Post an interesting fact about your ancestry

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    Sharpshooter
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    This is spawning off of the "Indiana Cities and Towns" thread. Many members had cool stories about their ancestors; soldiers during the revolution/civil war, relatives of nobel ancestry, etc. I thought it would be cool to post all of those in one area.

    There is a house in Lehi County PA called the Troxell-Steckel house. It is one of the oldest standing houses in the country, built in 1756. I am related to both the Troxell's and the Steckels.

    http://www.lehighcounty.org/departments/parksandrecreation/troxellsteckel/tabid/464/default.aspx

    The Steckels wagon was also used to transport the Liberty Bell.

    So what are your stories/claims to fame :cool:
     

    the1kidd03

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    I'll kick off since I derailed the other thread.


    This is referencing our Indiana state flag. My x3 great uncle, Paul Hadley
    My ancestor (indirect; uncle) designed it.

    Not really of any significance, but my ancestors (both direct and indirect) settled much of the areas many of us INGOers live in today like Hendicks and Morgan County areas or Paoli, IN.

    This link was one I found some time ago which helped our family tie some bits of info together to continue our search. There's a lot of interesting historical photos in there of Indiana. Hadley Family Tree

    Yep. It's especially cool when you find out your family's involvement in things you read about as a child in school. Apparently loving history runs in my family too because they've kept pretty good records of our lineage and patched holes in wherever they/we can over the years. I even have a pocket diary one kept from the civil war. Difficult to read with the neat writing in what seems to be quill pen that's a little faded, but it's awesome to read when he references Lincoln's funeral and getting word of his passing. Just, how they spoke and wrote back then is pretty cool, IMO.

    My ancestor that migrated the family here (1712) bought property which bordered that of William Penn's. The home he built there is actually still standing today as a historical property. He was later murdered in the barn by one of his farm hands for the cash he had on him (was wealthy and known to carry cash). 3 generations of his descendants, my direct ancestors, (a father, his son, and grandson) all fought as officers during the revolution. One of which was also part of their provincial congress which would later contribute to the efforts of the continental congress.

    The following is in reference to a pocket diary I have which belonged to my ancestor while he was fighting in the civil war. It's a little faded and seems to be written in quill pen, so it's a little hard to read but pretty cool I think to see their use of language back then.
    It is. The day his unit heard of Lincoln's death started with, "Today, we are {saddened} to hear of the passing of our noble leader....." I can't remember if he said "saddened" or something else, but just the way they spoke is impressive.

    I've got boxes of really old pictures too, but most of them we don't know who they are because nothing was ever written on them. Also have some handwritten marriage certificates, last wills, etc. laying around. The ancestor that migrated here had a number of pistols which he left to each of his kids in his will. So apparently the gun thing has run in the family for some time. :):

    One of them that fought in the revolution was killed in his home. After a battle near to his home, he decided to travel home for the evening to see his family. Some loyalists apparently followed him. As they were gaining entry he climbed to the attic and attempted to scare them off by pretending he was calling to nearby help. He was shot through the head while hanging out the window. The projectile supposedly implanted in a beam overhead with bits of hair from his scalp where it remained for some time after that. They looted stuff as they left and dropped a silver spoon on their way out. His wife picked it up and it was apparently passed down for a long time, but somewhere got lost before this stuff got passed to me.

    Me too. My family has dug back to the 9th century even. Of course, the further back you get the harder things get to verify with less things being documented and such. I have a correspondence letter between my family and what seems to be a professional genealogist in England in the early 20th century who was working on tracking down info for them from way back.

    Apparently an indirect relative (uncle) founded a town down in South Carolina I believe. He was then so heavily involved in the local government (1st sheriff I think then a politician) and whatnot, that the town supposedly erected a bronze statue of him sometime in the last 50 years or so in the middle of the town.

    Another group was part of the quakers that settled Paoli, IN.

    That's cool. We have things that mention our ancestor were descendants of royalty as well. Not sure how, and I don't have physical proof of anything at this time. The ancestor which migrated here was wealthy, as were his predecessors, and supposedly tied in with politics somehow. So, perhaps that got passed down through generations after becoming royalty. :dunno:

    I do have rather detailed accounts that one fought along close sides with King William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hasting in 1066. It says that for this the king rewarded him with control over a considerable amount of land and money. Perhaps this is where the royalty aspect of our lineage comes from. :dunno:

    I'm going through what I have record of to find proof bit by bit. However, I'm starting at the migration here to the US and working forward. Once that's complete, I'll begin looking into what I can dig up on things that happened earlier across the pond.
    The following is in reference to the fact that someone in my ancestry has fought in every single US confrontation in our history as a nation.
    oorah...and ditto
     

    the1kidd03

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    My one of my great uncles was George Washington's dentist, he was the first Native American dentist.
    That's pretty cool. Supposedly, one of my ancestors who fought in the revolution knew him, served under him, or something along those lines. I haven't been able to track down verification on that yet though.
     

    RedneckReject

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    My grandmother is obsessed with genealogy. She has an entire room in her house dedicated to huge bookshelves filled with binders regarding family history. Somewhere back in the line is Shakespeare's secretary/best friend/maybe lover. The two were so close they are buried next to each other. My great great great grandmother at one point was desperate for money. She whored herself out to a man (who did pay her a sizable sum) and ended up having a child. That man was Jesse James. I have a great uncle who was one of Darby's Raiders. I have a copy of some of his journal entries and an interview he did with some reporter. It's a phenomenal read. I'm sure there are crazy facts about my family that my grandmother knows, but I'm not near as knowledgeable about it as she is.
     

    Lammchop93

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    John Hancock, the one that signed the Declaration of Independence is my 7th uncle. Or so my Grandma says. I need to trace it on my own and see what I find.

    My more recent family, my grandmas family, were made moonshine during the depression.
     
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    the1kidd03

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    This is the home which my ancestor who migrated here in 1712 built. Of course, it's been added onto and such because people were still living in it up until the last ~50 years. I think it's a historical site now but the original part which my ancestor built is still a part of it. He was wealthy, and legend is that he had the home extraordinarily well built for the time.

    The Mill Creek Hundred History Blog: The Hadley-Dennison House
     

    the1kidd03

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    My grandmother is obsessed with genealogy. She has an entire room in her house dedicated to huge bookshelves filled with binders regarding family history. Somewhere back in the line is Shakespeare's secretary/best friend/maybe lover. The two were so close they are buried next to each other. My great great great grandmother at one point was desperate for money. She whored herself out to a man (who did pay her a sizable sum) and ended up having a child. That man was Jesse James. I have a great uncle who was one of Darby's Raiders. I have a copy of some of his journal entries and an interview he did with some reporter. It's a phenomenal read. I'm sure there are crazy facts about my family that my grandmother knows, but I'm not near as knowledgeable about it as she is.
    That's kind of what spurred my family into pooling all of our stuff together. All of the elder's in the family that could remember passed generations were passing away. Sadly, the family name in our branch died at me. My mother was an only child and got married before my birth, so I'm a descendant but with a new last name. We're planning to try to use that as our child's middle name though.
     

    SkullDaddy.45

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    My mother found out a few years before she died that one of her great uncles was Lyman Hall. Signer of the Declaration of Independence. And he was also a Governor of Georgia.
     

    metaldog

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    Taken from a letter sent to my aunt from a great uncle last year:
    >
    > THE FAMILY BIBLE YOU HAVE, BELONGED TO O.H.P.L. EVANS, THAT IS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY L. EVANS, HE WAS A DOCTOR IN TIPTON DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
    >
    > HIS GRANDFATHER WAS ANDREW EVANS, WHO FOUGHT IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
    > UNDER COL. SAMUEL NEWELL.
    >
    >
    > COLONEL SAMUEL B. NEWELL
    >
    > Samuel Newell, was of Scotch-Irish descent, was born in Virginia in 1754 and in 1780 he married Jane Montgomery, a descendant of the poet James Montgomery. She was born in Virginia in 1764 and was of Scotch descent.
    > Samuel Newell was a colonel in the cavalry in the Revolutionary war and saw the arduous service incident to the war.
    > He was in the battle of King's Mountain, aided in winning the victories of Cowpens and Yorktown, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis.
    > At the battle of King's Mountain, he was wounded in the hip and rode all day without stopping to dress his wound or take any food. Before starting out in the morning he had roasted a large sweet potato, which he carried in his knapsack for lunch, but when he stopped to eat his potato he found it saturated with his own blood which had dripped into his knapsack from his wound, but he was so hungry he ate it as it was.
    > After the war Colonel Newell located to Kentucky and served two terms in the state legislature. He was a talented man, a devoted Christian and a gentleman in every sense of the word. He was bitterly opposed to slavery and for this reason left Kentucky and removed to Indiana in 1837, there remaining until his death in 1841. His wife died in the Hoosier state in 1843
    >
    > ANDREW EVANS HAD 3 SONS THAT MARRIED 3 DAUGHTERS OF COL. NEWELL.
    >
    > BOTH OF THESE GENTELMEN ARE OUR GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GRANDFATHERS,
    >
    [FONT=Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif]> YOU CAN GOOGLE COL. SAMUEL NEWELL FOR MORE INFORMATION, QUITE INTERESTING.[/FONT]

    [FONT=Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif]We also have relatives in Germany (one who is a Genealogist by trade). He claims to have traced our family name (mother's side) back to the Viking era and links our lineage with Eric Lief (Eric the Red). I have never seen this info, so I cannot attest to its validity. A neat idea to entertain though![/FONT]
    .
     

    Scuba591

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    We have a castle in Scotland. Also, I've been told that a relative was the first Post Master General of Indiana. Somewhere along the way... we are related to the Rockefeller Clan
     

    Mark 1911

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    I come from a family of immigrants. Dad's side Polish Catholic, Mom's side German Jewish. Mom's family had to flee for their lives in 1936, some of my relatives didn't make it, I never met them. My grandfather never talked to me about Germany, but he was very proud to be an American, and grateful for the opportunity to start a new life. One day after my grandfather died I was digging through some boxes in the attic of my grandmother's house, just being a curious kid. At the bottom of an old cardboard box I found a small wooden box, about 8 x 12 inches. There were a couple of medals in it. I believe one was a German Iron Cross, and one had the word Luftwaffe on it. Somewhat stunned, I carried the box down to show my grandmother and ask her about it. She became extremely upset with me, she told me my grandfather never wanted me to know he ever fought against America. He was a decorated pilot in WWI in the German Air Force, but he had no pride in it at all, he never said one word about to me, nor did my grandmother, or my mother. After fleeing Germany to protect his family, he felt betrayed and he never wanted anything to do with Germany again. If I hadn't found that wooden box, I would have never known.
     

    the1kidd03

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    I come from a family of immigrants. Dad's side Polish Catholic, Mom's side German Jewish. Mom's family had to flee for their lives in 1936, some of my relatives didn't make it, I never met them. My grandfather never talked to me about Germany, but he was very proud to be an American, and grateful for the opportunity to start a new life. One day after my grandfather died I was digging through some boxes in the attic of my grandmother's house, just being a curious kid. At the bottom of an old cardboard box I found a small wooden box, about 8 x 12 inches. There were a couple of medals in it. I believe one was a German Iron Cross, and one had the word Luftwaffe on it. Somewhat stunned, I carried the box down to show my grandmother and ask her about it. She became extremely upset with me, she told me my grandfather never wanted me to know he ever fought against America. He was a decorated pilot in WWI in the German Air Force, but he had no pride in it at all, he never said one word about to me, nor did my grandmother, or my mother. After fleeing Germany to protect his family, he felt betrayed and he never wanted anything to do with Germany again. If I hadn't found that wooden box, I would have never known.
    Wow...heart felt story.
     

    metaldog

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    I'm German/Irish. Thats means I have a horrible temper but usually too drunk to do do anything about it!
    Would that make you Irman or Germish? Either way its pretty funny!
    I am of German ancestry & my wife is of Irish descent. Our daughter tells people (when asked) that she is Germish. The perplexed looks she gets is hysterical.:):
     
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