oldord said:

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My direct ancestor was King of England and died at the battle of Hastings in 1066.

I carry his surname

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I (along with millions of other folks) am descended from William the Conqueror. Sorry about that.

I'm also descended from a man by the last name of Daniel who came with William.

Rex Racer said:

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oldord said:

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My direct ancestor was King of England and died at the battle of Hastings in 1066.

I carry his surname

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I (along with millions of other folks) am descended from William the Conqueror. Sorry about that.

I'm also descended from a man by the last name of Daniel who came with William.

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Hey Cousin!

Richmond Foster High School is named after my #Great-grandfather (John Foster) and #Great-uncle {Randolph Foster). He was an original 300 settler with Stephen F. Austin. Randolph was a scout for the original Texas Rangers.

My great grandfather was born in 1843 and fought for the Union in the Civil War from Indiana. On my wife's side of the family, she's a distant relative of Davy Crockett. Her grandmother's maiden name was Crockett.

My first name, Cade, is a family name. Was my grandfathers middle name, where he got it from his mother, whose last name was Cade. One of our ancestors is Jack Cade - Cade's rebellion. Also, distantly related to the dude that invented Gatorade, Robert Cade, tho I've never met him.

Rex Racer said:

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oldord said:

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My direct ancestor was King of England and died at the battle of Hastings in 1066.

I carry his surname

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I (along with millions of other folks) am descended from William the Conqueror. Sorry about that.

I'm also descended from a man by the last name of Daniel who came with William.

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Well it is called England and not Normanland so there is that…

Keep this thread going, super interesting

Supposedly I am descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins (of The Courtship of Miles Standish fame) through my maternal grandmother, based on genealogical research done by her mother. Both my grandmother and her mother died young so never got to ask anyone any details about that.

I find my father's stories about my paternal great-grandfather interesting. He was a second generation American who grew up speaking German and spoke Spanish and English equally poorly in a heavy German accent down in San Patricio County. My great-grandfather was racist as hell, above all against Czechs ("Bohemians"), whom he despised much more than local minorities. The prejudice behind Hitler's desire for Lebensraum was real for his generation, I guess.

That being said, he listened to Hitler's speeches on the radio but did not like him, even before the war. My father said he found Hitler trashy and "common".

My grandmother told me once that my great-grandfather (her husband's father) was half-Jewish on his mother's side, although my grandfather and father both vehemently denied that. I eventually took one of those 23 and Me tests and it came back with me being 1/16 Ashkenazi, so my grandmother's story was probably true. If she knew that my great grandfather was a Jew, I'm sure he knew it, too. I suspect that might have been the real reason he wasn't fond of Hitler's speeches.

ChucoAg said:

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I feel like this can be an interesting thread.

Tell us anything you find interesting about your ancestors, could be something of historical significance or something that your family thinks is cool.

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My grandfather was a B-24 copilot on the raid against Ploesti and based at air bases in Italy. Shot down over Yugoslavia and escaped from the Nazis.

A Brief History of the 455th Bombardment Group (H)

The group was activated July 1943 with four essentially stand-alone bomb squadrons: 740th, 741st, 742nd, and 743rd.

After a somewhat nomadic training regimen with dilapidated equipment, the pieces of the group came together at Langley, VA in October 1943. They were issued G and H models of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.
They departed Langley in December 1943 and flew to Tunisia by way of Brazil, arriving in January 1944. They remained in Tunisia until completion of their airfield at San Giovanni, Italy, about five miles west of Cerignola and 20 miles southwest of Foggia.

The group moved to San Giovanni in February 1944 and flew its first combat mission (Anzio) on 16 February 1944 as part of the 304th Bomb Wing, Fifteenth Air Force. The group flew its last mission (Linz, Austria) 15 months later on 25 April 1945. The mission scheduled for the following day was cancelled and the group began preparations to return home. Probably no one was sorry.

The group had only two commanders during combat operations. Col. Kenneth A. Cool commanded from July 1943-September 1944. Col. William I. Snowden then commanded until May 1945. Both survived the war but both are now deceased.

Great thread- I just found my grandfather's name on the list of personnel from the 740th Squadron!

455th Bomb Group

15th Air Force Cerignola Italy

LMCane said:

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ChucoAg said:

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I feel like this can be an interesting thread.

Tell us anything you find interesting about your ancestors, could be something of historical significance or something that your family thinks is cool.

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My grandfather was a B-24 copilot on the raid against Ploesti and based at air bases in Italy. Shot down over Yugoslavia and escaped from the Nazis.

A Brief History of the 455th Bombardment Group (H)

The group was activated July 1943 with four essentially stand-alone bomb squadrons: 740th, 741st, 742nd, and 743rd.

After a somewhat nomadic training regimen with dilapidated equipment, the pieces of the group came together at Langley, VA in October 1943. They were issued G and H models of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.
They departed Langley in December 1943 and flew to Tunisia by way of Brazil, arriving in January 1944. They remained in Tunisia until completion of their airfield at San Giovanni, Italy, about five miles west of Cerignola and 20 miles southwest of Foggia.

The group moved to San Giovanni in February 1944 and flew its first combat mission (Anzio) on 16 February 1944 as part of the 304th Bomb Wing, Fifteenth Air Force. The group flew its last mission (Linz, Austria) 15 months later on 25 April 1945. The mission scheduled for the following day was cancelled and the group began preparations to return home. Probably no one was sorry.

The group had only two commanders during combat operations. Col. Kenneth A. Cool commanded from July 1943-September 1944. Col. William I. Snowden then commanded until May 1945. Both survived the war but both are now deceased.

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I'm reading a book right now about the rescue of downed 15th AF flyers in Yugoslavia. The Forgotten 500

The first two pictures were taken in the 1950s of my paternal great grandparents in Evangeline Parish Louisiana. The second picture is my great grandparents doing some sort of Cajun jig at their 60th wedding anniversary. The band is made up of their grandchildren. They lived on about 3,000 acres that my great grandfather inherited and acquired and that they farmed in a place called Pointe aux Pins (Pine Point) along Bayou de Cannes (Bamboo Bayou) between Ville Platte and Mamou. My grandfather was born in the house seen in this picture. The house was built in the late 1800s. My dad was born a rifle shot away in 1941 in a small house my grandfather built in the late 1930s. None of these houses had electricity or running water. I recall my dad telling me that my great grandfather's house got a phone in the late 1950s. I also recall him telling me that the walls of the house were filled with bousillage, which is a mixture of clay and straw or Spanish moss, that is used to fill the gaps between the timber in the frame. Great insulation for a house with no air conditioning.

That's my great grandmother on the spinning wheel turning their own cotton into thread. She died at 93 in 1973 when I was 7. He died in 1958. Both came from huge Catholic families of 10 and 12. She was a Fontenot. So I have cousins all over the place in that part of Louisiana. Literally all over the parish.

Neither my great grandmother nor my great grandfather spoke a word of English. All Cajun french. She also played Cajun fiddle as did my grandfather and a few of her grandsons, who also played Cajun accordion. I also got the music gene and play guitar and a little accordion. All self taught.

If you've ever heard of Fred's Lounge in Mamou, LA, that's my grandfather's first cousin. Fred's is legendary for its Saturday morning live Cajun music and radio simulcast, all in French.

My great grandfather was also quite the horseman. The picture of him below on a horse was taken when he was 74 years old and was helping to revive an equine competition called the Tournoi as part of the Cotton Festival in Ville Platte. My grandfather was also a jockey when he was young.

My grandfather and grandmother moved to Port Arthur in the 1950s having had enough of picking cotton and hoeing corn. So I was born in Texas by the grace of God. I was the first person in my dad's family to be born outside of St. Landry or Evangeline Parish since the 1780s. Sadly, I am also the first person in my family to not speak French since forever, literally.

The last picture is my GG grandfather, Joseph Boyd Tate. I don't know much about him but this picture of him is kind of cool. He is was born on the other side of the parish in the 1850s. He would have been the third generation born in the same part of Louisiana since ca1780. His grandfather was born in current day Mobile Bay when it was briefly Spanish territory. His GG grandfather (my 7 great grandfather) was from North Carolina and was in Mobile Bay area during the American Revolution after being dispossessed of his land and accused of being a Tory. He went back to NC petition for return of his land and was not heard from again. His wife, my 7 great grandmother was the daughter of a French soldier in the Mobile area. She and her parents, being French Catholics, left for Spanish Louisiana when he didn't return. She and her three sons got a homestead from the Spanish government and settled just north of Ville Platte LA around 1781 or so. Catholic Church records are a big help.

double post

FTACo88-FDT24dad said:

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My family on both sides is from south Louisiana. All grandparents were native Cajun French speakers. Knew three of my great grandmothers. Two of them spoke no English. One couldn't read or write and her English was heavily accented. Through her family line, I am directly descended from Beausolei Broussard. He was a freedom fighter in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in 1755 when the British committed genocide against the Acadian settlers who had been there since the early 1600s. In French it is called the Grand Derangement. He and his brother were basically insurgents until they and the British agreed that they would leave. So they let them go. They ended up in Catholic south Louisiana (Spanish colony at the time) in the 1760s. They migrated from New Orleans across the Atchafalaya basin to the area around St. Martinville LA. My mom's people remained in the area until my mom was born in Laredo during WW2 while her father (my grandfather) was stationed there.

After the war, most of my Cajun relatives moved to Port Arthur to work in refineries or in the oilfield. So by God's grace I was born in Texas.

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We must be kin

plowboy1065 said:

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FTACo88-FDT24dad said:

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My family on both sides is from south Louisiana. All grandparents were native Cajun French speakers. Knew three of my great grandmothers. Two of them spoke no English. One couldn't read or write and her English was heavily accented. Through her family line, I am directly descended from Beausolei Broussard. He was a freedom fighter in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in 1755 when the British committed genocide against the Acadian settlers who had been there since the early 1600s. In French it is called the Grand Derangement. He and his brother were basically insurgents until they and the British agreed that they would leave. So they let them go. They ended up in Catholic south Louisiana (Spanish colony at the time) in the 1760s. They migrated from New Orleans across the Atchafalaya basin to the area around St. Martinville LA. My mom's people remained in the area until my mom was born in Laredo during WW2 while her father (my grandfather) was stationed there.

After the war, most of my Cajun relatives moved to Port Arthur to work in refineries or in the oilfield. So by God's grace I was born in Texas.

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We must be kin

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Wouldn't surprise me. Surname?

My surname is Andrus. My 6th GGF was Benjamin Henry Andrus who settled in St. Martin Parish around 1777. I descend from Joseph Broussard from my paternal GGM who was a Gaspard.

I do have Andrus ancestor's that were part of the Old 300. My 1st cousin 6x removed William Andrus, his wife Susan and a daughter were granted a league of land on July 15,1824 in Fort Bend County. Their daughter Martha Ann "Polly" married fellow Old 300 colonist Captain Randal Jones on Oct. 24, 1824. Jones' league of land is also the place where Deaf Smith died in 1837

plowboy1065 said:

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My surname is Andrus. My 6th GGF was Benjamin Henry Andrus who settled in St. Martin Parish around 1777. I descend from Joseph Broussard from my paternal GGM who was a Gaspard.

I do have Andrus ancestor's that were part of the Old 300. My 1st cousin 6x removed William Andrus, his wife Susan and a daughter were granted a league of land on July 15,1824 in Fort Bend County. Their daughter Martha Ann "Polly" married fellow Old 300 colonist Captain Randal Jones on Oct. 24, 1824. Jones' league of land is also the place where Deaf Smith died in 1837

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Cool! My connection to Beausolei Broussard is through my maternal grandmother who was a LeBlanc and her mother, my ggg grandmother was a Broussard.

Have ever checked out the work done by fellow Beausolei Broussard descendant Warren Perrin?

https://www.acadianmuseum.com/warren-perrin/

http://www.acadian-home.org/apology.html

https://www.acadianmuseum.com/the-queens-proclamation/

I know 7 of my 8 great grandparents came over from Germany, mainly around 1870. My maternal grandmother's grandparents came over on the Ben Nevis as part of the Wendish people fleeing persecution. But all 7 of the German side came thru Galveston.

My Mom's side of the family spoke only German at home until 1945 when my oldest uncle failed first grade due to being unable to speak english. I dont think it was a cool time to be German in central Texas,

The other 1 of my 8 greatgrandparents were Scotch/Irish. Earliest I have read lived they lived in the Carolinas since the late 1700's before moving towards Texas

I had some ancestors who were Huguenots and some who were Jacobites.

I like to say that I come from a long line of people who had to flee their country.

Bump

wangus12 said:

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My dad's side immigrated in the 1850s from Oldenburg, Germany. Came straight to Galveston. 3 brothers and their families. Settled in mid-central, TX to farm. At least 2 of them were conscripted into the Confederate Army and fought in Galveston. Survived and moved with a big group of Germans to the area near Cameron, TX where they've been for the most part since. My grandfather grew up there, but moved his family to Houston to work in the refineries in the 30s and then also worked in the shipyards during the WW2.

My dad has spent a lot of his life buying old family farm land that we run cattle on near Cameron.

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This mirrors my great great grandfather's life. They probably knew one another, except mine settled in the west end of Austin county and ended up dying in Milam county at the age of 100 (he was living with a grandson at the end of his life). But he was also conscripted and fought in Galveston. In fact, he was captured there in a place called Mud Island.

My 7X great grandfather was from Bourdeaux, France and helped to re-colonize what became Montreal. His son was with Bienville on the Gulf Coast to establish Mobile and then New Orleans. Two of my 5X great grandfathers fought under Galvez in Louisiana at Manchac and New Fort Richmond (Baton Rouge) vs the British. Breaux Bridge is named for one of those men. My 4X great grandfather was Charles Sallier, after which Lake Charles is named. Sallier was business partners with Jim Bowie and Jean LaFitte.

My 6x great-grandfather was John Donelson, the founder of Nashville. He and his wife Rachel had 15 children, the last one when she was 61! Their daughter Rachel married President Andrew Jackson. When Rachel Jackson died in 1828, two of Donelson's grandchildren (1st cousins) who were married, Emily and John Donelson, moved to the white house. Emily, at only age 21, served as "first hostess" in place of her deceased aunt, until she ended up opposing Jackson during the "Petticoat Affair."

Petticoat affair - Wikipedia

BQ78 said:

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Bunch of them made their mark when signing legal documents

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lol same

Dang, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a common ancestor with all that.

My mother's paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States in the first decade of the 20th century. That is very common.

Because of an ongoing legal matter, I am now able to document many of the circumstances of their life, going back 140 years, to a preponderance of evidence standard. That level of documentation, much of which was provided under oath, is, perhaps, less common.

My mother's grandparents were dead for more than a quarter of a century before I was born. In fact, my mother was right around 10 years old, when her grandparents died.

Because of a particular genetic issue, my grandfather and most of his brothers were dead before I was in second grade.

So, I grew up without much access to oral history regarding that part of the family. My mother really did not know her paternal grandparents. She has limited memory of them, and she had extremely limited knowledge of their family history.

My father knew (correctly) that there had been a scandal in Italy, which had caused the my great grandfather to immigrate to the United States. My father had an incorrect impression of the nature of that scandal, believing incorrectly that the scandal involved murder.

Neither my great grandfather, nor any of his roughly 100 descendants, set foot in Italy for nine decades after my great grandfather left Italy. I was the first of the descendants to return to Italy, in year 93 after he immigrated.

About a decade ago, 3/4 of my living ancestors died in the space of 18 months. I lost both grandmothers, and my father.

As the lawyer in the family, I ended up with a bunch of family papers.

Among the papers, I found the "enemy alien" (internal) passports of my great grandparents. During WWII, my great grandparents had been required to register as enemy aliens and to carry with them at all times the documentation of their immigration status.

Those internal passports completely transformed my understanding of my great grandparents. Today, my mother knows more about the history of her grandparents than she ever knew in the past, and she knows the history with carefully documented certainty.

After I received the papers, I did a little research. Actually, a lot. I have spent a good part of the past five years chasing this story in NY, Texas, and Italy. I have visited the parish where my great-grandparents married (in America). I have found the apartment building where my great-grandfather spent his first night in the United States. I ate dinner in the Indian restaurant on the first floor of that building and spent part of the evening walking around the neighborhood.

Along the way, I found my mother's living full-blood first cousins in southern Italy.

The family in Italy verified my identity by asking about the genetic disorder. That was... unexpected. It was only after doing so that they agreed to meet me.

I took my mother to meet them, and we only then learned what had really happened. We know that they are telling the truth, because their story accounts for the unaccountable paradoxes and anomalies in some of the papers that I already possessed.

My gg-grandfather owned a pasta factory. My g-grandfather fell in love with a girl from a poor family. When gg forbade the marriage, g-grandparents decided to move to America and marry in America. Probably not uncommon. Defiance of patriarchal authority is the (first) scandal. That's probably worse than murder, among Italians born in the 19th century.

My great grandmother became pregnant before they could leave. Also probably not uncommon, but, there's your (second) scandal. That's probably also worse than murder, among Italians born in the 19th century.

They put the baby up for adoption and left the country. Suddenly, I understood why the story had been suppressed. There was a lot of pain in that story.

My mother and I have taken flowers to the grave of the lost (left-behind) great-uncle (in Italy). We have spent a day with the children and grandchildren of the lost great uncle. We have put together a family photo album for the benefit of the family in Italy. One of my mother's cousins will eat dinner with the family in Italy next month.

The fascinating thing about the story is not really the story itself, which is of a fairly common nature. The fascinating thing about the story is how quickly the facts were lost from the memory of the living on this side of the Atlantic, while being meticulously well-understood by the family in Italy.

For about the first seven decades after immigration, there were letters back-and-forth. The letters stopped in about 1980. I have never seen an example of these letters, but I have heard tell of them, from witnesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

When my paralegal arrived at the door of my mother's cousin in Italy (and identified himself as my representative), he was told, "I have been waiting 40 years for you to arrive."

Smeghead4761, did you attend law school at Baylor?

First, my most recent DNA profile (courtesy of Ancestry.com)

From my mom's side:
Sweden 53%

From my dad's side:
Central Scotland 27%
NE Scotland 3%
N. Wales/NW England 9%
NE England 4%
Netherlands 4%

My maternal great-grandfathers came to America in or about 1880, as young men, and settled in Henry County in SE Iowa. It was swampy land then, referred to as "land fit for ducks and Swedes." My great-grandfathers and the other Swedish immigrants laid hundreds of miles of drainage tile to drain the land, and were rewarded with remarkably fertile farmland. There was a time, through the 1960s, when just about everyone on my mom's side of the family was farming (two notable exceptions were a great-uncle of mine who was a vice president of West Music Co., and an uncle who went to work for General Electric as an electronic welder). One of my cousins remarked that the 1960s (and into the early 70s, prior to the Arab oil embargo) was "the last golden age of the 100-acre family farm." A couple of my cousins kept on farming through the 80s, but since then have mostly gotten out of it.

Many decades ago one of my mom's cousins gave me a detailed family genealogy that dates back to the late 1700s in Sweden. My dad and sister have visited the parish church in Sweden where my great-grandfather was baptized.

By the way, if any of y'all are interested in seeing antique farm equipment in operation (including steam-powered tractors), be sure to check out the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleasant, IA.



As for my dad's side, according to a great-aunt (who passed away many decades ago), our ancestors first settled in the Connecticut colony and later moved west and ended up in rural NE Ohio. As far as I know, the ancestors on that side were all small-time farmers. My great-aunt was the first person on that side of the family to attend college (Kent State Normal College, as it was known at the time). My grandfather had no great love for farming and worked instead for the New York Central Railroad, starting out shoveling coal into steam locomotives and working his way up to being an engineer (he retired in 1957). My dad's older sister attended Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), while he attended the University of Illinois (interrupted by WWII) and later the University of Southern California.

I've thought of hiring a professional genealogist to more definitively track down the story of my dad's ancestors. Part of it will always be unknown because my grandmother, shortly before she died, informed my dad that she was not a Harris but was a foundling that was adopted by the Harris family (who only had one child themselves). Supposedly the Harrises had a strong hunch about who the actual parents were (a poor family that already had several children) but this information was never passed down.

I'm half "German-from-Russia."

Germans in the late 1700's at the invitation of the Czar's German wife Catherine, fled war and the Protestant persecution of German Catholics to settle in the Ukraine.

100 years later, after Russian began removing some of the agreements codified in the beginning, aides by the outlawing of slavery in the US, many Germans left their homes and settled in the United States. A vast majority settled in the Dakotas, but my ancestors settled in and around Dobbin/ Plantersville, TX. You can visit St Mary's Catholic Church there and see many crosses made of iron in the cemetery.

I'm glad my ancestors left Ukraine prior to the 1900s. Unknown to most people, the Ukraine becoming the bread basket was in part the work of millions of ethnic Germans who brought technology and skill to the region. Also unknown is what we refer to as the "unknown holocaust" where millions of ethnic-Germans were executed en mass in the 1930's. I have a spreadsheet of thousands upon thousands of names that I share in my ancestry. Those that remained, survived and didn't flee to Germany were summarily sent to Siberia after the war.

May be unique as I had relatives fight for the US, Germany and Russia.

Have several

Dad's mom side. Related to George Washington. Can't remember how many greats, but is distant cousin. His mom's sister (his aunt) is my relative.

Don't know much about his dads side since their was some not good family feelings with my grandpa and his family. Was from Chattanooga, Tennessee area. His dad, possibly grandfather, was involved in bootlegging/running liquor. My grandpa would apparently ride along sometimes.

Mom's Dad side.
Related to Robert the Bruce of Scotland, same Scottish Royal king in Braveheart. He'd be my 26th great grandfather.

Scottish King James IV is my 20th great grandfather. Sadly don't get the official royal blood because it's through his mistress Margaret Drummond and not his wife Margaret Tudor.


Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke is a direct relative. And through multiple marriages, have a bunch of famous relatives:
FDR, Marilyn Monroe, the Fonda's, The Beach Boys, the Bush's, Orson Welles, Dick van Dyke, and a lot more.
https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=6474+francis+cooke

My grandpa was a quartermaster/supply NCO, and eventually became a CWO 4, in the Army. While stationed at Ft Hood, got sent to Florida in preparation for Cuba Invasion. At one point was attached to Special Forces during Vietnam, during one of his 2 tours.

During Vietnam, While on RNR and in Hawaii, his outpost had a mortar attack. Attack happened as command was exiting a tent after a daily brief/meeting. A mortar hit right where my grandpa would have been as he exited the tent.

Mom's mom is 100% German born and raised during WW2. Was from the Mannheim area. Don't know too much, other than the typical struggles. Her dad served on both fronts and luckily made it back from the eastern front at the end of the war. Grandma was in the Hitler Youth, but it was more like a requirement. Her family didn't fully side with the Nazis, but obviously towed the line to stay alive.

Mom's uncle did some pretty big work in pre-trial and mock trial. The firm he was at in Denver turned down representing Ted Bundy. Great uncle was heavily involved in the mock trial work for the Savings and Loan stuff from the late 80s/early 90s that took place in central Texas, I think Waco. Him and his wife went to OU and were/are big donors. Have some band practice rooms with their names, and some other stuff. Great Aunt has an honorary Doctorate from OU. Great Uncle is a published author.

Grandpa's cousin is big into history and genealogy, reason we know so much from that side of the family. Has published several books about Vandalia, IL history (form IL state capital l).