Genealogy & Family Stories

[cbloom]

My dad's side is Pennsylvania Dutch that goes back to the first Americans. We're certified Mayflower Descendants. My grandpa is the genealogist and goes to their conventions and such. That side has people who fought in the revolutionary war, the civil war (at Gettysburg), and of course WW2.

My mom's side comes primarily from Irish potato famine immigrants. They came over to the east coast and couldn't find work and were treated like scum so kept moving west and wound up in Oregon where they were farmers. My great grandpa became the only western distributor of this new invention the X-ray machine and became really rich and bought a big estate. He also was a drunk and a womanizer and wound up getting divorced several times (a huge scandal in the devout Catholic community), had mistresses until he was very old, and wound up blowing all his fortune so his kids had nothing.

[BretWeir]

My family is all Italian; one of my grandparents and most of my great-grandparents were born in Italy and immigrated to the NYC/NJ area.

One funny story: while I was in college, I was working for a state legislator when the issue of renewing the authorization for New Jersey's State Commission of Investigation came up. It's an independent commission that investigates corruption, organized crime, etc. In the materials they sent us, there was a list of some of the Commission's past investigation targets; they included a big-time Mafia guy named Gerardo "Jerry" Catena. I thought to myself, "That's weird... that's my mom's maiden name."

When I got home that night, I asked my mom whether she had ever heard of a "Gerardo Catena." She replied, "Oh, you mean Uncle Jerry?" Apparently this guy -- who was underboss of the Genovese crime family in the 1960s -- was my great-uncle. I did some research, and it turned out that he was at Apalachin, got fingered by Joe Valachi -- totally like something out of a mob movie. He disappeared to Florida (or maybe was quietly bumped off, who knows?) some time in the 1970s, so I had never met or heard of him. But needless to say, my mom didn't get much trouble from anyone when she was in high school.

More about my great-uncle Jerry here.

[CCass]

I had a great-aunt who was the genealogist of the family. I and a few others are carrying her work forward, but we haven't had any luck going back any further than she did. As someone else mentioned, we have documents showing our ancestors fighting in every was since the Revolutionary War.

Neither of these stories are as interesting as others, but you might get a chuckle out of them.

My grandmother and her sister (the aforementioned great-aunt) married first cousins. Not only were they first cousins, their dads were identical twin brothers. Their families basically grew up together, so for all of my life I have had 7 real aunts and uncles (my dad was 1 of 8), and 5 of my dads cousins that I have always known as aunts and uncles. We are 1 big happy and crazy family. And yes I am from the South.

My great-great-grandfather was a successful farmer and lumberman. Late in his life (he was in his 60's), he got into a dispute with a neighbor over a property line. At some point during the dispute, he felt threatened (the neighbor was much younger) and shot and killed his neighbor. He and his 4 boys basically went broke defending him, but he was never convicted of anything and never went to jail. It took my grandfather and great-uncle most of their life to rebuild the family farm and lumber business. This happened in the 30's, and is still a topic of much discussion in my family.

[Gabe]

My dad’s 98. He has always celebrated his birth day as January 1. He always said he was born just after midnight. I got a copy of his birth certificate last year. It says he was born on Dec 31, 1908, not Jan 1 1909, and that his name is Gabriele not Gabriel. When I told him, he was mad, because it made him older and more ethnic than he thought he was.

[jaybee_70]

My great great great grandfather killed General Canby in 1873. He was hung and beheaded. His head/skull was put on display in the Smithsonian museum.

Joe

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
My great great great grandfather killed General Canby in 1873. He was hung and beheaded. His head/skull was put on display in the Smithsonian museum.

Joe

[/ QUOTE ]

Your grandfather or the General?

[jaybee_70]

Boro,
[ QUOTE ]

Quote:
My great great great grandfather killed General Canby in 1873. He was hung and beheaded. His head/skull was put on display in the Smithsonian museum.

Joe



Your grandfather or the General?


[/ QUOTE ]

It would be barbaric to put a General's head on display. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[andyfox]

No stories handed down generation to generation? Quite a famous guy.

[andyfox]

Interesting that there was a birth certificate. I think the first American president to be born in a hospital was JFK. Even the Roosevelts, who had money, didn't use hospitals; I suppose they could probably get better care at their home.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting that there was a birth certificate. I think the first American president to be born in a hospital was JFK. Even the Roosevelts, who had money, didn't use hospitals; I suppose they could probably get better care at their home.

[/ QUOTE ]

The medicalization of pregnancy is quite a recent thing, actually. The idea of going to the hospital to have a child if something wasn't wrong only goes back a few decades; I think it really started to ramp up in the 50s and 60s. It was largely due to campaigns by hospitals themselves.

The wife has done quite a bit of research on this topic.