My great grandfather was a bigamist (went out for a loaf of bread in the 1900s and didn't come home), went back to Denmark, got married (my great grandmother was still alive here) and had twins (relations we don't know about).
My grandfather on my mother's side was in marines and he was involved in the searching of houses at the San Francisco Earthquake in the 20s.
My mother was a 4-star USO woman before she met my dad.