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Celtic Radio Community > Family History & Clans > Family Stories

Posted by: CelticRose 11-Dec-2003, 09:43 PM

In my genealogy research I have come up with a few stories so far. It appears I come from a long line of Baptist Ministers. One big story that I am not sure is true or not is that one of my great grandfathers was a minister in England, converted Pocahontas to Christianity, baptized her and married her to a John Rolfe. (I thought she married a John Smith) Anyway, that same great grandfather left England to come to the colonies to begin a ministry of conversion to the colonists and from generation to generation in my family begot more Baptists ministers. That same family also comes from a long line of politicians, judges and sherrifs! Quite a paradox, wouldn't you say? Would be very interested in reading others and what they have learned about people in their family tree.

Posted by: JaneyMae 12-Dec-2003, 08:40 AM

Our familyin America consisted of poor Irish railroad workers in the beginning. The first to come to America, however, became a statesman and explorer. My brother traced our roots back to Catherine the Great of Russia who had been kidnapped and taken to Ireland. Facinating!

Posted by: CelticRose 12-Dec-2003, 12:32 PM

Hey JaneyMae! I thought it would be kind of fun for us to share what we all have have learned from our family history so far and yours was fascinating -- Catherine the Great of Russia! Whoa! Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: maisky 12-Dec-2003, 12:51 PM

QUOTE (JaneyMae @ Dec 12 2003, 09:40 AM) Our familyin America consisted of poor Irish railroad workers in the beginning. The first to come to America, however, became a statesman and explorer. My brother traced our roots back to Catherine the Great of Russia who had been kidnapped and taken to Ireland. Facinating! Exploring our mother's side of the family back to Alabama soon started producing horse theives and such, so I stopped looking......

Posted by: Mailagnas maqqas Dunaidonas 12-Dec-2003, 01:21 PM

Speaking of horse thieves, here's a bit about one of my Rev War Tory gx-grandfathers, Francis Hopkins, who: QUOTE organized a band of Tories, whose occupation was to steal the horses of the settlers and intimidate the citizens whenever possible.  He went so far as to post notices at and near the home of Colonel William Campbell, warning him that if he did not desist from his prosecution of the Loyal adherents of George III, a terrible calamity would befall him, either in the loss of his property or his life. . . . . Seeing the movement and recognizing the man who he so much feared and hated, the Tory wheeled his horse and stated back at quite a rapid gait, pursued at full speed by Colonel Campbell and one of the gentlemen of the company, whose name wa Thompson. . . . . At this moment Mr. Thompson roade up. They took their prisoner out on the bank and held what may be termed a drum-head court.  The Tory, who, bad as he was, had the virtue to being a brave, candid man, at once acknowledged the truth of the charge preferred against him and boldly declared his defiance and determination to take horses wherever he could find the.  But he was mistaken in his man, for in less than ten minutes he was dangling from teh limb of a large sycamore that stood upon the bank of the river, the stump of which was to be seen a few years ago, and may be there yet for aught the writer knows. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~ahopkins/va-censu.htm

Posted by: Mailagnas maqqas Dunaidonas 12-Dec-2003, 01:28 PM

On the other hand, some of my Thorne Society of Friends ancestors were among the signers of the Flushing Remonstrance, protesting the manner in which the Dutch were treating Quakers. While protesting for their own freedom of religion, tax rolls show that the Thornes were among the early slave owners in America. http://thorn.pair.com/thorn/thornlineage/jthorne.htm

Posted by: CelticRose 12-Dec-2003, 01:32 PM

QUOTE (maisky @ Dec 12 2003, 01:51 PM) Exploring our mother's side of the family back to Alabama soon started producing horse theives and such, so I stopped looking......

Posted by: oldraven 12-Dec-2003, 02:06 PM

Knowing what nearly all of the Scots, Irish, and English in New Scotland did a couple hundred years back, I can be pretty positive that they were Privateers. I don't know if I should be trying to celebrate, or hide the fact that I come from Pirates.

Posted by: Aon_Daonna 12-Dec-2003, 03:26 PM

Well, there are two basic things to tell: My mothers side was big in being merchants and managed to pile up quite some wealth. They were all in the shipping business with a few exceptions who were in the navy. We managed to trace them down to the C14, in which they were quite big in the Hanse, a trade organisation of the late medieval period, famously hated by Elizabeth I. We were able to trace them as far as that because they came from big maritime German cities which had well documented church records. My fathers family descend from a **TOS VIOLATION** quite a while back, and that is when we loose it. Their name is medieval German for "curly haired". The other side of the family came back to be a knights family in Preussia with a large estate which is now Poland. They were reknowned for their Trakehners, a large horsebreed at that time, very valued. They were famous for breeding Cleveland Bays into them and having connections to all over the horse breeding world, especially to Ireland and England. That's where my Irish GGG Grandma comes from... she was a horse-breeders daughter, not really irish although born there, she was basically english.

Posted by: A Shrule Egan 14-Dec-2003, 04:44 PM

This is an article that we have concerning Martin Burke, a cousin to my grandfather. Martin was part of the group that was responsible for blowing up Lord Nelson and was arrested for that and executed Jan. 20, 1923. He was 17 years old when he was executed.

Posted by: A Shrule Egan 14-Dec-2003, 04:50 PM

OK, have no idea why that file didn't go along for the ride. I'll try again.

Posted by: CelticRose 14-Dec-2003, 04:52 PM

Egan, what a tragic story!

Posted by: Aon_Daonna 14-Dec-2003, 07:05 PM

bleh.. why did I get a violation there? I mean the b word is a regular word to describe a son born out of marriage? That guy from the 1750's was a son out of a regular marriage, we don't know his father.

Posted by: Keltic 14-Dec-2003, 10:45 PM

On my fathers side, the family tree always points back to Scotland. Originally, my family landed in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The males always seemed to stick to marrying female Scottish immigrants until my father met my mother. I have a picture of my great grandmother as a girl in the early 1900's when she first arrived in Canada from Scotland. My mothers side is Irish and Welsh. I didn't know about this until my grandmother was dying in the hospital when she proceeded to give the whole family history. I had thought that she was born in Canada but she was actually born in Wales. She came over from Wales with her parents (obviously my great-grandparents). My great grandmother was Welsh (never met her) and my great grandfather (we called 'grampa one-leg'(**see below)) was from Ireland. My grandfather was from Wales as well. **We were always told as children that 'grampa on-leg' had lost his leg during the war. My grandmother (another death bed story) let it slip that he was actually running for a streetcar (stumbling would probably be a better term) in Montreal and fell underneath. His leg was run over.

Posted by: High Plains Drifter 26-Dec-2003, 11:20 PM

In the same family, my ancestors fought on both sides during the English Civil War. I had a many times great uncle who was beheaded as witnessed by Oliver Cromwell himself. He was captured one day, tried and executed the next. Didn't have much time for an appeal. He and all his brothers were Royalist obviously but his nephew's, my many greats grandfather were puritans and fought on the parliamentary side. When Charles II regained the throne, they immigrated to the America, to Plymouth, MA and Middleton, CT. The one who settled in Plymouth married a Mayflower descendent although that isn't my line she would have been a great many times aunt. Another branch does go back to a Mayflower passenger, one George Soule. My Scottish ancestors also came over about the same time. They were Quakers who probably had conflicts with the Presbyterians in Morayshire and immigrated to Christiana which was a Swedish colony about that time which became West Jersey, and then with East Jersey, New Jersey. They owned a 2000 acre plantation which was mostly swampland. about 1694 they sold it and moved to Swedesborough and later to just across the Delaware from Philadelphia where I still have seventh cousins living who I correspond with occasionally. My wife has some really interesting family going back to the Revolutionary War. One several times great grandfather actually was on three sides during the war. He came to America as a German mercenary to fight for the British. His regiment was sent to Pensacola to protect the frontier against the Spanish. He was captured by the Spanish and taken to New Orleans where he renounce any allegiance to the English and joined the Spanish army. He accompanied Viceroy Galvez, the Governor of Louisiana on an ill-fated expedition against the British at Detroit. (That's right, Detroit). They got as far as near the present location of Niles, MI before they ran out of supplies and turned back. My wife's ancestor then appears at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi in what is now IL. At this point he joins Col. George Rogers Clark's Virginia frontier regiment. He stayed with them for the remainder of the war. so he was on the side of the British, the Spanish, and the Americans. Her third great grandfather on her grandmothers side was Scots/Irish and Welsh. He fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812. He died in 1873 at the age of 109 from injuries sustained from trying to break a colt so he could ride it to town to buy whiskey. (Tough old bird.)

Posted by: Mailagnas maqqas Dunaidonas 27-Dec-2003, 07:15 AM

Drifter, It appears that some of our ancestors may have fought together. My gx-grandfather Theophilus Whaley is thought to actually be Robert Whaley, the brother of the regicide Edward Whaley (one of the signers of the death warrant for Charles I) who was a Cromwell lieutenant present at the execution of Charles I. After Charles II came into power, Theophilus wisely chose to move to Rhode Island, where he lived to the ripe old age of 104. http://www.city-net.com/~markd/roots/surnames/whaley/theophilus_notes.htm

Posted by: Breandain 28-Dec-2003, 11:55 PM

As many of you know, the Titanic was partially or fully built in Belfast. Depending on the history books I suppose. Anyhow, my great grandfather on my mothers side was one of the lucky ones to be chosen to sail across the sea as some sort of ships helper. He came to work the day the ship was to leave Cobhs' docks. Since he didn't have the right set of "gutties" on, he was told he couldn't come onboard. He apparently wasn't too happy after travelling all the way from Belfast to Cobh in Ireland to be told he wasn't going. He certainly must have had someone upstairs watching out for him as we all know what happened after the ship left Cobh's docks in Ireland. And to think, if he gets to board that ship, I am wondering if I even exist today? True story and no baloney.

Posted by: CelticRose 29-Dec-2003, 12:02 AM

Wow! Breandain! What a story. I had just watched my videos of the Titantic the other night. such a very sad story. Lucky for him that he didn't get to board that ship and take that terrible eventful trip. Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: High Plains Drifter 29-Dec-2003, 09:22 PM

MMD, My gx-uncle would have been Sir Charles Lucas of Colchester who was beheaded at Colchester in 1648. His brother Sir Thomas Lucas was also a Royalist but had two sons, Thomas and William who were puritans and fought with Cromwell. They were disowned by their father and came to America upon the restoration of Charles II. They may very well have fought with your ancestor. We can probably never know for sure but it is an interesting possibility.

Posted by: CelticRose 01-Jan-2004, 08:46 PM

I am still new at all this but this is what I have learned so far in my family. My 7th great grandfather fought in the Isle of Man battle, 1715 Jacobite Rising. My 5th great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War in the NC militia My 3rd great grandfather fought in the WBTS in the Battle of Atlanta and was part of the Gilmer Browns. I also learned that my 6th great-grandmother was emigrating from Ireland with her parents when her father had taken ill and died and was buried at sea. My 3rd great-grandmother, who has a Scottish surname, was an indentured servant for a wealthy English family in North Carolina.

Posted by: Sea Dog 23-Jan-2004, 01:23 AM

First off Privateers matey are nothing to be ashamed of. They sailed under a letter of marque and were legal Naval Auxiliaries. Followed rules of war, etc. Pirates were outlaws, not the same thing. Nothing too exciting in the family yet, know we have Iroquois and 13 generations on my Mothers side. Her Mother, Grandmother Grandmother and Great Aunt came over on the Lusitania on the westbound leg of the trip that saw it sunk on the eastbound leg. Family changed spelling because it was cheaper than fixing the business mis spelling. Brothers wife's family has found a few branches that shall we say may have been grafted back together in Kentucky. They aren't sure just how closely they want to look into that. Then agian it was Kentucky and if you can't marry your cousin who can you marry.

Posted by: RavenWing 23-Jan-2004, 10:49 AM

QUOTE (Sea Dog @ Jan 23 2004, 07:23 AM) Then agian it was Kentucky and if you can't marry your cousin who can you marry. Hey now! j/k

Posted by: RavenWing 23-Jan-2004, 10:53 AM

I don;t know a whole lot about my family. I have had a hard time finding things out. Here is what I do know: *Zachary Taylor is a relation of some kind *Colonel Sanders is another cousin *There are quite a few ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war. *My G-ma is from Brisbane, Australia. Supposedly her uncle was governor of New Guinea. I have tried to look into this, but have gone nowhere. *My G-Grandparents were bootleggers. That is all the interesting info I have.

Posted by: shamalama 23-Feb-2004, 09:26 AM

My 2nd great-grandfather, Perry Oliver McCullough (1836-1884) - Enlisted in the Conferate Army November, 1862. - He was a Private in Company E, 42nd Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, Army of Tennessee, Harper's Guards. - Captured in the Battle of Atlanta, August 23, 1864. - Released from Camp Chase prisoner camp (Ohio), June 11, 1865 after making an Oath of Allegiance to the United States.

Posted by: urian 09-May-2004, 06:59 PM

Where do I start? Hmmm... ok. on my father's side. I've traced my family back to Charlamagne(by way of italy) and ,using charlamagnes family tree, I've got back to Pilate. waaay back in 1066 my family came over with our cousin William the Conqueror to a little island. At that time my family name was De Percival. My anscestor being Ascelin Gouel De Percival. A generation later, one of Ascelin's sons moved to Ireland to run amuck on new shores. His side of the family ,eventually , settle down and on of them led the Crusading forces into Jerusalem to take it back from the Muslims(one of the crusades) The other side(mine) stayed the northern part of england near Scotland(what became the riding) and there were know for their violence and evil nature. It was said that no din of evil , short of hell, existed on this earth that was filled with more thieves, witches and murderers than my family's castle. One example that I found was when a rival Lord conspired to have my ancestor's castle. He convinced several other lords to help and they took the castle but released my ancestor(their mistake). After some time gathering aid and allies, my ancestor returned to his castle and took it back. He then went to his rival's castle and took it...and razed it...and razed the castles of everyone that aided his rival...just to prove a point. It didn't stop with his rivals. The villagers hated them so much and feared the ferocity of the Percivals that they started refering to them as the wolves. Lup...which became lupellus...which became lupell....which became Lovell. It was also said that we were cursed with Lycanthropy as well. Here in America my anscestor ,Gideon(1780-1860), married an indian woman and she was exiled from her tribe and the family was cursed...again. They made their way from North Carolina to Louisiana where my family is from. Nothing exciting happened after that except no man has lived past 50(my dad turns 50 this year) and all have been very violent men. My grand father went to jail for cattle theft once, and statutory rape another. While he was in jail for the rape he killed a man with one of thos old fashioned hand crank drills. But, each generation seems to have mellow some. On my father's mother's side. They were huguenots who fled to america from france under penalty of death so that they could keep there religious beliefs. All I know of my mother's side is I'm part of Clan Campbell I'll shut up now

Posted by: Mailagnas maqqas Dunaidonas 09-May-2004, 09:07 PM

Interesting family history, cousin. A statistician once calculated that virtually everyone of European ancestry likely has Charlemagne somewhere in one of their lineages. Here's mine through my maternal grandfather Walter Morgan. WALTER MELVIN46 MORGAN (MAUD ELLEN47 FRANKLIN, BURGESS46, ELIZABETH45 JEFFRIES, PRICILLA44 WOOLSEY, MARY43 HOPKINS, FRANCIS42, MARTHA41 WHALEY, THEOPHILUS40, RICHARD39, THOMAS38 WALLEY, RICHARD37 WHALLEY, THOMAS36, RICHARD35, DOROTHY34 WILLOUGHBY, ROBERT (ESQ)33, MARGARET32 DE FREVILLE, BALDWIN31 FREVILE, BALDWIN30 FREVILLE, BALDWIN29, JOAN28 CROMWELL, MAZERE27 MARMION, PHILIP26, ROBERT V (THE ELDER)25, ROBERT24, ROBERT23, MILICENT22 DE RETHEL, GERVASE21, HUGH20, YEVETTE/JUTTA19 OF ROUCY, GISELBERT18, ALBERADA17 OF HAINAULT, GISELBERT16, REGNIER I "LANGHALS"15, ERMENGARDE14, LOTHAIRE13 EMPEROR OF WEST, LOUIS I "THE PIOUS"12, CHARLEMAGNE11, PEPIN "THE SHORT"10 KING OF FRANKS, KARL MARTEL9, PEPIN "OF HERISTAL"8, ANSEGISEL "SAINT"7, ARNULFE "SAINT"6, BODEGISEL II "DUX"5, GONDOLFUS "SAINT"4, MUNDERIC3, CLODERIC "THE PARRICIDE"2 KING OF COLOGNE, SIEGBERT "THE LAME"1) Since you mention Italy, I assume your descent is though Louis I's brother Pepin. You do have to be careful when you start researching this genealogy stuff--no telling what you may find. Seems like most well-recorded families do have more than their fair share of ancestors who met premature ends.

Posted by: urian 09-May-2004, 09:31 PM

You are correct. It's all a mess. I moved recently and my GEDCOM file disk is somewhere in here..just need to find it... I have found many interesting characters in my tree. And some not so reputable ones as well. I am proud of them all for , without them, I would not be.

Posted by: CelticRose 01-Jun-2004, 04:27 PM

Very interesting, Urian! Thanks for sharing! I come from a long line of politicians and preachers, some not so nice either! One time one of my great-grandfathers was preaching a sermon and there was a drunk outside the church. My great-grandfather stopped in the middle of the sermon and went outside and beat the drunk! Not very Christian of him, now was it?

Posted by: urian 02-Jun-2004, 12:11 PM

QUOTE (CelticRose @ 01-Jun-2004, 05:27 PM) Very interesting, Urian! Thanks for sharing!  I come from a long line of politicians and preachers, some not so nice either!  One time one of my great-grandfathers was preaching a sermon and there was a drunk outside the church. My great-grandfather stopped in the middle of the sermon and went outside and beat the drunk!  Not very Christian of him, now was it?  WOW! I guess we all have "interesting" people in our trees. I know people who have worked for years on their family only to stop when they find someone disreputable. Me? I take pride in them. My family is the black sheep Plus, I firmly believe that every family should know it's roots and where they came from. Taking pride in your past and sharing it with the future is a wonderful way to keep stories and traditions and families alive. In my opinion

Posted by: CelticRose 02-Jun-2004, 01:29 PM

Well, I could share more stories about my family! LOL But I agree with you Urian. I think we should take pride in our heritage and pass it along to generation to generation.

Posted by: dfilpus 05-Jun-2004, 05:08 PM

Half of my great-grandfathers were illegitimate, which makes tracing back through their fathers difficult. One great-grandfather was from a land-owning family (an aristocrat of sorts). He basically took his share of the family money and came to America. The family mansion was immense. In the next generation, the mansion was occupied by two spinster sisters and a much younger brother. The brother went off the city to get some education. When he came back, he had married a city girl. His sisters disowned him and moved to the far end of the mansion. They lived at each of the mansion for years, only to meet for holiday dinner. My mother has an oil painting of the old mansion. A soldier who was fighting in the Russo-Finnish War painted it as payment for his stay in the mansion on the way to the front. Much later, after the old mansion burned, there was a big fight amongst the family as to who would inherit the painting. The brother shipped the painting to my mother here in America to settle the peace in the Finnish family. After the mansion burned, the family built three "cottages" on the property. One for each of the sisters and one for the brother and his family. Each of the cottages would be considered mansions in this country, but combined were not as big as the old mansion. I hope some day to inherit this painting.

Posted by: greenldydragon 08-Jun-2004, 01:27 PM

On my mother's side we've been here for a while. Back, after the French and Indian War, my great (x alot) grandfather and grandmother lived in the Ohio River Valley and they paid for their released slaves trip back to Africa. They owned a large farm and many of the families male members were priests. Except, supposedly, in one generation we had a horse theif and then like two generations later we had a sheriff. A great great great great granduncle on my mom's side was taken captive by the Confederates. On my dad's mom's side there is an interesting story of how they got to Puerto Rico. Back in the past the oldest son would inherit, and then if there were no sons to inherit it would go to the younger brother of the current holder of the land. Well, the story starts in Spain where there were two sons of an elderly lord (eldest son great great great (and so on) of my grandma). This elderly lord had a greedy younger brother who wanted the land once his brother passed on. So one day the younger brother took the two sons to the docks. The two sons then ended up on a ship bound for puerto rico where the eldest met his wife. My grandma still has connections with relatives in Spain.

Posted by: CelticRose 08-Jun-2004, 04:06 PM

Some really interesting stories! Thank you all for sharing!

Posted by: A Shrule Egan 07-Oct-2004, 08:53 PM

One tragic story is of my G-Grandmother, Honora Carty Egan. Word is, she had 22 children but eleven survived. By the late 1890's, most of the children had either married or moved to the U.S. or Canada. There were only two children left living at the farm, who were in there upper teens, that wanted nothing to do with farming. It left Honora and G-Grandfather Patrick doing most of the work. Honora was feeding the animals one day and turned her back on the bull and the bull tore into her and trampled her to death. At 4'11", she never had a chance. She was 66 years old. Her son Thomas, took the bull to market a few days later and sold it, promptly jumped on a ship for the U.S. and was never heard from again.

Posted by: Annabelle 07-Oct-2004, 10:16 PM

\ That story is terribly sad. Q? WHAT HAPPENED TO PATRICK?

Posted by: A Shrule Egan 09-Oct-2004, 11:59 AM

That happened in 1900 and Patrick lived for another 7 years after that. He died at 70 years old.

Posted by: Cailiosa 10-Oct-2004, 07:45 PM

The most exciting thing I've discovered was my relation to the notorious Shelton gang of Peoria, Illinois. More information on them http://www.sheltonmotorsports.com/genealogy/sheltongang.htm and http://www.historicpeoria.com/select.cfm?chose=290. Though they aren't on my direct line, they're close enough (and interesting enough) to claim.

Posted by: Crebain 07-Nov-2004, 08:27 AM

I'm not a genealogy researcher my self but my parents are and they have found quite a lot of ancestors, I think they have over 10000 names in their data base by now. What I think is interesting is that on my fathers mothers side they have found a long line of viking kings, queens and other nobles. I have helped them with a web site where they present some of their research. Unfortunately for you some data base information are only written in swedish but if you would like to see their web site the url is: http://w1.044.telia.com/~u04400073/eng/index.htm And to see my viking ancestors click on the picture of Kerstin. By the way having kings and queens as ancestors does that make me a prince?

Posted by: Mailagnas maqqas Dunaidonas 07-Nov-2004, 03:59 PM

QUOTE (Crebain @ 07-Nov-2004, 09:27 AM) By the way having kings and queens as ancestors does that make me a prince? Probably not. If that were so, we would all be princes and princesses. Virtually everyone of European descent likely has royalty somewhere in their lineage. The trick is finding and detailing the precise links. Some of William the Conqueor's ancestor were sufficiently prolific that that the odds are quite good that anyone with ancestors in Great Britain has Viking ancestry, albeit probably not in the direct paternal line. For example, here's one of my likely Viking lineages (I say likely because there are simply too many links to verify them all). WALTER MELVIN39 MORGAN (MAUD ELLEN40 FRANKLIN, BURGESS39, ELIZABETH38 JEFFRIES, PRICILLA37 WOOLSEY, MARY36 HOPKINS, FRANCIS35, MARTHA34 WHALEY, THEOPHILUS33, RICHARD32, THOMAS31 WALLEY, RICHARD30 WHALLEY, THOMAS29, RICHARD28, DOROTHY27 WILLOUGHBY, ROBERT (ESQ)26, MARGARET25 DE FREVILLE, BALDWIN24 FREVILE, BALDWIN23 FREVILLE, ELIZABETH22 MONTFORT, JOHN21 DE MONTFORT, PETER/PIERS20, PIERS19, THURSTAN18, HENRY17, THURSTAN16, ADELINA15 DE BEAUMONT, ISABEL14 OF VERMANDOIS, HUGH "THE GREAT"13, HENRY12 KING OF FRANCE I, ROBERT II "THE PIOUS"11, ADELAIDE10 OF GERMANY, ADELA/GERLOC9 OF NORMANDY, ROLF/ROLLON8, ROGNVALD "THE WISE"7 EYSTEINSSON, EYSTEIN "GLUMRA"6 IVARSSON, IVAR "OPLAENDINGE"5, HALFDAN "THE OLD"4, SIGURD "RING"3 RANDVERSSON, RANDVER2, RADBART1KING, GARDERIGE-) As some of the Viking names also appear on the web site you reference, we would appear to likely be very distant cousins.

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