plainpat

Forgot to say,Grma & Grpa had 9 kids & when they'd been married 40 yrs, she moved out.Said "I've lived with that man long enough!".She bought a house in town.They were never divorced,but she lived there & he stayed at the farmt.Her kids were scandalized LOL

oksewglad

and survived even better! I think this thread has proved how interesting our family history is and why we need to preserve it.

I go To The Sea To Breathe

On my mothers side, one of her 2nd cousin was a shipwrecked baby, found washed up on the beach in a box of some kind. He had red hair and was dressed in very fine clothes. They think he may have come from a ship that went down from Ireland and that he may have been royalty. Another story, my great grandfather was baptized with Jesse James. and the grandfather remembers going in the buckboard to watch when the railroad burned the James family house down.

Bebbysews

My fathers' ancestors came from Germany, and they built the first little factory that made wooden matches in this country. I think it was in Virginia. My Grandfather fought in the Civil War. He was born 100 years before I was born, and I find that amazing.
On my mothers side, my grandfather was a Chipawaw indian and he married an Irish girl. He fought in the Spanish American War. He was born in 1870 and died in 1973. Hope I have his genes : )

ube quilting

Who would boo JC? I have him on my greatest people list!
I love your little cow!

leiladylei54

The skinny on my family.....my grandparents were first cousins. So far....no disabilities or retardation in the family. Grandmother used to make the equivalent of moonshine except in Hawaii, it's called Okole Hao. When she got caught hiding the bottles of okole hao sunk down in the swamp, she said they belonged to her eldest son. LOL He was sent to jail....my aunt (his wife) was never told the story. Meanwhile, Grandma had a SIL build a hidden door in the house to hide the okole hao.
DH's father (when he was a teenager) used to deliver pickles to the bar where Al Capone used to frequent. Was told never to stop and talk to anyone but didn't know why.

QuiltnNan

i love all these wonderful stories

MadQuilter

My grandfather was arrested by the SS and sent to the concentration camp in Dachau as a political prisoner. He managed to escape during the American occupation and he walked home which took him about 4 weeks.

My mother was in a movie mini-series. She was only supposed to have a bit role but her humor got her noticed and she ended up in 6 of the 8 parts.

Twisted Quilter

I've always heard that my great grandfather on my mother's side was a stowaway on a ship from somewhere around the Canary Island heading to the U.S. President Andrew Jackson was on this ship. When he got caught they asked him his name, he said Andrew Jackson. I have no idea what his real name was.

quiltingsavta

On my dad's side, who are of Jewish decent from Russia, going back about 5 generations my great(5th)grandfather had 10 kids with his wife. It was customary in those days for a women's sister to take care of the kids should she die. But her sister was a widower herself and had 11 kids. Well they married and then they had 8 kids, so there were 29 kids altogether. Who could afford that???? About 35 years ago a family tree was developed and found over 2000 family members all over the world that are decendents from these 29 kids. Some of them died young from illness and others during wars, but most of those that survived moved out of Russia. Some went to Israel which back then I think was Persia (correct me if I'm wrong), some went to Spain and others traveled to America. Before arriving at Ellis Island they were told they were going to be asked 3 questions. What is your last name, what is the town you are from and how old are you? Noone could speak English. One group of family members that came over when they got off the boat, they were split into groups. The person asking the questions in one of the groups reversed the first two questions, so we had the same family with a different last name documented. When it was found that a mistake was made, they were told it couldn't be changed. So some brothers (and sisters) had different last names.

On my mother's side, years later, same thing happened to her father and uncle. They came from Austria. The Uncle acually came over on an earlier boat and by the time it arrived at Ellis Island, my grandfather was on his way so there was no way to contact him. They switched the questions again so when my grandfather came over, he couldn't find his brother. They searched for months for each other and finally found a mutual friend. By that time, you could change your name, so my grandfather changed his last name to the same as his brother. It's ironic that 100 years later between my father's ancestors coming to America and then my grandfather in the early 1900's the same problem arose.