Do You Have Any Family/Personal History Stories?

[willemvanoranje]

impressive. We have one too, some distant relative made it and put in all of today's people with my last name in it and traced back their ancestors. He ended up with some guy, late 16th century, in Hardinxveld-Giessendam, where he was in the city council, as would be his son, grandson, etc., etc. but 1250 is very impressive I think, probably has to do with the fact that the tree was started in the middle 18th century instead of late 20th

 

[Panda]

(I don't know who much truth is in the following stories, but this is how they were told to me.)

The founder of my Finnish family line was actually an English political refugee who fled from Cromwell. He changed his name after marrying so his name is lost to time. Whoever he was, he must have been well scared to run all the way to Finland. Maybe he was royalty, and I could make a claim for the throne of England.

During the Winter War, my Finnish grand father served on the Karelia front and returned decorated with half a dozen of medals and a gut shot. Surprisingly, he recovered, and when the Continuation War errupted in June 1941, he was called in to serve again. He didn't feel like getting shot again, so he went to the local police station with a crate of vodka, and consequently was assigned to home front duty manufacturing wood charcoal.

My German grand father wasn't as lucky. His tour of duty started with Poland, continued in France and led to Leningrad. He was wounded seven times and suffered from his war wounds for the rest of his life. When he, in 1945, was wounded for the seventh time he miraculously ended in the same hospital where my grand mother worked as a nurse. Which was good, because grandmom was caught giving Russian POWs food (which was strictly forbidden), and was sentenced to death by an overzealous little nazi. Luckily, my grand father was a senior officer and also wore an Iron Cross, so he bullied my grand mother free. After that encounter grand dad lost what little loyalty he still had for his uniform and they fled all the way to Bavaria.

Once the war ended, my grandfather sold American G.I.s his most priced possession he had managed to save from their home in Breslau - a dachshund. Since it was a very loyal little doggie it always returned, so grandfather could sell it to another American soldier. Eventually he sold it to a provisioning officer who fed meat to the dog, so surprisingly the dog didn't return anymore. I hope it found a good home in the States because it saved my family from starvation.

Besides my grand parents, few family members made it through WWII. My Finnish grand parents lost all seven brothers during the Winter War. From my German side, two brothers (out of 12 siblings) made it through 11 years of forced labour in Siberia. One was a SS-Hauptsturmführer and such a despicable person that grand father never talked to him after the war. The other was a 14-year-old Hitler Jugend kid who never managed to fire a single round before getting captured by the Red Army.

 

[polymath]

My great-grandfathers story is pretty amazing.
He studied medicine at St. Petersburg around the turn of the century. One of the students in his halls of residence was convicted of a plot to assassinate the Tsar, and executed. Every other student in his halls was exiled. He went to Poland, but was still friendly with some Russian nobility.
These nobles used to invite him to go hunting very often. It turned out one day that the Tsar came along too. During the hunt a bear came charging out of the undergrowth straight at the Tsar. Without thinking my great-grandfather leaped into action and stabbed the bear through the heart with his hunting knife - that's quite a feat, even if you must be a bit daft to face a bear with a knife.
As a reward, the Tsar gifted my great-grandad 250 acres in Poland, and made him his official hunting doctor. From then on, if the Tsar went hunting, my great-grandad went too.
So, my grandmother was born and used to go riding with Anastasia (the Tsar's daughter) fairly often - my grandmother was an expert horse-rider, bareback, standing on the saddle etc. The Tsar turned to my great-grandad one day and said 'I wish my Anastasia could ride horses like your daughter'.
I think that's pretty cool!

As far as near misses (in terms of 'but for such-and-such I wouldn't be alive'), my grandad fought for the Germans in WW1, and the Allies in WW2.
In WW1 he was in the trenches, and in one battle both he and the Allies were down to bayonets. A Tommy comes along and they both lunged at each other, sharp end first of course. The Tommy got my grandad clean through the neck, missing his windpipe by a fraction. My grandad got him through the heart. Thanks to this fraction of an inch in the heat of battle, I am now here to talk about it.

I have this weird thing about Russians though:
Great-grandad was pretty clever and to study at St Petersburg was definitely a privilege. He was very proud of this.
They exile my great grandad as I said above. He was low after that.
The Tsar of Russia gives my family a nice bit of land and honour. Nice! He's happy again.
The Russian Communists come along and take back the land, and exile my family to Siberia (in WW2). Very, very low. My great-grandmother starved herself to death to feed my father and aunt.

So, I'm waiting to see what's next in this chain of Russia giving and taking stuff from my family - hopefully Putin has an award lined up for me or something, which I expect will merely get me sent to the Gulags when the next Russian leader comes along.

Good thread BTW! All these stories are madly interesting!

 

[Hitro]

I've always been asking my grandparents (of both sides) about World War 2. Can't say though if that's because I've always been interested in that period of time (the Third Reich) or if that started the interest.
However, naturally the stories concerning that time are sad ones. My mother's parents both lost their fathers who fought as soldiers in the Wehrmacht. The grandfather's dad was even killed in the last days in May 1945 somewhere in Denmark. About the other one there's no clear account, as my grandmother's family were living in the German-Polish border region around East Prussia and therefore had to flee in front of the advancing Red Army. She had 12 sibling of which only 5 (I think) made it to the West (can't imagine her mother's life...), due to bomber attacks and starvation as well as the cold. She was a little child then (born 1936).
In fact all of my grandparents were children at the time, so none of them were directly involved in the war or any atrocities. But my grandfather was drafted into the army in the spring of 1945 (at age 15) to fight the British army with a bunch of his friends put in army music corps uniforms and with nice little panzerfausts...
Fortunately they were smart enough to run.
My father's parent's fathers were too old to serve in the army at first and later, when that didn't matter anymore they were needed in their profession as locksmiths for the railroad.
But my grandmother's father also was an active member of the Nazi party (he even joined before 1933) and also member of the SA. I'm not sure if also member of the SS. He was then stationed (in his railroad job, he was in the Navy in WW1) in occupied Poland. My grandmother was very little then so unfortunately she didn't realize too much of the things he did there and later her mother never talked about it, so it is not completely clear how far he was involved in atrocities commited against Jews, Poles and others. He certainly was, having been the convinced Nazi that he was (and ever stayed, although his son died in the war), but the extend is unclear. He was later interned for two or three years. My grandmother remembers him as an alcoholic, choleric and not a bit loveable person (he was already quite old when she was born). Exactly the kind of guy you imagine as a Nazi...

But the way life is he made it through the war while the others died...

 

[Evie]

The oldest ancestor of my family that we've been able to track so far is Louis Hébert. Here's what the French Larousse dictionary has to say on him :

Hébert (Louis). French apothecary born in Paris (around 1575, died in 1627). He moved to Québec in 1617*, he is considered the first french settler of Canada.

*9 years after Champlain founded the trade post...and a few years still before any english settlers ..

Pretty nice historical role, all in all.

Here's a link with some more info :

http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1600-00/Herbert.htm

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Father in law's father was stationed at Pearl Harbor and supposed to go to collect a gambling debt from a soldier on the Arizona when the bombing started.

Step father's father in the Battle of the Bulge and looted Nazi knives, swords, etc.

Great Uncle a prisoner of war of the Japanese, had nightmares that caused him to punch in his sleep for the rest of his 70 year life.

Earlier step father's brother pretended he was gay to get out of Vietnam...

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by willemvanoranje
More recent is from the German side. My granfather served in the Kriegsmarine on a minesweeper in the eastsea, skaggerak and kattegat, smetimes northsea as well. For some reason I'm never told a lot when it comes to the war...can understand in a way though. Anyway, my granfather was captured by the English somewhere in 1941 or 1942, but was released before the end of the war. When he returned to Germany, he arrived in (I think it was) Kiel, where he saw how ships, with holes in them everywhere and doomed to sink, filled with Jews were sent out on the ocean....

Heb je ooit "Montyn" door Dirk Ayelt Kooiman gelezen? Het gaat hier precies over. Hardstikke goed boek, heeel indrukwekkend.

My family has many interesting tales, tho few involve any famous battles. The farthest back we've traced is to a certain Jeswald who was one of the conquering Normans who took over southern Italy. Eventually the Jeswalds became the Gesualdi of Potenza, where they built an estate. Some 400 years along the family line came Carlo Gesualdo (Karl Jeswald). He can now be found in quality classical music collections, and is a minor footnote in western musical history. Madrigals were the main form of choral music at that time, Carlo developed a new style that actually is worth listening to. The family didn't produce any more noteworthies until the early 19th century, when one daughter supposedly married a prince of Monaco. We've been unable to confirm this story, tho.

Eventually there came the inevitable Gesualdo who had no son by his wife (tho he had two others...), and the estate was split as dowry, iirc. It still stands there today, with a fine cast iron name over the gate. The bastard sons took on pa's name (but alas, not his money ); one married my great great grandmother. Their daughter in turn took a liking to a Romanian (Romany? nobody is too clear on this) horse thief who was 'on vacation' in southern Italy. Their families eventually emigrated to america.

Once in ohio, the Italian bunch set up illegal gambling dens in shop basements. My great uncle Joe got shot on his porch because of some shady business. Luckily, he was the only one who got in too deep. The rest wisely let that sort of business to the cheap novelists. Anyway, my mother remembers Joe mostly for how he would sometimes answer his business phone - a mortuary - "Joe's morgue, you stab 'em, we slab 'em!" It seems this wasn't the line of work on which he really relied for income.

 

[onejayhawk]

Originally posted by onejayhawk
Sure. My Grandfather was a Lutheran Minister. He was ordained in 1923 and married a few weeks later. His first calling was to mining country Colorado. He and his wife moved to a camp for railroad constuction workers near what is now Granby. From 1926-1928 he and his congregation chose, seasoned and felled the trees necessary to build a log church. It still stands.
J

PS I may dig up a picture of the log church and attach it. First I'll have to hook up the scanner, whereverit is...

Here it is. From a postcard made from a charcoal drawing.

 

[Heffalump]

One of my grandfather's flew P-51s in the Pacific. He always said though that his most dangerous moment came on the ground on Iwo Jima when the Japs overran the camp in one of their "banzai" charges. He and some other pilots hotfooted it from their tent and retreated up a small hill or elevation and fended them off with pistols and grenades until help came. He still has shrapnel in his skin all these years later.

My other grandfather falls into the near miss category of war stories. Because he was a good sharpshooter he was pulled out of his unit .... and eventually sent to Panama to be a sentry. Not sure how he managed that. Anyway, over half of his old platoon was later wiped out in northern Italy. So he was lucky ... but always seemed alternately thankful and remorseful that he wasn't with his buddies.

My father-in-law grew up in Rostock, East Germany after the war. He was very critical of the regime and made his views known in letters or columns to his college's newspaper. This and other activities evidently made him unpopular. One day he was approached on the street by a stranger and warned that he should leave. So he did. He fled to East Berlin and then crossed over into West Berlin. This was before the Wall so crossing was still relatively easy. But he had nothing with him ... no spare clothes, not even a toothbrush. He had to start from scratch. Naturally he carries a lot of bitterness against the old regime and communists in general.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

My Great-Uncle fought in the Pacific theater in WWII. I need to find the book that he gave me which he actually had his story published in. He went Island hopping and had many friends blown to pieces in mine fields, he survived of course, but barely.

Another kind of interesting but kind of irrelevant story is how I got here! On my father's side of the family 4 brothers immigrated into ellis island from germany before WWII broke out. They took on 4 different spellings of my last name and moved to different parts of the country.

If I think of anything else remotely interesting I'll post it, I'll have to dig through albums of family history though, some dating back hundreds of years.

Oh yeah, my grandpa also fought in WWII. He was also in the pacific theater and his submarine was hit by a Japanese Kami-kazi plane. I will try to find the name of his submarine.

I also have an acquantince of mine who was lucky enough to be one of 3 people in his military division NOT to be sent to pearl harbor. He worked in aerial photography, he cleared up pictures taken and identified different features w/in the pictures. Much of his work was top secret until years after the war ended.

EDIT: Also, I am related to William Shakespere on my mother's side and the lead singer of the beastie boys on my father's side.......

 

[napoleon526]

Oh yeah, my grandpa also fought in WWII. He was also in the pacific theater and his submarine was hit by a Japanese Kami-kazi plane. I will try to find the name of his submarine.

I've never heard of kamikazes attacking submarines! Their usual targets were aircraft carriers and large escort ships. Did your grandfather survive the attack?

In another personal history tale, my father's uncle, who was only a few years older than my father, served in Vietnam. He was a paratrooper who was also a Green Beret. He was there for the entire duration of the war, and when he came back in 1974, his behavior had changed radically. After a few years, he went out to the store and never came back. We think that he probably is either living in a national forest somewhere, unable to function in regular society, or he is one of the 'men in black' who perform all the secret government operations nobody is supposed to know about...

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

I've never heard of kamikazes attacking submarines! Their usual targets were aircraft carriers and large escort ships. Did your grandfather survive the attack?

Yes, he survived. I will definately ask him what the name of his submarine was. He is quite the joker and tells lots of stories but I have actually confirmed this story. The submarine was hit while surfaced and only took minor damage. It was repaired later on.

And your vietnam story just remined me of another relative of mine who fought in vietnam, I'll do a little more research on his stories(they have a published book about his unit) before posting it here.

 

[jeriko one]

My maternal great great grandfather fought in th Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. He went to war as a aergeant and came home as a captain because he captured a flag of the Russians

 

[Karlisna]

My ancestors fought in the second crusade.

(Sorry for bumping such an old topic X_X)

 

[holy king]

my paternal ancestors where germans who where settled in yugoslavia under austrian-hungarian monarchy ( then there was some serbian in the family line) but had to flee from there after first world war ( because germans where persecuted by then)
they fled to burgenland ( some part of austria, east of vienna)
my grand-grand fathers died both in 2nd world war ( who knows how), thats all one knows, nothing interresting bout that, although i know some stories of guys who walked back from the eastern front by foot and stuff
just something weird bout my family, dont know much

 

[willemvanoranje]

Originally posted by holy king
although i know some stories of guys who walked back from the eastern front by foot and stuff

so did my mother's uncle, as you can read in my story He was captured before actually getting home though and his home was in russian territory by that time anyway.

 

[retroflow]

To further add to an old topic:

My maternal grandfather was a Doctor in Mexico and in El Paso, TX during the 20s and 30s. As a youth, he was a cadet at one of Mexico's Military Academies when the Revolution was going on. He wrote pro-revolutionary literature under a pseudonym but was ratted out by an informant and had to flee for his life when a warrant for his arrest was issued. The story of his evasion is something worthy of a screenplay. He ultimately met a Japanese fisherman who took him onboard where he learned Japanese fluently while hiding out. He was fluent in several languages but was only passible with English. he died back in 1940 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, most likely political.

My paternal grandparents: My grandfather was too young for WWI and by WW2 his job made him of "strategic" importance and he did his bit for the war effort as a the chief engineer of plumbing in one of the shipyards dedicated to "Liberty Ships" in Los Angeles. He was a colorful guy, knew dozens of Hollywood VIPs as personal friends, and one of his big passions was riding his horse(es), and belonged to a little "club" that included the likes of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc. He died when I was about 4, so I never really got too much time with him. My grandmother made her own mark locally for most of her life - she passed away in '93/'94, and owned a lot of investment property and such. During WW2 she worked, at least by its close, in a munitions plant as a supervisor - my father has a nifty souvenier from this: The bottom slice of a brass shell casing stamped with her name, number and the date the factory stopped production soon after VJ Day.

There's more family legends, links and ties, but I'm....bored. My paternal family established itself in PA, ca 1720 - but even family genealogists can't always match up the data. All I can say is that there's a town in MD with our surname.

 

[West German]

Never knew anyone in my biological family well.

Well, my dad lost his arm in WW1. In WW2, he was killed fighting in Konigsburg defending my house from attack. Then my mom and little brother died from a bombing raid fleeing in a train. Then my sister was killed by the Soviets in Berlin. And that left me as an orphan. Got adopted by a nice young couple. And they are still alive. Not descended from anyone famous.

 

[puglover]

My Uncle fought in Normandy at D-Day. And got the honorable Silver Star!