Stuff you learn about your ancestors

[Mr. Hallack]

I had a few years ago done some genealogy on my dad's side of the family, and for some reason tonight decided to Google my great-grandfather's name, for whatever reason. Maybe somebody else had done some research on him. Well anyway one link I found surprised me quite a bit. It was on who was my great uncle, Frank T. Hallack. What I knew about him was that he was my great-grandfather's younger brother, (my great-grandfather's name was Rayner Hallack) he had enlisted in the navy and died from the Spanish Flu in 1918. Well there was a LOT more about him that I never had found out about, and there was a web page about him. I am 100% certain of him being family since the article lists his family members who I know are my ancestors. When I found this tonight I completely tripped out, but so happy to find out. Here is the page in question.

http://gayhistory.wikidot.com/hal-august

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I had a few years ago done some genealogy on my dad's side of the family, and for some reason tonight decided to Google my great-grandfather's name, for whatever reason. Maybe somebody else had done some research on him. Well anyway one link I found surprised me quite a bit. It was on who was my great uncle, Frank T. Hallack. What I knew about him was that he was my great-grandfather's younger brother, (my great-grandfather's name was Rayner Hallack) he had enlisted in the navy and died from the Spanish Flu in 1918. Well there was a LOT more about him that I never had found out about, and there was a web page about him. I am 100% certain of him being family since the article lists his family members who I know are my ancestors. When I found this tonight I completely tripped out, but so happy to find out. Here is the page in question.

http://gayhistory.wikidot.com/hal-august

Interesting bit of family history. Here's where your great-granddad was living in 1914 as it looks today. Interestingly enough the exact address is now the office of a divorce lawyer on the ground floor of the building.

 

[Shangas]

I find family histories fascinating. I spent quite a time researching my father's family history.

 

[CONELRAD]

My grandfather's grandfather was a circus performer and a barnstormer, his great grandfather was a Confederate veteran. My grandmother's father owned the bank building in Blackville, SC, and was probably the richest man in town.

Here's my great-great grandfather, 1912.


One of these people is my great-great grandfather.


Here's my Confederate great-great-great-great grandfather.


And here's my grandma's father, and his wife, 1930s.


I'm not quite sure what the story is on this, but I've been told that it could be the Dayton-Wright OW.1 Aerial Coupe, which would make it a very rare picture, and I have no idea how my family could have any connection to it, but we do have a long line of aviators. If anyone knows anything about that, I'd really like to know.

 

[Shangas]

I can trace my family back to the turn of the last century. But we don't have any photographs that predate the 1950s.

I learnt about quite a few things of my family from speaking to my uncle (at 78, the oldest surviving member since the death of my grandmother in 2011), and visiting museums. Such things as when and why my grandfather left China, why he came to the Malay Peninsula, when he married my grandmother (1943; a hell of a time to get married), and what jobs he held, and how the family struggled during the Japanese Occupation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I knew nothing whatsoever about my father's family beyond the names of his parents ,until a couple years ago when I stumbled across a magazine article revealing that his mother's father had been that most stereotypical of Mainers, a lighthouse keeper. With a peg leg, yet. Avast, ya swabs.

Sam Cavanor, keeper of the Ram Island lighthouse, 1883-1913. My paternal great-grandfather. Clearly I come by the cat thing naturally.

 

[Shangas]

My family has a surprising number of writers in it, on my father's side. I have an aunt who is a writer, I have a cousin who is a writer. My uncle (aged 78) was an English teacher, and my aunt (the one I previously mentioned) is also an English teacher (I think she retired recently though). And then of course...there's me

Then last time I spoke to my uncle, he told me that my grandfather used to work for a newspaper during the 1930s. He didn't give me any details (He would've been a VERY small boy at the time), but he did say that before WWII came along and ruined everyone's day, that was his job.

So writing and wordsmithing in our family goes back three generations

 

[splintercellsz]

On my mothers side, I am related to President Andrew Jackson. My Great-Grandfather (I don't have a photo of him yet, but I believe to be from Russia) worked in the mob/mafia/whatever you wish to call them, here in the states. There is more, but I can't remember it all.

 

[DeaconKC]

I have been researching on my Dad's family from Alabama and Missouri, seems that during Prohibition we had a bunch of bootleggers, murderers and general rabble in the bunch! I wonder what they would think of me being a Parole Agent today!

 

[stevew443]

I researched my family for years, going from info provided by my grandmother. It seems that she decided to make the family sound more important than it really was, so she had given me incorrect information. I spent almost a decade researching the wrong family until I found a distant relative who had the correct info. It seems that my 4th great uncle led an Indian Massacre in Ohio back in the 1700's. The massacre is now the subject of a play that is still being given in Ohio and my ancestor is the villain. What I determined was that no matter what my ancestors did, no matter how evil or how great, what I am depends on what I make of myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhutten_massacre

 

[Sprinkles]

I knew nothing whatsoever about my father's family beyond the names of his parents ,until a couple years ago when I stumbled across a magazine article revealing that his mother's father had been that most stereotypical of Mainers, a lighthouse keeper. With a peg leg, yet. Avast, ya swabs.

Sam Cavanor, keeper of the Ram Island lighthouse, 1883-1913. My paternal great-grandfather. Clearly I come by the cat thing naturally.

Now he looks like a guy to have an interesting conversation with! Very interesting stories folks! An ongoing regret of mine is that I really don't know much about my family history

 

[Gingerella72]

My mother, born in 1930, loved her father and was a total Daddy's Girl. Sadly, her parents divorced when she was 8 years old, and she never saw him again. All her life she wondered what happened to her father.

Fast forward to 2010. My Dad and I had done a few internet searches on her father's name, Farris Farone Branan, Jr., over the years, but never turned up anything. But something prompted my Dad to try again.

A Google search on that name turned up an old Ancestry.com message board post from a man named Farris who was searching for any information on people he might be related to. This, in part, was the message:

"I was born Farris Farone Branan III in 1945 in Waco, TX. My father was Farris Farone Branan, Jr......my parents, Farris and Florence, left me with some people in Texas. By the time I was six or seven, Farris Jr. and Florence dropped out of my life altogether. I was adopted as Thomson at age 13. All my birth records were changed to Thomson but the letters I possess - several hundred - are filled with proof of who I am and I do remember Farris and Florence......"

Well that name is unique enough that it was impossible he wasn't related in some way to my Mom. Unfortunately, the post was several years old, and the email address attached to it was defunct. Well, in the post he said he lived in North Carolina. Dad has friends in the same city in NC so he called them and asked them to look in their white pages for a Farris Thomson and they found one. He called the number and asked the woman who answered if she knew anything about a Farris Farone Branan III.....the lady who answered is his wife, and it turns out, this Farris is my Mom's half-brother that she never knew she had.

After her father divorced her mother, he married again (the Florence referenced in the message board post) and had Farris III. Unfortunately Farris Jr. turned out to be just as bad a father as he had been in his previous marriage and he and his new wife dumped him off to a foster home.

Regardless of an unhappy childhood on both their accounts, my Mom and her new half-brother, Farris III, have been enjoying getting to know each other and got to meet in person for the first time last April when he and his wife came to visit them here in Nebraska.

Mom's father, Farris Farone Branan, Jr.

Mom as a baby

Mom and her new half-brother, Farris III

 

[Mabel]

I have been doing genealogical research on my Father's family, who I knew almost nothing about. He was estranged from them. It's been interesting, to say the least, but the most fascinating thing I have found so far is a letter in the Nevada State Archives.

My ancestors were named Archibald Henley and Julia Brown Henley. Julia Brown was the first cousin of John Brown, the abolitionist. Anyway, they were Argonauts. They came out via wagon train to California during the gold rush and helped settle the city of Sacramento. Near Goose Lake one night in October 1849, a group of local Indians raided and took off with all their horses and cattle, leaving them stranded. The men refused to leave the women and children, so they sent two men out with a letter to try and make it to the settlements. The two men hiked through hostile Indian territory for days to reach Major Rucker, the local military commander. He sent out cavalry with extra horses for the emigrants, and they eventually made it to the settlements and safety. The correspondence is preserved in the Nevada State Archives:

To GENERAL P. SMITH, Commander in Chief in California, or any of his officers.

We, the undersigned emigrants, respectfully beg leave to represent, that on the night of the 19th October, the Indians drove off nearly all of our stock, oxen and horses, which places us in almost a helpless condition, as we were obliged to throw away a great deal of our provisions and clothing, to enable us to make some progress towards our destination ; the season being so far advanced and danger of being caught in a snow storm. The able bodied men of the company feel themselves compelled to remain with the train to render all their assistance to the helpless women and children, of which there are twenty-five in number. The above robbery was committed upon us at Goose Lake, near the head of Pitt's River, on Lauson route.

We would, therefore, earnestly solicit that the earliest help should be sent us from the settlements in teams and provisions, as otherwise we consider it impossible to reach the settlements.

M. M. BUSSARD,

Capt. of St. Louis Company.

​

And below that are the signatures of all the men in the wagon train, including "Archibald Henley, and family". I think this is really neat, I was fascinated to come across it.

 

[AmateisGal]

My mother, born in 1930, loved her father and was a total Daddy's Girl. Sadly, her parents divorced when she was 8 years old, and she never saw him again. All her life she wondered what happened to her father.

Fast forward to 2010. My Dad and I had done a few internet searches on her father's name, Farris Farone Branan, Jr., over the years, but never turned up anything. But something prompted my Dad to try again.

A Google search on that name turned up an old Ancestry.com message board post from a man named Farris who was searching for any information on people he might be related to. This, in part, was the message:

"I was born Farris Farone Branan III in 1945 in Waco, TX. My father was Farris Farone Branan, Jr......my parents, Farris and Florence, left me with some people in Texas. By the time I was six or seven, Farris Jr. and Florence dropped out of my life altogether. I was adopted as Thomson at age 13. All my birth records were changed to Thomson but the letters I possess - several hundred - are filled with proof of who I am and I do remember Farris and Florence......"

Well that name is unique enough that it was impossible he wasn't related in some way to my Mom. Unfortunately, the post was several years old, and the email address attached to it was defunct. Well, in the post he said he lived in North Carolina. Dad has friends in the same city in NC so he called them and asked them to look in their white pages for a Farris Thomson and they found one. He called the number and asked the woman who answered if she knew anything about a Farris Farone Branan III.....the lady who answered is his wife, and it turns out, this Farris is my Mom's half-brother that she never knew she had.

After her father divorced her mother, he married again (the Florence referenced in the message board post) and had Farris III. Unfortunately Farris Jr. turned out to be just as bad a father as he had been in his previous marriage and he and his new wife dumped him off to a foster home.

Regardless of an unhappy childhood on both their accounts, my Mom and her new half-brother, Farris III, have been enjoying getting to know each other and got to meet in person for the first time last April when he and his wife came to visit them here in Nebraska.

Mom's father, Farris Farone Branan, Jr.

Mom as a baby

Mom and her new half-brother, Farris III

What a cool story, Gingerella!

 

[LocktownDog]

The ancestors I'm fascinated with go way back.

One was banished from the Netherlands in the 17th century due to a bit of "freelance privateering" that caused headaches to the local merchants. He took his skills to Sale, Morocco and led the suleyman's pirate fleet against the Spanish.

Soon thereafter, his son (by a moorish woman) is recorded to have a farm on Wall St, New Netherlands. After a few fights (he was a nasty s.o.b., pimped out his wife, and had the first Koran in the country, which caused some consternation), the locals kicked him out of the colony and gave him Coney Island to do with as he pleased. The book was still in the family until the 1950s. Records are vague on what happened later. We do know that sometime in the 19th century, the island was taken from the family.

Still digging into those histories.

 

[dhermann1]

I've always had a lot of family history on my mother's side. There was the Dithridge branch, who founded the famous glass making company in Pittsburgh in the early 19th century. But I did pick up a couple of wonderful tidbits about my great grandfather over the last few years.
I had always heard the story of how William Dithridge, my great great great grandfather came to the US in 1811 to help start a glass industry in Pittsburgh, and that his wife and children came over a couple years later. His wife had the secret formula for the glass sewn between the layers of her petticoat.
What I learned recently was that my great grandfather, in 1855, when he was 15, had learned shorthand, and had taken down verbatim a conversation among his aunts and uncles describing their trip across in 1814 on the sailing ship Euphrates. The ship had encountered a huge Atlantic storm, and had lost its main and mizzenmast. It limped into New Bedford (instead of the planned New York) two weeks overdue, on only its foremast. It made national news.
This same great grandfather, GW Dithridge, was rather a ne'er do well, and a great failure in life. He spent ten years in Mexico trying unsuccessfully to get rich. I happened to Google his name a couple years ago, and found two amazing letters to the new York Times that he had written.:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00C10F8385517738DDDAE0994DA405B818DF1D3
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10E1EF63D5512738FDDAE0A94DE405B858DF1D3

On my father's side I know a lot less. I had always thought my grandfather had come here from Germany around age 2, in about 1887. My cousin informed me that he was actually 11, and that he spoke fluent German, which had never realized. But the cool thing I learned from my cousin was that my paternal great grandparents (must have been my father's mother's parents) had run a speak easy during Prohibition in Paramus, New Jersey. It was called the Mushroom Farm, because that's what it was. This makes me want to start a bar and call it the Mushroom Farm!

 

[LocktownDog]

But the cool thing I learned from my cousin was that my paternal great grandparents (must have been my father's mother's parents) had run a speak easy during Prohibition in Paramus, New Jersey. It was called the Mushroom Farm, because that's what it was. This makes me want to start a bar and call it the Mushroom Farm!

This. Is. Fantastic.

 

[LocktownDog]

I'm assuming kitty scratching post jokes would be distasteful? He certainly looks like he has a sense of humor.

 

[Doc Smith]

The ancestors I'm fascinated with go way back.

One was banished from the Netherlands in the 17th century due to a bit of "freelance privateering" that caused headaches to the local merchants. He took his skills to Sale, Morocco and led the suleyman's pirate fleet against the Spanish.

Soon thereafter, his son (by a moorish woman) is recorded to have a farm on Wall St, New Netherlands. After a few fights (he was a nasty s.o.b., pimped out his wife, and had the first Koran in the country, which caused some consternation), the locals kicked him out of the colony and gave him Coney Island to do with as he pleased. The book was still in the family until the 1950s. Records are vague on what happened later. We do know that sometime in the 19th century, the island was taken from the family.

Still digging into those histories.

I thought this rang a bell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Janszoon_van_Salee

 

[LocktownDog]

That's him.
Although that account has a bit of misinformation (at least from our family tree records ... my mother's been working on this for nearly 20 years) and is also cleaned up a bit.

Thanks for the link.

I noticed that the link for Jan Janszoon the Corsair has listed notable relatives. I can tell you for certainty that each one is on a distant branch. The closest is Vanderbilt, I suppose. The nearest familial branches led to poverty, farming, and military service. Moving to the new country was not good for my ancestors. Although being kicked from the NL and becoming a barbary corsair couldn't have been pleasant either.