Anyone have any interesting Ancestors?

I was just talking to a friend of mine in the UK about my Armenian roots and how my great grandmother was a refugee from Armenian around 1916 Fleeing here through France to escape the 1915 genocide.

But I'm also related in some way to the Outlaw Jesse James and the Author William Falkner. On the same side of the family too.

Actually all of that is on my Father's side. My mother's side is just boring ass Irish Polish. But I believe my grandfather faught in the Battle of the Buldge.

So how about you guys? Interesting ancestry?

 

My ancestors were all farmers or not even that, so nobody really kept track of my family tree. My parents were the first in their families to get an academic degree and my grandparents were even the first to ever leave their home (due to the war, that is). 3 of my grand-parents came from parts of Germany that do no longer exist and are now part of Poland.

My one Chinese friend's grand-father worked as a chauffeur for very important Chinese officials, including the president - that was in the 60s-80s. He had very high connections and received a lot of benefits beside his regular pay. She does not know for sure, but since he drove the highest officials in China at the time, I suppose that he was very close to Mao as well.

 

Maybe, nobody really knows.

My mothers side is easily traceable back to Irish origins but nobody has bothered to do so.

My fathers side however is a total mystery and before 1890 the surname disappears off the face of the earth. It's quite uncommon too and only appears here or in Australia.

 

Nope, they were peasants, fishermen, and laborers in Italy, probably for centuries.

 

I'm a mix as far as ancestry - Jewish, Irish, German, and beyond that I'm not sure. I'm related in some way to Alan Reed, the original voice of Fred Flintstone. If I understand correctly, he was my grandfather's cousin. I'm not sure what that makes him to me.

 

All I know is I have German and Scandinavian (viking) roots. My last name is evidence of the viking heritage. Nothing of interest here...

 

I can go back to 1840 minimum and they're mostly Labourers (Dock workers, Farmers, Miners, Railway Shunters) and Soldiers but I also have a distant connection to a Prime Minister.

 

Something like that, a mix of Franks, Germanics and Scottish kings, emperors and whatnot on one side, and a mix of italian, romanian and who knows what on the other...

 

Not related by blood but George C. Marshall, who served as chief of staff during WWII and received a Nobel peace prize, would be my step great great grandfather. He married my great great grandmother, who already had 3 children on my mothers side. Oddly enough, I ended up with the last name Marshall from my father, who has no relation to the man at all.

 

I actually think it's kinda cool that I'm related to John Wilkes Booth.. Even though.. ya know all that stuff, and he had horrible aim.. I mean how are you so bad that you shoot someone in the back of the head point blank and they don't even die until the next morning?
I'm related to him on my dads side. Also I'm supposedly related to Pirates, my father found out that our ancestors had came to America in a port that was mostly used by pirates back in that day and age.

 

If we talk about ancestors from many hundreds of years back it begins to drift into irrelevance. In a theoretical sense, each one of us has around 200 Million ancestors if you go only as far as 500 years back and that number increases exponentially because the probability increases.

Some link to illustrate the problem:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/GenealComp1.html

 

Some distant relatives of my Dad's family name runs a restaurant in the Alsace region of France... Or Germany, I forget now- they're close enough to each other, and it has been disputed territory, that they don't really consider them to be either.

Regardless, when my grandparents went and booked under our last name, they were treated to the best of the best there. Pretty darn cool.
Plus side is that my last name is obscure enough that nobody else seems to have it except for ancestors and relatives.

My more recent ancestors owned a small corner store in Berlin, Canada (Now Kingston) and we have a street there named after our family because of it's close proximity to the family farm, which was sold to pay for the corner store. Too bad the street is half a block long and about as interesting as a plastic soap dish.
I'm planning to steal a street sign from there sometime soon.


I don't know too much about my mother's side, other than my grandfather was in WWII, and my great grandmother was both Polish and German, but lived in America (and had her son go to war with the German)

I aught to find out more about them.

 

My mother's father was the son of an Irish man so I have a bit of Irish in me I guess but my farther actually does have a claim to fame. He was the bass player in the Beatles support band before they became big time. He knew them all apart from Ringo since he wasn't around back then. He also knows Ciller Black. Only people from the UK will know who she is.

 

I got some 23andme.com DNA checks done earlier in the year for fun.
So while I have no idea who my ancestors are, I know where bits of my DNA originated from 500 years ago!
Damn I love science! :smile-new:

 

The last king of Scotland.

 

Whether or not, I have any interesting ancestors or not. Then I think this thread reminds me of the thread on reddit.

 

Not completely sure, but from what we know... Nothing at all.

 

I got a mixed ancestry: russian, altaic, finnish, polish, ukrainian, cossack and of course jewish . My great granddad fought in WW2 and came back a hero turned KGB agent. My other great granddad also fought in WW2 and reached Vienna by foot from the Soviet western front and also came back.

One of my granddads was born in the russian redneck land. Where they by that time didn't even have schools (let alone roads or electricity) and became the #1 or #2 agricultural technologies inventor of his time in the world. Alot of his soviet patents (light to heavy agricultural machinery) are used to this day all over the world. Problem is he wasn't in it for the farmland fame and money, but for the pure kicks you get out of inventing huge and bulky combine harvesters, so he doesn't get any credit for his work lol.

That's obviously because the beginning of that surname is the "end" of some brittish fugitive / convict on the run. He'd probably steal from the poor and give to himself or kill babies or something which made him or his ancestors worthy of being deported from the UK to Australia. :tongue:
Or, the other obvious thing is, he may have been a highlander who had to change his name since highlanders are constantly hunting eachother to win the prize by decapitating all of the opponents .