Halcyon Days of Yore

I had an ancestor who was a pencil salesman from Russia.

I've had some pretty nutty ancestors, myself.  Oh, I know, that's so hard to imagine, isn't it??

Boiling them all down to just my grandparents, alone....well.....here's a taste.  My parents eloped in college.  They had their first "in-laws" night directly afterward.

My paternal grandfather got drunk, as was his norm, and made a pass at my maternal grandmother.

Oh, and my only famous ancestor was William H. Seward.  Of Seward's folly, i.e. Canal.

My husband and I have both done a great deal of geneology, and found lots of interesting characters. We both have ancesters that came over on the Mayflower (William Brewster is my grandpa!) several polygamists (which makes for a pretty interesting looking family tree!) and have both traced back to Scotland, England and Wales plus I have some in Ireland. While in the U.K. a few years ago we found the headstones of some of his family. Seems I have a castle in Scotland. Oh how far the royalty have fallen!

We know a lot of our family history, back for centuries. Some in books, but much oral. And yes, much nightmarishly repulsive. This year I've been researching new stuff on the Scots clans & the Leipzig Jews. My fave story was when 2 brothers who'd led the Scottish military lost, and fled to Europe, ended up as a chief advisor & Field Marshall for Frederick the Great. Why it's cool is that one brother led the forces into... Leipzig. Where the Jewish side had been living, printing music. Just imagining their eyes meeting is a wonderful image for me, not knowing that at some point, their descendants will wed.

The horrific stuff is pretty... horrific. Much of which only comes out later, for some odd reason. For starters, my Grandfather hid his wife's Jewishness until a decade ago. We had brewers on the other side... which meant 5 generations of complete (male) alcoholism. Bastards, sexual abuse, violence - yup, dark side. But also, victories, universities, books, churches, good stuff.

Ok. I shouldn't tell you this probably, but the best is from a new book by a US academic. The guy was my G-G-G-Grandfather's nephew. Amongst other nefarious deeds (truly), he was... ummmm... a terrorist. Killed a lot of people. But also, kind to animals, I'm sure.

I hasten to add, I did NOT descend from his line, but still... gotta include him in the whole mess. Anyone wanna drop by our next family reunion? 

My greataunt was very beautiful, and had a long relationship with Allan Lehman, younger brother to Robert, chairman of the recently-defunct Lehman Brothers. Allan was a partner in the firm, but was something of a rich playboy, had a yacht, played tennis, went to nightclubs, etc. He donated the yacht to the Navy during WWII.

Since she was Catholic and he was Jewish, he wouldn't marry my greataunt while his mother was alive. They did eventually marry but had no children, and he died before I was born. We used to visit her big estate in Old Westbury, and once flew down to her sugar plantation in Jamaica. We chewed sugar cane, chased lizards and tried to play with the young, barefoot girls that were supposed to be cleaning her house.

Allan had only left her the use of the estate. She was trying to transfer assets to her own family (us), but died suddenly in Jamaica.

The research continues. Were yesterday I discovered that one great-great-grandfather was a cheating dog, today I discovered the other was a pious man who lived his convictions. See, he was a Mennonite, and they believe strongly in pacisfism. So, in 1877, when Germany was getting set to go to war against France for some silly incident, and when Mennonites were no longer able to pay higher taxes in exchange for an exemption from being conscripted, my great-great-grandfather crossed the border into Switzerland and booked passage for his three military age sons. Then, because Germany also didn't allow emigration without permission, those three sons just disappeared in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. (So goes the story told by a neighbor. I'm sure their mother must have been in on the plan). The war never happened, by the way, but it was just as well. More wars were coming.

One of those military-aged sons was my great grandfather, who eventually ended up in central Illinois where he farmed and had a bunch of kids. I don't usually believe in playing favorites, but of all my great-great-grandfathers, I think he's my favorite. 

Oh, and part of my husband's family were LOYALISTS and had to escape to Canada to avoid getting killed by the Patriots! Cool stuff, huh? Makes history so much more intersting when you think of your own family as having been a part of it...

sorry, that was me married into the loyalist family...forgot to log in!