Stuff about your ancestors you never knew growing up

[D.Turtle]

Well, I knew my maternal grandfather served in World War 2. He got shot in the leg, which requires special care until today because of circulation - so that was pretty well known. It took some time for more details to come out, but a few years ago I had a lot of interest in that stuff, so he started writing down all that he experienced. Heard some new stuff then, and he keeps on working on his story - I really should get the newest version of what he wrote - lots of stories there.

He lived in Cologne, experiencing several bomber raids, etc. One of their teachers would always be on the look out where bombers were shot down, etc. So they would distract him from exams, by claiming that a bomber went down where it didn't - causing him to go into long arguments, forgetting the exam

In 1944 he volunteered in order to be able to choose what branch he went into, as he (and everyone else) didn't want to go into the death trap known as general infantry. He still got stuck there, first serving a relaxing time in Holland, before going on the Eastern Front with the Division Großdeutschland. Thats where the bad stories start...

Things like constant digging in against the Russians, retreating when the lines got to close, digging in again, retreating, etc. - several times a night. Asking his buddy to look if all the supposedly dead people were still in their places and not just faking it - only for his buddy to be shot in the head by a sniper. Reinforcing a position, only to be wounded by an air attack before getting there (holding the ammunitions box in front of his head, so that if he were hit, he'd at least be dead instantly). Getting trained as one of the guys on a half-track with a flame-thrower (he volunteered, as it would get him off the front line for two weeks). Retreating in the face of Russian attack, only to be sent back again to get the all important MG-42 that some moron had not taken with him when they abandoned their position. Experiencing/watching a relatively large Russian tank attack, that saw something like 30-40 Russian tanks destroyed (it was a suicidal charge over a low hill, with the German tanks in a wood at the bottom of that hill). Seeing many, many Luftwaffe NCO's being killed as they were so inexperienced with infantry battles. Being shot in the leg, when a moron of a NCO shouted out a warning to an unknown group of people in the woods while out on patrol at night (they were Russians...).

And in the end only surviving by not being in a suicidal last stand in Germany, because an unknown soldier lying to their inexperienced officer, that the two of them were snipers who choose their own positions - and getting the hell out of dodge (they were later separated, never saw each other again - I think my grandfather doesn't even know the guys name) ...

I really should get the material he's put together/written (including his new favorite: Google Earth/Maps, allowing him to find all the places he was). If there is interest I could post it here.

Rest of the family, there isn't so much I know. My maternal grandmother pretty much got thrown out of the family when she revoked her Catholicism and married an Evangelical - I think she only had contact with her sister after that.

On my fathers side there isn't that much stuff I know. My grandfather was a steelworker since he was 14 or so, got fired after 20 or 30 years for striking, took over the farm from his father, and did quite well, as he apparently was the only one willing to deal properly with Indians (from India).

My grandmother was "simply" a housewife (on a farm), though she had a very early stroke, requiring her to completely relearn pretty much everything - from walking, to writing.

[Kanastrous]

Wow. I'd like to know what he thought of Der Untergang - assuming he'd ever want to sit through it.

[Edi]

My maternal grandfather fought at Kollaa in WW2 as well as some of the other toughest places where the Finnish army held against the Russians against all odds. He was the weaponsmith sergeant of the company and could take apart and put back together the lock of a Maxim machine gun (all 200 parts of it) in the dark by feel alone. They had just seven machine guns to cover a two kilometer stretch of front and faced roughly a battalion of Russians every day. He only talked to my dad about that, so the information is second hand. He suffered from nightmares for the rest of his life.

My paternal grandfather was the President of the Supreme Court of Finland for a long time. I don't know all the places where he fought in WW2, but he was an officer and I know for a fact that he killed a Russian officer (captain or major) one one one when they ran into each other. He was the faster draw. He also survived only because of his best friend, who once carried him several kilometers from behind the lines when he was wounded and unable to move on his own.

I don't know anything further back than that, but as for the rest of my family, my father and both of his brothers have done pretty well considering the family came from Vyborg and lost everything when the Soviet Union annexed it after WW2. They had pretty much nothing to begin with.

Dad was the administrative director of the Lutheran Church of Finland (a secular job, administrative law) for over 30 years and outlasted four or five Arch Bishops. They came and went, while dad stayed. He once fought an employment dispute all the way to the Supreme Court and won despite the Constitution Committee of the Parliament telling him unanimously he was in the wrong. He also got promoted to one of the knightly orders Finland once he retired, as a tribute to his long public service (the church has legal obligations to provide certain public services to everyone). I just need to check which order, since it was so recent.

In any case, dad has achieved a whole damn lot in his life and he's as awesome as they come.

My older uncle (the middle brother) retires from being the Administrative Director of the National Board of Antiquities (responsible for running the public museums in the country and a lot of related things) at the end of the month. My younger uncle works for the Foreign Ministry and has been a diplomat to Berlin (DDR, so on the East Berlin side) and Athens as well as Moscow (that was before the other postings).

[D.Turtle]

Wow. I'd like to know what he thought of Der Untergang - assuming he'd ever want to sit through it.

Well, he would probably pretty much think exactly what he thinks with any war movie/documentary or so. You would have to be more specific if you want more details.

If you want to know what he thought about Hitler, I can't really tell you. I mean, obviously, in hindsight, the conclusion is obvious, but I do recall my grandmother explaining her view at that time - which pretty much amounted to Hitler being a very good guy, with his underlings doing all the evil stuff, and that if he knew about it, he would stop it.

If you mean the situation overall, well, it was pretty much clear that they were losing the war - hence all the various actions with only one goal: survive. Thats why the volunteering for service, volunteering for additional training with the flamethrower, deserting, bluffing the officer to desert again, threatening to shoot another officer who found them deserting, etc. Nearer the end, he had only one goal (as many did): to get away from the Russians and be captured by the Americans (or British).

[Fake edit]Hmm, I just remembered that I have an older version of his stuff here.

Though there is interesting stuff in there, just from a short overview - apparently my great-grandfather fought in World War 1, and later was a member of the group "Der Stahlhelm" and later the SA.

There is also some stuff about the political situation in Nazi Germany - I really have to look at this stuff again in the next few days.

[Edit]This stuff is interesting. Oh and I saw a mistake I made in my first post: He was in the Division "Hermann Göring" and not in the Division Großdeutschland.

[Marcus Aurelius]

My maternal grandfather enlisted in the White guard during the Finnish Civil of 1918 at the age of 18, but as far as I know he didn't see any combat (the Whites won). He later became a country school teacher and lead a fairly standard lower middle class life typical to his profession. He never stopped worshiping Marshal Mannerheim with almost religious fervor, though, which he knew well since he was also quite religious.

My paternal grandfather served as an NCO during the Continuation War, but he never talked about his war experiences even to his children. After the war he was involved in the so called Weapons Cache Case, which was originally a secret operation by the Finnish military to stash some weapons in case the Soviets decided to occupy the country. His involvement was fairly minor though, since he only hid about 10 Mosin-Nagant rifles (exact types unknown to me). He was never exposed as one of the conspirators (there was dozens or even hundreds of these smaller caches around the country and many were never recovered). The rifles were later half-forgotten and were all completely destroyed in a fire a few years later. He died before I was born, so I heard all this from my father already as a teenager.

Apparently one of my more distant ancestors was a soldier of the Swedish army in Norther Germany during the Great Northern War. He deserted after the Swedish defeat at Stralsund (1715) (or possibly even before that ) and managed to lay low somewhere in Northern Germany until the end of the war (1721), and then returned to his farm and lived for a few more years (or possibly relinquished the farm to his son; the records of this period often have good information only about the head of the household). My relation to this fellow is quite unclear, however, and it's possible that there is no blood line between him and me at all.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Up until I was thirteen there was an entirely other side of my family I didn't know about. Now to tell the rest of the story I need to preface it by telling you that my father and his brother and sister, were adopted by my great grandparents to get them away from the deteriorating relationship between my genetic grandparents. Thus my great grandparents are legally my grandparents.

Fast forward to when I was a little guy (3-6), my grandmother Billie (genetic grandmother) had died of a heart attack without me ever having met her and my Papa Ray (genetic grandfather) remarried. I had always been aware of pictures of various picture of this one girl from when she was little until she had graduated high school.

Again, we need to move forward about seven or eight years until I was thirteen. Every year we have a family reunion at a park near Summersville. Anyhow so this year I notice my Papa Ray has three black kids (two boys and a girl with the girl being the middle one and the youngest boy being young enough that he needed me to escort him to the bathroom still) with him. Well I decided to go talk to my Papa Ray and one of the kids asks him if they can go to the pool situated in the park. To which Ray said that no he doesn't have the time to take them over there and he didn't bring any money with him. Every year the reunion is done in late Summer, it's oppressively hot for little kids who like to be active and I hate heat in general, so every year I bring my swimming trunks, about $100 dollars, 2-3 cans of spray on sunblock, and a couple towels in case the kids want to go. We had an awesome time.

So anyway we get back from the pool about five hours later (it's just a five minute walk from the pavilion we'd rented) and they have to leave to check on my grandfather's second wife who had been ill for the past year or so (the reason for their visit, actually). In the meantime I had noticed they called Ray 'papa' as well. So after they'd left I asked my Aunt Kathy (Dad's sister) what was up. She informed me that they were my cousins.

Apparently what had happened was my Aunt (my dad's half sister that I'd never met) had married a black Soldier. When I was four or five my grandfather brought my Aunt's first child to the family reunion and my Papa Tom (Ray's father, my genetic Great Grandfather) was ashamed of him and my father pretty much bullied my grandfather, my aunt, and her husband out of the family over it. I see them like once a year now.

When I was in the Army I called up my grandfather, I learned that my aunt & uncle were simply up in Fort Riley when I was at Fort Sill. So I called them up and talked to them and my cousins. Well on Bloc Leave (From Dec 15-Jan 3rd'ish the Army TRADOC closes down for holidays) I went home and my aunt & uncle were at my grandfather's house. I finally got to meet my aunt & uncle for the first time and my aunt expressed her great surprise when my grandfather told her about how different I was about race than my father after I had taken the kids to the pool.

I was hoping they would come see me on the Valentine's Day Family Day we had when I was stuck in Bravo Battery 95th AG, unfortunately one of Noah's Soldier's had to go and get himself an Article 15 and he had to supervise the extra duty.

[Elfdart]

I know my ancestors on my moms side came over on the Mayflower, so Pat Buchanan can get the fuck out of my country. On my dads side there were a bunch of Confederate war vets. Oh and on my moms side there were also slavers who shipped slaves from Africa to the Americas.

My ancestors came over on the Godspeed, you Johnny-come-lately! So you and Pat Buchanan can piss off!

[Aaron]

Not really cool but an interesting commentary on 1950/60's Canada:

My Dad's parents weren't actually married, not until the late 60's. His father being Catholic wasn't able to get a divorce from his first wife and Dad's mom was Protestant. So Dad's grandmother used to throw full tin cans of food at him and his siblings, because her daughter was living in sin. She would also go to the store, buy toys and give them to all the kids on the street but not my Dad and his siblings.

Just found that out yesterday.

[xthetenth]

Well, if I remember the rules on it right (not sure I do or my sources were right) I am technically Frederick von Meyer the tenth. Also, I'm descended from Oliver Cromwell and Betsy Ross by marriage. But the real fun one is the story of my great-great-grandfather. His father was a Prussian general, and he was a lieutenant when he got sent to fight in that mess with Emperor Maximillian of Mexico. So he catches a boat, lands in New York City, promptly loses his orders and signs up in the Union Army as a meteorologist. Later on, he's on the Polaris expedition, which promptly degenerates into a disaster with the commander probably getting poisoned and anarchy starting, it gets hit by ice and the crew threw some supplies fell out onto the ice to keep the ship from sinking, so he and some others were working to get them back in the ship when the ice breaks off and they're stranded on a floe. They eventually drift back to civilization, where a trial starts based on all that but nobody could be found guilty due to lack of evidence.

[Soldier of Entropy]

Slight necro, but it's still on the first page, and I only just spotted the thread.

My paternal-paternal great grandfather had a very interesting life's story. He was orphaned and raised by his uncle, a magistrate in pre-revolution Russia. He was also the first of his direct line to complete high school. His uncle also got him a job preparing lunches for the Russian Army, and around the same time but in an unrelated incident, my great grandfather joined the Russian communist party. Under the pseudonym 'Max the Teacher' (his actual name was Mordechai, and after he entered the US, he changed it to Maximilian) he began disseminating communist propaganda in the lunches which were distributed to the soldiers. These actions eventually got a price on his head, forcing his uncle to smuggle him out of the country into Austria, and then the US, where he became a lightbulb assemblyman, and then a trolley car operator.

Now, here's the interesting part. At age 13 I joined a Zionist-Socialist youth group, not knowing the above story (I am, incidentally, named for Maximilian).

[Marko Dash]

Only thing interesting i can recall is the time George Washington spent the night after mistaking the house for a tavern.

http://south-carolina-plantations.com/h ... reens.html

[The_Saint]

Been doing some family tree research recently and have found that on my (English) mothers side an ancestor got thrown in prison for smuggling in the early 1800s and a pair of brothers (millwrights, unrelated to the smuggler) managed to move whole a 100 ton stone building some distance... which today seems easy enough but must have been quite an achievement in 1861.

On my (Australian) fathers side I've got a great uncle who was a Rat of Tobruk and his brother (my grandfather who died well before I was born) who was in Townsville when it was bombed and was in the guard party for one of the Japanese pilots who was shot down (so those people who keep telling me Australia was never bombed can go shove it )