Family history - anything odd or interesting?

[JPkempo]

Great great grand parents names Mary and Joseph. (I seem to rember another couple by that name)

My great great grand father on the other side was blown up on a train, while in India with the English army. He was part of the army band.
Great grand mother was chased by a tiger in India.

[The Bat]

My Dad was a Gun Captain(Gunners Mate 2nd Class) on the Navy Destroyer U.S.S. Abbot DD629....in the South Pacific in WW2. He was there when We recaptured the Phillipenes.

[AusTex]

My great grandfather played football for Stanford and received a Doctorate in Medicine, my grandfather (his son) received an Engineering degree from Stanford... then we started getting dumb. Oh, my great, great, great grandfather many X over is John Hancock who was one of the most influential to sign the Declaration of Independence.

[jwyblejr]

An uncle on my mother's side of the family was hung for punching a guy and killing him.

[Hulk]

My Great Grandfather was Henry Heide, founder of the Heide Candy Company, famous for such caloric excesses and cavity removal products like Jujyfruits, Jujubees, Gummi Bears and Red Hot Dollars. I never met him, but I sure did enjoy supporting the family business. I still usually buy a box of Jujyfruits to bring to the movies.

[RG]

On my mom's side, my great great great Grandma was a native american if I remember right she was Chicasaw. Her family was killed by carpet baggers ... she was the only one from her family to live and she hunted down the group of carpet baggers and killed them, one by one.
And as the story goes the leader of the group that killed her family, once she got him she kept his skull and used it as a soap dish. After she was done with her killing ... I guess that's when she married who would become my great great great grandpa. I guess there's an old book about her, but my Grandma passed away before she could find the title so I'm on the hunt for it. I know her last name was Cole, but I think that was her married name. I was told by one group of native americans that due to her crimes she may not have been recorded in their records since doing so may have led to her going to jail or being killed.

----

On my dad's side my great grandpa was born in 1860 and at some point in his life he was a law man but was shot in the chest and became a farmer ... he had a bullet about an inch above his heart for the rest of his life.

[AUSSIE-Rebooted-AMM]

I bare the name of my forefathers. . .amongst the last pagan kings Ireland - north western corner anyway - Connacht. It is one of the oldest Surnames known in Europe. I was present at the Clan reunion in Sligo in 1997 when we resurrected the Clan and elected a new Taoiseach (clan leader). Our name is rare. . .not many of us. . .sadly Boy George is among us. . .you can't pick your family! I have visited our family Castles which was a treat. . .and learnt of one of my name sakes of 400 years earlier was murdered at one of them. Our lineage/family tree is recorded in one of the oldest manuscripts held in Dublin university.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O'Dowd\

Of course that is all just interesting family history to US. . .and doesn't mean a damn thing to anybody outside the family!

[Hotfoot]

A relative of mine, David Lowery Swain, was the president of UNC and led the surrender of Chapel Hill NC during the Civil War!
The Carolina StoryThe Civil War Years:
The Carolina StoryThe Civil War Years:

My sister is named after his daughter
The Carolina StoryThe Civil War Years:

[Mikey]

My father and his 2 sibs were named Peter, Paul and Mary

My father was Paul

[Gorn Captain]

My wife's grandmother was a faith healer for farm animals.
People used to bring sick cows over....

I wonder: some lame cow suddenly getting up and saying "It's a miracle! I can walk!"

[txteach]

My mother's cousin was James Dean the actor.

[toys2cool]

My Great Great grandfather was an Officer in the Spanish American war in Cuba,My Great Great Grandmother was only like 12 when she was rescued from the middle of a battle by Lt.Gen Antonio Maceo who's face is on one of the Cuban Bills.She would always tell the story on how he rushed thru the middle of the battle in his horse and picked her up and saved her life her parents were killed and she was taken to a wealthy family to be there servant ,well there she met my Great Great Grandfather who was a wealthy officer for the Spanish,he was in his late 20's and fell in love with her.He took her away and married her but was later killed

Antonio Maceo Grajales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Adam West]

Both sides of my family has extensive genealogical records.

The most interesting one which was passed down through family tradition but can not be proven definitely is on my mother's side (because genealogical records are very difficult to find this far back).

My mother's maiden name is Pumphrey which is named after Pomfret castle in England and was one of the castles belonging to Richard III. King Richard had an illegitimate son named John of Gloucester but who also went by John de Pomfret after the castle. There is circumstantial evidence that suggests that we are decendants from him and even the earliest settlers used the Pomfret name when they came over with some changing the name to Pumphrey.

There are lot of other interesting stories but one for sure was another Pumphrey who owned a stable in Washington D.C. He rented the horse the John Wilkes Booth used as his getaway after assassinating Abraham Lincoln and even though he wasn't involved other than renting the horse, he was still brought into court and I have the transcript of the court proceedings.

[Mikey]

I was told my great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather's name was Adam ... His wife, they tell me was Eve.
Not sure if it's true, though .....
Record keeping was kind of shakey back then.

[mitchedwards]

My Dad served in Germany during the Berlin Airlift

The theologian Jonathon Edwards is also in my family tree. There is a family story that he once owned and farmed the land that Wall Street now sits on.