Tell Something Interesting About One (Or More) of Your Ancestors
10-26-2011, 08:10 AM
#41
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Coastal Florida - Mountainous Maine
Posts: 949
What a fun thread!!!!
Let's see. On my mother's side... we had moonshiners, doctors, convicted and hanged horse thieves AND an Irish white slave woman, abducted as a young teenager from her home in Ireland.. taken to a plantation in the south where she was bought by my ancester, one of the southern Baldwin clan. She made the most exquisite lace by hand. Baldwin ended up marrying her. They had children.... and 200 years later, I have the auburn hair and white skin of my ancestor. Happens about every other generation or so. Neat fact: Up until my grandmother's time, we still had a scrap of a hand knotted? tatted? lace collar she had made, sew into a quilt. The quilt, along with a lot of other furnishings, was donated to the American historial collection of the Smithsonian. We can trace those northern roots back to a Baldwin who was (one of?) Queen Victoria's medical physicians back in England.
The first frame house in New Hampshire, was also built by my family....it's now a small, state run historical site. Apparently, the New Hampshire Baldwins came over on the ship after the Mayflower (forget it's name). The wife of THAT Baldwin, wrote a diary about her crossing and early settlement experiences called, "A Cup of Tea in a New Land". Much later, her hand written memoir was typed up. Her original diary is somewhere in the Smithsonian, but I have a copy of the typed book. Way cool.
Some of the other things attributed to them:
Baldwin College
Baldwin Apples
Baldwin Pianos
In more recent times, my grandfather, Clyde I Swett, was an eminant doctor who did his residency during the Great Depression in Boston. The State of Maine put him through Medical school on the condition that he return to the state and serve as a doctor in rural country areas. Even though he literally traveled the world giving symposiums, speeches and stuff.... he always remained practicing in the northern Maine woods all his life. He became the first doctor to successfully re-attach a hand (and have the hand actually work after healing), the first doctor to reverse a vasectomy. He was also the Maine State Coordinator for the Civil Defense during WWII, a Silver Beaver awarded Boy Scout member (highest ever award), a Mason, a hypnotist, studied Roseacrucianism and did a host of other things.
However, I remember this eminant and well-known doctor... chasing me around the kitchen table, syringe in hand, to give me my immunizations! He also used vodka to clean a scalp wound I got one time. God, did that hurt like the dickens. lol. He was a large man, prone to laughter and living life large.
My father's mom/dad were Polish. Came to American on stolen? passports from Warsaw and nobody knows who they really were or how they got the money for passage during the start of WWII (late 30's). I used to fantasize that I was a Polish princess or something. Yeah... um....right.
Let's see. On my mother's side... we had moonshiners, doctors, convicted and hanged horse thieves AND an Irish white slave woman, abducted as a young teenager from her home in Ireland.. taken to a plantation in the south where she was bought by my ancester, one of the southern Baldwin clan. She made the most exquisite lace by hand. Baldwin ended up marrying her. They had children.... and 200 years later, I have the auburn hair and white skin of my ancestor. Happens about every other generation or so. Neat fact: Up until my grandmother's time, we still had a scrap of a hand knotted? tatted? lace collar she had made, sew into a quilt. The quilt, along with a lot of other furnishings, was donated to the American historial collection of the Smithsonian. We can trace those northern roots back to a Baldwin who was (one of?) Queen Victoria's medical physicians back in England.
The first frame house in New Hampshire, was also built by my family....it's now a small, state run historical site. Apparently, the New Hampshire Baldwins came over on the ship after the Mayflower (forget it's name). The wife of THAT Baldwin, wrote a diary about her crossing and early settlement experiences called, "A Cup of Tea in a New Land". Much later, her hand written memoir was typed up. Her original diary is somewhere in the Smithsonian, but I have a copy of the typed book. Way cool.
Some of the other things attributed to them:
Baldwin College
Baldwin Apples
Baldwin Pianos
In more recent times, my grandfather, Clyde I Swett, was an eminant doctor who did his residency during the Great Depression in Boston. The State of Maine put him through Medical school on the condition that he return to the state and serve as a doctor in rural country areas. Even though he literally traveled the world giving symposiums, speeches and stuff.... he always remained practicing in the northern Maine woods all his life. He became the first doctor to successfully re-attach a hand (and have the hand actually work after healing), the first doctor to reverse a vasectomy. He was also the Maine State Coordinator for the Civil Defense during WWII, a Silver Beaver awarded Boy Scout member (highest ever award), a Mason, a hypnotist, studied Roseacrucianism and did a host of other things.
However, I remember this eminant and well-known doctor... chasing me around the kitchen table, syringe in hand, to give me my immunizations! He also used vodka to clean a scalp wound I got one time. God, did that hurt like the dickens. lol. He was a large man, prone to laughter and living life large.
My father's mom/dad were Polish. Came to American on stolen? passports from Warsaw and nobody knows who they really were or how they got the money for passage during the start of WWII (late 30's). I used to fantasize that I was a Polish princess or something. Yeah... um....right.
10-26-2011, 08:48 AM
#43
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Coastal Florida - Mountainous Maine
Posts: 949
Wow... I'm learning so much cool stuff. I had never heard of the "Jersey Devil" or Urban of the White Sox.
Nor did I realize just how many 'hootchers' there were in the good 'ol US. Do you know that Southern Living magazine did an article on modern day, non-illegal Moonshine? There are now BRANDS of it in the south, and I guess it's never really er gone out of style down here. lol.
Nor did I realize just how many 'hootchers' there were in the good 'ol US. Do you know that Southern Living magazine did an article on modern day, non-illegal Moonshine? There are now BRANDS of it in the south, and I guess it's never really er gone out of style down here. lol.
10-26-2011, 09:13 AM
#44
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NE Ohio
Posts: 211
One of my ancestors killed a hunting party of Indians in Virginia. Was put in the local gaol. Family sticks by family, so they took axes and clubs and beat the building in so he could escape the hanging due him. He spent a winter in a riverbottem inside a hollow tree.
Another ancestor was the developer of treatment for malaria while the Panama Canal was being built.
Good and bad in most everyone's history. We make our own lives. I have always told my children to take what they see in their parents as good and build on that. Discard the bad stuff.
Another ancestor was the developer of treatment for malaria while the Panama Canal was being built.
Good and bad in most everyone's history. We make our own lives. I have always told my children to take what they see in their parents as good and build on that. Discard the bad stuff.
10-26-2011, 09:43 AM
#45
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 1,341
No one famous from my family that I know of. Had a great great grandmother that had 5 sets of twins that lived. Hasn't been another set in the family since.
Had a great grandfather serve in the civil war. He was shot and held prisoner at Antietam. My mom said the bullet was never taken out.
Another set of greats(would have to look up how far back) had immigrated to US and met here. Funny thing is they had lived only a few miles apart before coming here but had never met there.
Had a great grandfather serve in the civil war. He was shot and held prisoner at Antietam. My mom said the bullet was never taken out.
Another set of greats(would have to look up how far back) had immigrated to US and met here. Funny thing is they had lived only a few miles apart before coming here but had never met there.
10-26-2011, 09:59 AM
#47
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: central Iowa
Posts: 137
My grandfather's father, or maybe grandfather, stowed away on a ship for America at the age of 12 from Germany because he didn't like his new step mother. My grandmother's great uncle joined the civil war at the age of 14 (lied about his age to get in). He was captured and sent to Andersonville. He escaped by pretending to be dead and was taken out with the other corpses.
10-26-2011, 10:12 AM
#48
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Coastal Florida - Mountainous Maine
Posts: 949
Originally Posted by Linda-in-iowa
My grandfather's father, or maybe grandfather, stowed away on a ship for America at the age of 12 from Germany because he didn't like his new step mother. My grandmother's great uncle joined the civil war at the age of 14 (lied about his age to get in). He was captured and sent to Andersonville. He escaped by pretending to be dead and was taken out with the other corpses.
10-26-2011, 10:18 AM
#49
Power Poster
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Between the dashes of a tombstone
Posts: 12,716
Like many of you I so enjoy these tidbits of history. My own family is uneventful, Swedish and German immigrants from the late 19th century. Swedish GF dug 6' tile lines by hand across Illinois and Iowa. 100 years later the ditches are starting to be replaced. My father was a MP in WWII and guarded the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, top secret stuff at the time.
My DH's family on the other hand has ancestors coming on the Mayflower, Dutch immigrants in the 1600's, RW and CW soldiers and a CW battlefield nurse, a black sheep who drowned in the Ohio River, and a 3 time Pulitzer Prize winner for political cartooning in his family tree.
Be inspired by the good and forget the negative!
My DH's family on the other hand has ancestors coming on the Mayflower, Dutch immigrants in the 1600's, RW and CW soldiers and a CW battlefield nurse, a black sheep who drowned in the Ohio River, and a 3 time Pulitzer Prize winner for political cartooning in his family tree.
Be inspired by the good and forget the negative!
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