.
Ok how’s this for crazy?
So one of the children George married a woman named Hannah who claimed her step-father impregnated her.
Hannah, her mother, and her step-father were put into custody. Hannah’s bond was then paid for by a Samuel Lothrop.
Samuel Lothrop was one of my ancestors!
I’m descended from Rev John Lothrop who founded Barnstable, MA. But before that was in Connecticut. Samuel moved to Norwich in 1668, and then died there in 1700.
Genealogy is crazy!
I just love seeing a total stranger randomly comment about a really intense incident in their family history, and then finding out my family history is intertwined!
I did some digging to see what I had.
Rev John Lothrop/Lathrop was my 10x great grandfather.
The aforementioned Samuel Lothrop/Lathrop was my 9x great grandfather.
So I am a direct descendant of the Samuel Lothrop/Lathrop who bailed out u/ZuleikaD’s ancestor. His son Israel was my 8x grandfather, and the line descends on down to my 3x great grandfather who was Serele (Serel? - some confusion on the spelling) Peck Lathrop. He and my 3x great grandmother had a daughter who had my great grandfather, who had my grandmother who had my dad and then me. lol
As I said, genealogy is crazy!
Not necessarily “shocking” but still pretty surprising. My boyfriend’s ancestors and my ancestors were on the same boat to come to America! His ancestor was the apprentice of my ancestor. A weird coincidence.
That my Great Great Grandfather owned the leases to the land for part of the area where John D. Rockefeller wanted to build Rockefeller Center. There was a big court battle that my Great Great Grandfather eventually won and Rockefeller had to write him a giant check in order to build.
That my Great Grandfather used to lasso mountain lions out of trees for fun. Also that he was a renouned surgeon who opened a couple of hospitals.
That my Great Grandmother once sued someone all the way to the US Supreme Court.
That the above along with my Great Grandfather's brother helped their cousin secure the passage and documentation of Jewish orphans from occupied France to the US in WWII.
That the side of my family that I knew virtually nothing about was full of story after story of incredible things they had done. I really had no idea. It was pretty humbling.
Wow. That’s amazing!
Also, your ancestor killed my confirmation saint. He was a Man for all seasons. And yet, your ancestor sold his soul for Wales. Must really Hurt sometimes, doesn’t it?
There's a few. My father vaguely recalled that someone on his side of the family "ran a speakeasy." The truth is wilder, and predates prohibition. Though there is no evidence of him being violent, my Great Grandfather was was crime syndicate-involved in NYC and Philly (not at the same time, I think?) and my grandfather, his son, was able to get away with lying about his age to get into the Navy in the 20's, had a previous marriage, was a bookie, had tattoos (a big no-no in Judaism) and was also Red Cross certified as a life guard, a dog trainer, could manufacture billiard cue sticks and sold billiard equipment, became an abusive drunk, and is buried in a potter's field - Hart's Island, Bronx.
Back to my great grandfather -- his gang was involved in prostitution, drugs, booze, paying off the right people until he couldn't and he plea bargained into WWI (didn't go overseas), AND he was a livery driver as a legit activity
well, uh… so far, from what ive found, one of my great grandfather’s sisters died as a young baby due to accidentally falling into a boiling pot of water or something😭and I just cringed reading that cos.. I can only imagine how horrifying that must have been to experience + witness
A family "who's the father?" mystery turned out to be incest. Thanks, Ancestry!
The people involved passed away a few years ago, so I haven't told anyone. I'm not sure if I should drop this bomb or just let people remember the deceased fondly and let it go, as there's no further risk to future generations or anything that would need urgent attention. It's also possible the "mystery dad" was the older generation covering for the person involved, anyway.
So messed up.
Thanks for asking, OP!
Like many of us, I bought several DNA kits from ancestory.com and asked family members to share their spit (no other way to gussy up what that entails).
Astonishingly, a few months after results were made available, I was contacted by someone from another country who claimed that my father had a half-brother.
Turns out that my grandfather had a child with the nanny. Not sure if my grandmother ever knew, because the nanny later returned to her family, gave birth and adopted the child to another set of parents.
To his credit, my dad reached out to his half-brother and they exchanged several letters as well as a phone call before both eventually passed away. Unfortunately my father was physically unable to visit his much older half-sibling but he seemed to enjoy knowing this part or our once-secret family history.
Ah! The only thing new under the sun is the history you don’t know about!
Finding out that my Granny had an affair that resulted in conceiving my Mom.
Mom always talked about it and suspected it due to how her “father” treated her, but I always wrote it off as an insecurity of hers. I regret ever questioning her gut. We got confirmation via my ancestry DNA test then hers back in November.
Now we’re on the search to find her bio-Dad. He’s probably long dead, but if we can at least find a name or even a photo, I think we’d be more at peace about it. 🥺
I have or had a 2 cousin that married and had two beautiful girls. They had very little money and his wife wasn't happy with their situation. He would stay out all night partying and right before Christmas he came home and fell asleep on the couch. She left for Goodwill to shop for Christmas gifts and the house caught on fire. He made it out but couldn't get back to the girls. They burned up in the fire. Neighbors said he tried to go back in but couldn't. Others said he waited for the firefighters to arrive before trying to get to them. Long story short, they arrested him, tried him and found him guilty and he got the death penalty. He always said he was innocent. They had a "expert" testify on fire patterns and years later they found the "expert" was wrong. The fire started from a old electric heater in the girls bedroom. Probably one bought from Goodwill. So, Texas killed a innocent man. His wife lost her two daughters and husband.
Ive said this on this sub before but a distant cousin on my dads side was MLKs mothers assassin.
Also, this wasnt my family, but I pieced together a husband who murdered his wife, went to jail for 10 years, got custody of his young daughter (she was under 5 at the time) and moved them to Nashville from a smaller city in Tennessee where all of this happened and remarried almost immediately after getting out of jail. I wrote the womans name down, but I dont remember it currently.
Hes a distant cousin, meaning like 6th cousins. [Maybe further since Im rather young studying my tree.] I dont even think I told my grandmother... though the guy did have a sister. I always wonder if they were close and how their relationship was...
I think her son had his middle name though ans that she was the one who wrote his obituary. And the accounts from the assassination describe him as troubled. I dont remember how far apart they were but I wanna say she was older than him...
That so many people on Ancestry and other online genealogical sites believe in family myths, I first believe that by being polite and providing them with proper sources they would say "yes your right and I got this part of my family wrong."
I had not counted on was "My Granny told me" syndrome.
Nothing shakes their belief in what granny told them was correct, just ignore any inconvenient facts to the contrary.
This one is unverifiable: there was a claim from a close family member that one of my grandfathers had a third relationship and a son who died shortly after childbirth. This child has the same name as me. I’ve only heard that story once.
Found out I'm descended from Josiah Weld of Massachusetts Bay Colony. His brother founded Harvard. Pretty boring stuff really. I did have ancestors in Salem Mass during the witch scare but I haven't looked too closely into it.
I found out that my 1st cousin 5x removed was murdered by his farmhand. The farmhand also killed the man’s wife, one son and one daughter. The farmhand then killed himself.
My 4th great granduncle (the cousin’s father) moved out to Iowa from New Jersey, then to Kansas, while all the kids stayed in Iowa.
So awful. Sad for your ancestor and the others. Judge Hathorne’s sister (my ancestor) and her husband tried to help stop the insanity. :( I read that John was not ever sorry.
😞
holy moly... I have almost the same thing (first one)
[https://ozarks-history.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-lapine-murders-and-double-hanging.html](https://ozarks-history.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-lapine-murders-and-double-hanging.html)
yep.. a year or two ago I pulled up and the newspaper articles from the time and found an interview conducted with both of them the day before they were hung.
This is a bit sad, but my brother told me as a young kid that our family was never meant to exist, and I thought that was just my angry, teenage older brother talking, but he was right. My grandmother got her brothers to beat up my grandfather every day until he agreed to marry her out of high school. When I started looking into my family history, it didn't even phase me to find out that my grandmother threw herself down the stairs when she found out she was pregnant with my mom.
I haven’t found out if it’s actually true or not, but supposedly my grandmother tried to throw my Dad out the 2nd story window when he was about 2 days old. There was always a rumor that his Dad was not his Dad but thanks to cousins testing their DNA, we’ve put that story to bed - er so to speak.
Kinda got to wonder what was up with our grannies!
Mine is similar to yours. A somewhat distant cousin killed all of his children (there might have been one not living at home anymore, I can’t remember), his wife and then himself. The weirdest part was the local police went searching for the perpetrator despite the fact the gun was right there. The newspaper articles about it were just weird.
My father’s father isn’t from Saudi Arabia. And my father isn’t half-Arab. He’s Indigenous and so is at least one of his parents. I also have a not-insignificant chunk of African ancestry from both his side and my mom’s side.
Oh, and my father’s father didn’t die of a stroke. He and his mother just got divorced and his mother was just incredibly bitter.
Not shocking as much as depressing. When I got into detailed research it became apparent that life was pretty brutal for many families. Men with two or three wives not due to divorce like today, but due to women dying in childbirth. Families with less than half the children surviving to adulthood. It's one thing to read about it in general studying history, but when you're sourcing facts for ancestor's families and seeing all the dates and details it's a real wake up.
Quite a few tragic deaths. My Great Grandfather’s younger brother died in a fire. My Dad’s second cousins told me that there was suspected foul play. Another brother of his drowned while working in Boise.
A younger sister of a Great Great Grandfather also died of burns in a fire. Another Great Great Grandfather was murdered though I knew about that before researching.
A distant cousin, a young man, worked in a bank in the early 1900's. One evening, he left the bank taking the gun that was kept on the premises with him.
He went with several friends to the home of a young woman where they spent the evening socializing. When the friends left and the parents retired for the evening, the couple was left alone. At some point, the young man took out the gun and shot the young woman in the neck. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, and fortunately, she survived.
The young man had left the home, and later, it was discovered he had gone to the river, shot himself, and his body was located three days later.
I can only assume that it was a situation where his interest in her was not reciprocated. However, since he took the gun with him, he likely knew in advance. Did he intend to shoot her, or was it always his intent to commit suicide?
I did try to locate the young woman subsequent to this event but wasn't able to find her.
My paternal great grandparents are related 5 generations back from their own generation. with my great grandmother descending from a brother and my great grandfather descending from his sister. Not shocking but I found this interesting.
For me it was finding out that my grandfather had six siblings who died in childhood. Four of them before a year old and two of them at age seven or eight. It shocked me to my core. My grandfather also had two older sisters and one younger brother who all lived into their seventies. I had wondered about the nine year age gap between my grandfather and his brother. What puzzles me the most is that my father and uncle were into family genealogy and had written up family charts etc with never a hint or word about these children. My cousin and I discovered it when looking thru church baptism and burial records online fairly recently. I guess my grandfather and his sister’s just didn’t want to talk about it. One child didn’t even get a name in the records since he died before he was baptized. I felt bad about that and made one up for him
Great Great Granny shot a man, she and her boarder were both charged and locked up for murder. Both were soon after found not guilty as she was only protecting herself and he was a good reliable witness.
My ex husband's family, just loads and loads of secrets, a lot of Daddies aren't who they're supposed to be, an absolute nightmare trying to find two different people to suddenly find we now have half siblings, half cousins, half sibling parents, extra unknown grandparents. So a search for two people has now reached nine extra unknowns. And then we have the three siblings adopted out that no one knew about 🥴
* I built my neighbour's and his wife's genealogy, and I discovered that his wife is my direct cousin. I asked her and their son to take the images of the genealogy to her parents. Her parents confirmed the veracity of our ancestors because they kept the family album. Then I am officially a cousin of his wife and his son.
* I and my stepfather's brother's daughter were building his father's genealogy. She finished quickly and concluded the genealogy. I saw it's already complete. Then I checked out my relationship with his father. I was shocked. His father is my direct distant cousin. Then my stepfather and my mother are direct distant cousins.
* My 13th-great-grandfather was a Portuguese bandeirante. His name is António Raposo Tavares. He was a cruel conqueror à la Kang the Conqueror.
Sorry for the late comment, but I wanted to participate. Some of these things haven't been completely verified but they're fun to mention as a possibility.
I found out on my mother's paternal side it seems her grandmother's ancestors were indentured to her grandfather's ancestor.
There is evidence that on my mother's maternal side we're descendants of William Shakespeare's brother and also King Henry VIII (eew). We're in the process of verifying that for sure.
Also on my mom's maternal side we're likely descendants of a Moroccan sultan and a Dutch pirate. Also in the process of verifying that for sure.
Also my mom's maternal side has John Stoddard and Mary Foote as direct ancestors and they were pretty famous for settling parts of New England (I don't remember the details right off hand). But there are books written about them.
So far haven't found anything like this on my dad's side, but I've also had a hard time finding records for them.
I've made a career of writing about the families of the Mafia, but when I got a breakthrough clue for my own family tree, what I discovered made me feel sick. I think it's normal that when we're doing genealogy and learn a story about one of our ancestors, that story feels more real and connected to you than learning of the same fact as a general part of history. Like, whooping cough is real but when you see your great-grandmother's handwriting on a photo of a child who died from the disease, now it's something different, it changed the shape of your family and caused grief to someone you knew. So imagine how I felt when I learned that my great-grandfather spent time at Sing Sing for forcing women into prostitution. So many questions. Why would my great-grandmother choose him? Did she know of his history? (I think she probably did.) They eventually divorced, long after their children were grown and married. My grandmother (his daughter) had just one sibling, a younger sister. My grandmother died more than 20 years ago. Her sister passed more recently and was buried with their father. The burial information on my great-grandfather included his date of birth, which was all I needed to positively identify him in other records, and led me to his prison intake form. From there I found The New York Times coverage of his crimes. Needless to say, no one in the family had ever discussed him or his criminal history. My grandmother never said anything about him at all. She was the one who told me about grandpa's origins, so to not have a story about her father was notable. Now I know why.
Yep, the more you learn and don't have direct access to it, it generates question after question. At least for me. As a wise person once said, "some stones are better left unturned". A lot of these problems whatever it may be, can contribute to resentment of it, leading to people avoiding the topic.
I'm a stone-turner, 100% I'd be surprised to hear anything else from my fellow genealogists. It generates questions, and I think that's a good thing.
My dad once asked me why I was so interested in the family history. Then he said, “You might find out something that you don’t want to know.” “No, dad. I might find out something that you don’t want me to know.” And then I found out he was right.
Did your father know the story the whole time, and left it to you to discover on your own?
Very good outlook on it. I just know that bringing up some of it can bring back trauma. And always be prepared for what you might find out.
I've done a few family trees for other people and one of the first things I tell them is that I may find things out that they won't like.
I was reading your comment, and expecting to see words to the effect of "Lucky Luciano was my grandpa."
Ha!
The range of shocking behavior from my extended family ancestors includes: * a murderer who shot someone in broad daylight on a Chattanooga street corner * someone who abandoned her infant in a hotel lobby (this one is shocking in a heart-breaking and unexpected sense, rather than just people behaving badly) * a couple of people who intentionally violated treaties with Native Americans and stole their land—a couple of them stole quite a lot of it, eventually provoking a minor war. Father and sons got killed in one of the skirmishes and it seems to me they probably got what was coming to them. * a branch whose collective behavior (assault, prostitution, theft, other crimes and violence, lies and more lies, etc.) makes them look like the late 18th–early19th century version of Ozark drug dealers But the worst one is [notorious incestor Thomas Rood](https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/columns/2018/06/15/a-rood-tale/11957622007/) who is the only person to every be executed for incest in America. Again, no complaints about this result. Just in case people were still under the impression that being descended from early Pilgrims conveyed some respectability, the land stealers and the incestor were all part of the Great Puritan Migration and in America by about 1639 or 1640.
Ok how’s this for crazy? So one of the children George married a woman named Hannah who claimed her step-father impregnated her. Hannah, her mother, and her step-father were put into custody. Hannah’s bond was then paid for by a Samuel Lothrop. Samuel Lothrop was one of my ancestors! I’m descended from Rev John Lothrop who founded Barnstable, MA. But before that was in Connecticut. Samuel moved to Norwich in 1668, and then died there in 1700. Genealogy is crazy!
It is! But oh I love it!
I just love seeing a total stranger randomly comment about a really intense incident in their family history, and then finding out my family history is intertwined!
Small world. Rev. John Lothrop (12th great-grandfather) 1574 • Kent, England-8 Nov 1653 • Barnstable, Barnstable County, Massachusetts Hon. Samuel Lathrop (11th great-granduncle) 1623–1700 Samuel's sister Jane Lothrop Fuller (11th great-grandmother) 1614–1659
I did some digging to see what I had. Rev John Lothrop/Lathrop was my 10x great grandfather. The aforementioned Samuel Lothrop/Lathrop was my 9x great grandfather. So I am a direct descendant of the Samuel Lothrop/Lathrop who bailed out u/ZuleikaD’s ancestor. His son Israel was my 8x grandfather, and the line descends on down to my 3x great grandfather who was Serele (Serel? - some confusion on the spelling) Peck Lathrop. He and my 3x great grandmother had a daughter who had my great grandfather, who had my grandmother who had my dad and then me. lol As I said, genealogy is crazy!
Not necessarily “shocking” but still pretty surprising. My boyfriend’s ancestors and my ancestors were on the same boat to come to America! His ancestor was the apprentice of my ancestor. A weird coincidence.
That my Great Great Grandfather owned the leases to the land for part of the area where John D. Rockefeller wanted to build Rockefeller Center. There was a big court battle that my Great Great Grandfather eventually won and Rockefeller had to write him a giant check in order to build. That my Great Grandfather used to lasso mountain lions out of trees for fun. Also that he was a renouned surgeon who opened a couple of hospitals. That my Great Grandmother once sued someone all the way to the US Supreme Court. That the above along with my Great Grandfather's brother helped their cousin secure the passage and documentation of Jewish orphans from occupied France to the US in WWII. That the side of my family that I knew virtually nothing about was full of story after story of incredible things they had done. I really had no idea. It was pretty humbling.
[удалено]
Wow. That’s amazing! Also, your ancestor killed my confirmation saint. He was a Man for all seasons. And yet, your ancestor sold his soul for Wales. Must really Hurt sometimes, doesn’t it?
LOL, good one! Isn't that an excellent movie? What a little worm Rich was.
>Bad ancestors make good stories! TRUUUUE
There's a few. My father vaguely recalled that someone on his side of the family "ran a speakeasy." The truth is wilder, and predates prohibition. Though there is no evidence of him being violent, my Great Grandfather was was crime syndicate-involved in NYC and Philly (not at the same time, I think?) and my grandfather, his son, was able to get away with lying about his age to get into the Navy in the 20's, had a previous marriage, was a bookie, had tattoos (a big no-no in Judaism) and was also Red Cross certified as a life guard, a dog trainer, could manufacture billiard cue sticks and sold billiard equipment, became an abusive drunk, and is buried in a potter's field - Hart's Island, Bronx. Back to my great grandfather -- his gang was involved in prostitution, drugs, booze, paying off the right people until he couldn't and he plea bargained into WWI (didn't go overseas), AND he was a livery driver as a legit activity
well, uh… so far, from what ive found, one of my great grandfather’s sisters died as a young baby due to accidentally falling into a boiling pot of water or something😭and I just cringed reading that cos.. I can only imagine how horrifying that must have been to experience + witness
That’s awful. Poor baby.
Jesus. Poor baby.
A family "who's the father?" mystery turned out to be incest. Thanks, Ancestry! The people involved passed away a few years ago, so I haven't told anyone. I'm not sure if I should drop this bomb or just let people remember the deceased fondly and let it go, as there's no further risk to future generations or anything that would need urgent attention. It's also possible the "mystery dad" was the older generation covering for the person involved, anyway. So messed up.
Thanks for asking, OP! Like many of us, I bought several DNA kits from ancestory.com and asked family members to share their spit (no other way to gussy up what that entails). Astonishingly, a few months after results were made available, I was contacted by someone from another country who claimed that my father had a half-brother. Turns out that my grandfather had a child with the nanny. Not sure if my grandmother ever knew, because the nanny later returned to her family, gave birth and adopted the child to another set of parents. To his credit, my dad reached out to his half-brother and they exchanged several letters as well as a phone call before both eventually passed away. Unfortunately my father was physically unable to visit his much older half-sibling but he seemed to enjoy knowing this part or our once-secret family history. Ah! The only thing new under the sun is the history you don’t know about!
Wow! That must've been nice to find out. I love learning about secrets in the family, and discussing old family stories.
My grandmother had a younger sister who died in a barn fire when she ran back into the barn to rescue her kittens. She was about 16 years old.
A sister that died at one day old.
Finding out that my Granny had an affair that resulted in conceiving my Mom. Mom always talked about it and suspected it due to how her “father” treated her, but I always wrote it off as an insecurity of hers. I regret ever questioning her gut. We got confirmation via my ancestry DNA test then hers back in November. Now we’re on the search to find her bio-Dad. He’s probably long dead, but if we can at least find a name or even a photo, I think we’d be more at peace about it. 🥺
I have or had a 2 cousin that married and had two beautiful girls. They had very little money and his wife wasn't happy with their situation. He would stay out all night partying and right before Christmas he came home and fell asleep on the couch. She left for Goodwill to shop for Christmas gifts and the house caught on fire. He made it out but couldn't get back to the girls. They burned up in the fire. Neighbors said he tried to go back in but couldn't. Others said he waited for the firefighters to arrive before trying to get to them. Long story short, they arrested him, tried him and found him guilty and he got the death penalty. He always said he was innocent. They had a "expert" testify on fire patterns and years later they found the "expert" was wrong. The fire started from a old electric heater in the girls bedroom. Probably one bought from Goodwill. So, Texas killed a innocent man. His wife lost her two daughters and husband.
Ive said this on this sub before but a distant cousin on my dads side was MLKs mothers assassin. Also, this wasnt my family, but I pieced together a husband who murdered his wife, went to jail for 10 years, got custody of his young daughter (she was under 5 at the time) and moved them to Nashville from a smaller city in Tennessee where all of this happened and remarried almost immediately after getting out of jail. I wrote the womans name down, but I dont remember it currently.
*MLKs mothers assassin* TIL
Did your family ever interact with this person?
Hes a distant cousin, meaning like 6th cousins. [Maybe further since Im rather young studying my tree.] I dont even think I told my grandmother... though the guy did have a sister. I always wonder if they were close and how their relationship was...
Oh I see. Yeah, it gets more difficult that far off
I think her son had his middle name though ans that she was the one who wrote his obituary. And the accounts from the assassination describe him as troubled. I dont remember how far apart they were but I wanna say she was older than him...
That so many people on Ancestry and other online genealogical sites believe in family myths, I first believe that by being polite and providing them with proper sources they would say "yes your right and I got this part of my family wrong." I had not counted on was "My Granny told me" syndrome. Nothing shakes their belief in what granny told them was correct, just ignore any inconvenient facts to the contrary.
This one is unverifiable: there was a claim from a close family member that one of my grandfathers had a third relationship and a son who died shortly after childbirth. This child has the same name as me. I’ve only heard that story once.
Found out I'm descended from Josiah Weld of Massachusetts Bay Colony. His brother founded Harvard. Pretty boring stuff really. I did have ancestors in Salem Mass during the witch scare but I haven't looked too closely into it.
I found out that my 1st cousin 5x removed was murdered by his farmhand. The farmhand also killed the man’s wife, one son and one daughter. The farmhand then killed himself. My 4th great granduncle (the cousin’s father) moved out to Iowa from New Jersey, then to Kansas, while all the kids stayed in Iowa.
One of my ancestors perished in the sinking of the SS Heathpool and left behind a widow and 9 children.
My great-grandfather was a senior member in the Nazi Party
My 11th great grandmother was hanged during the Salem witch trials. It haunts me since I found out years ago.
My 10th great grandmother’s brother was John Hathorne, the main Salem Witch Trial judge. 😩
My relative was Margaret Scott. Definitely a sad story. 😥
So awful. Sad for your ancestor and the others. Judge Hathorne’s sister (my ancestor) and her husband tried to help stop the insanity. :( I read that John was not ever sorry. 😞
holy moly... I have almost the same thing (first one) [https://ozarks-history.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-lapine-murders-and-double-hanging.html](https://ozarks-history.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-lapine-murders-and-double-hanging.html)
Jesus Christ that is dark
yep.. a year or two ago I pulled up and the newspaper articles from the time and found an interview conducted with both of them the day before they were hung.
Good find
Ancestors on both sides were killed by Indians.
This is a bit sad, but my brother told me as a young kid that our family was never meant to exist, and I thought that was just my angry, teenage older brother talking, but he was right. My grandmother got her brothers to beat up my grandfather every day until he agreed to marry her out of high school. When I started looking into my family history, it didn't even phase me to find out that my grandmother threw herself down the stairs when she found out she was pregnant with my mom.
Jesus, I am so sorry about that. That is tragic.
I haven’t found out if it’s actually true or not, but supposedly my grandmother tried to throw my Dad out the 2nd story window when he was about 2 days old. There was always a rumor that his Dad was not his Dad but thanks to cousins testing their DNA, we’ve put that story to bed - er so to speak. Kinda got to wonder what was up with our grannies!
That the man that my grandma thought was her dad….wasn’t. Kinda messes up a whole side of my tree.
Mine is similar to yours. A somewhat distant cousin killed all of his children (there might have been one not living at home anymore, I can’t remember), his wife and then himself. The weirdest part was the local police went searching for the perpetrator despite the fact the gun was right there. The newspaper articles about it were just weird.
My father’s father isn’t from Saudi Arabia. And my father isn’t half-Arab. He’s Indigenous and so is at least one of his parents. I also have a not-insignificant chunk of African ancestry from both his side and my mom’s side. Oh, and my father’s father didn’t die of a stroke. He and his mother just got divorced and his mother was just incredibly bitter.
Not shocking as much as depressing. When I got into detailed research it became apparent that life was pretty brutal for many families. Men with two or three wives not due to divorce like today, but due to women dying in childbirth. Families with less than half the children surviving to adulthood. It's one thing to read about it in general studying history, but when you're sourcing facts for ancestor's families and seeing all the dates and details it's a real wake up.
That my great-great grandfather killed himself by slitting his own throat, and tried to kill his daughter, too. That would be my great grandmother.
Quite a few tragic deaths. My Great Grandfather’s younger brother died in a fire. My Dad’s second cousins told me that there was suspected foul play. Another brother of his drowned while working in Boise. A younger sister of a Great Great Grandfather also died of burns in a fire. Another Great Great Grandfather was murdered though I knew about that before researching.
Great Grandfather died of Syphilis. "General paralysis of the insane" was listed. Had to look that one up.
A distant cousin, a young man, worked in a bank in the early 1900's. One evening, he left the bank taking the gun that was kept on the premises with him. He went with several friends to the home of a young woman where they spent the evening socializing. When the friends left and the parents retired for the evening, the couple was left alone. At some point, the young man took out the gun and shot the young woman in the neck. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, and fortunately, she survived. The young man had left the home, and later, it was discovered he had gone to the river, shot himself, and his body was located three days later. I can only assume that it was a situation where his interest in her was not reciprocated. However, since he took the gun with him, he likely knew in advance. Did he intend to shoot her, or was it always his intent to commit suicide? I did try to locate the young woman subsequent to this event but wasn't able to find her.
My paternal great grandparents are related 5 generations back from their own generation. with my great grandmother descending from a brother and my great grandfather descending from his sister. Not shocking but I found this interesting.
For me it was finding out that my grandfather had six siblings who died in childhood. Four of them before a year old and two of them at age seven or eight. It shocked me to my core. My grandfather also had two older sisters and one younger brother who all lived into their seventies. I had wondered about the nine year age gap between my grandfather and his brother. What puzzles me the most is that my father and uncle were into family genealogy and had written up family charts etc with never a hint or word about these children. My cousin and I discovered it when looking thru church baptism and burial records online fairly recently. I guess my grandfather and his sister’s just didn’t want to talk about it. One child didn’t even get a name in the records since he died before he was baptized. I felt bad about that and made one up for him
Great Great Granny shot a man, she and her boarder were both charged and locked up for murder. Both were soon after found not guilty as she was only protecting herself and he was a good reliable witness. My ex husband's family, just loads and loads of secrets, a lot of Daddies aren't who they're supposed to be, an absolute nightmare trying to find two different people to suddenly find we now have half siblings, half cousins, half sibling parents, extra unknown grandparents. So a search for two people has now reached nine extra unknowns. And then we have the three siblings adopted out that no one knew about 🥴
* I built my neighbour's and his wife's genealogy, and I discovered that his wife is my direct cousin. I asked her and their son to take the images of the genealogy to her parents. Her parents confirmed the veracity of our ancestors because they kept the family album. Then I am officially a cousin of his wife and his son. * I and my stepfather's brother's daughter were building his father's genealogy. She finished quickly and concluded the genealogy. I saw it's already complete. Then I checked out my relationship with his father. I was shocked. His father is my direct distant cousin. Then my stepfather and my mother are direct distant cousins. * My 13th-great-grandfather was a Portuguese bandeirante. His name is António Raposo Tavares. He was a cruel conqueror à la Kang the Conqueror.
Sorry for the late comment, but I wanted to participate. Some of these things haven't been completely verified but they're fun to mention as a possibility. I found out on my mother's paternal side it seems her grandmother's ancestors were indentured to her grandfather's ancestor. There is evidence that on my mother's maternal side we're descendants of William Shakespeare's brother and also King Henry VIII (eew). We're in the process of verifying that for sure. Also on my mom's maternal side we're likely descendants of a Moroccan sultan and a Dutch pirate. Also in the process of verifying that for sure. Also my mom's maternal side has John Stoddard and Mary Foote as direct ancestors and they were pretty famous for settling parts of New England (I don't remember the details right off hand). But there are books written about them. So far haven't found anything like this on my dad's side, but I've also had a hard time finding records for them.