I found out that my g-g-grandfather was a Captain in the Black War of 1832 in Illinois and Wisconsin and that he was at the site where Black Hawk's band was decimated. I got the impression that he was not proud about his role in that war. Earlier, he had served under Andrew Jackson in the war of the Floridas.

Going back 2 more generations, I found that gx4-grandfather owned a 420 acre plantation in Virgnia when Virginia was a colony and that all 5 of his sons served in the Revolutionary War.

My wife found that her g-g-grandfather helped develop Grand Junction, CO. He took up residene at Palisade east of Grand Junction. He was the one who established fruit growing in the valley and dug the first irrigation ditches. We also found that the river was first named "the Grand" and lent its name to "Grand Junction", "Grand Mesa", and Grand Canyon". It was later renamed "the Colorado". The city of Grand Junction is located at the junction of the Grand (Colorado) and Gunnson rivers.

Petaloid, that's fascinating! Jemdandy, too . . . genealogical discoveries can be remarkable.

My grandfather was an opera singer, and most of his seven siblings made names for themselves in music. Therefore, when I went back a couple of generations to the family in England, I fully expected to find more musicians. Instead, I found foodies! LOL My great-great grandfather and a couple of his brothers founded the Lyons Tea Company, once a prominent catering company that owned a large chain of "tea shop" restaurants.

In assuming the wrong thing, I had made an error common in genealogy--attributing qualities to the male that just as easily could have come from the female. It's often easier to trace the male line because women changed their names when they married. In this case, it was my great-grandmother, not my great-grandfather, who carried the musical gene. I hadn't even tried to follow her line because her last name was Phillips--too common for my limited genealogy skills.

BUT a couple of years ago I found a distant cousin online who is a passionate genealogist. He informed me that my great-grandmother Esther Phillips was born in a part of Prussia we now call Poland, and going back a couple of generations her family name was Sieradzski. Not exactly common! Several brothers changed it to Phillips when they emigrated to England. That branch of the family has many accomplished musicians.

Nothing famous or surprising here from my beer drinking Germans. Glad I inherited the trait.

The only thing I can think of right now is that my dad drove jeep for General Patton in World War11. I never found that out online though.

I have done extensive work on my family tree, and fortunately, so have many others. Ancestry.com has amazing stories about some of my ancestors.

A pretty good one: my 8th g-grandfather was Speaker of the House of Burgesses of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1692.

A pretty bad one: some of my ancestors were involved in the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. They were accusers, not victims. :(

You just never know what you'll find out.

Mt G-G Grandmother is Sinrock Mary, Reindeer Queen of Nome Alaska. She is in the history books and there are a couple videos out about her which include some live interviews from the 1950s.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinrock Mary

Isn't it fun to do genealogy? I haven't been able to do much research for about a year, but enjoy reviewing my data when i have a little time. Cousin thinks she's discovered a connection for our family to the Dalton Brothers (outlaws/thieves). Have to laugh.....

Happy hunting, Everyone!!

The family story was that my paternal grandfather walked out on his wife & 4 kids in the 1920ties, and eventually died in a barroom brawl in Toledo, Ohio in an unknown year. Beyond that, he was considered a family blacksheep & never mentioned. Then last year, I found mention of a man with the same name in the Ohio Death Index, sent away for a copy of his death certificate for ten bucks to a historical society, and found that he died in Toledo in 1932, not in a brawl, but from a major kidney infection at age 56.

From there I contacted my hometown Michgan public library with a definite death date, and they were able to scan his newspaper obituary for me, which included his Michigan burial place.

BTW, I've found public libraries usually very helpful in genealogy searching, checking old telephone & city directories if they have them. Even had good response from the Library of Congress in D.C.