Tell me something cool one of your ancestors did

[JustOneLastThing]

Stolen this idea from Twitter, I don't really have anything of my own to share apart from my grandma is pretty bad ass, raising my Mum and Aunty by herself in the 60's, facing a ton of social stigma and hardship. She is a hard act to follow.

Ran for president of a country.... didn’t win unfortunately.😅

Dp is a direct descendent of samuel crompton (spinning jenny fame !)

On one side we are related to a notorious highwayman who allegedly rode from Essex to York overnight.

On my dad's side a branch of the family emigrated to America, they went on to start a war with the local Native American tribe, so we have a war and some land named after our surname in America

My grandmother and aunt worked at Bletchley during the war, which we didn't find out until my aunt died as they took their vow of secrecy VERY seriously. My dad was only 14 or 15 when the war ended so I guess he wasn't aware of where they were going every day. Thought that was pretty badass!

I have a very cool paternal side ancestor story but it'd be FAR too outing so I shall just smugly sit on it ;)

Not cool at all, horrifying actually.

They ran a sugar plantation in the Bahamas. There is a town with my surname still. That surprises me, you'd think that the name would be changed- why commemorate slave owners?

Never been there and not sure I'd be welcome.

Henry Norris.
He lost his head on Tower Hill for supposedly shagging Anne Boleyn.

Grandfather was a politician.
He pushed to have a bridge built across a river that divides two counties.
Before that, people had to pay for a ferry. We're talking about a country that was poor at the time.
It is a very important piece of infrastructure and still vital today.

My great, great uncle was a freedom fighter in India during the British Raj.

My great grandfather was one of 6 brothers that were all sent to war and fought in WW1. Only 4 came home.

Giving too many details would be outing, and it's not historic or terribly exciting, but I'm very proud of some relatives who donated their young child's organs to another child when he died in the early 1960s. Organ donation wasn't very common then, especially amongst children, but I'm extremely proud that they made this courageous and generous choice at such a painful time, and gave another child a second chance at life.

My great grandfather had a love affair in 1913 with a Jewish girl in Glasgow. Her family wouldn't let him marry her as he wasn't Jewish, even when she became pregnant, and told her to give the baby up for adoption. He wouldn't allow this to happen, so went back to his native Italy, married a local girl and brought her back to Scotland. He then presented her with his baby daughter to bring up! She was angry, but loved the little girl as her own and had three boys, the youngest of whom was my grandfather. I'm so proud that unlike most men at that time, he tried his best to do the right thing in difficult circumstances.

Gggggggg grandfather was King John. Embarrassing, but at least that means that ggggggggggg grandma was Aelinor (Eleanor) of Aquitaine!

Some interesting WWII stories from my grandparents - grandad survived the Krakòw ghetto as a kid.
A relation of my dad’s (cousin I think, but I could be wrong) went missing back in the days of the Soviet Union. Literally disappeared without a trace. There’s been tons of whacky rumours thrown around by various family members. My dad is adamant that he was “taken care of” by the KGB because he knew too much about a natural gas deal being brokered by the government He’s probably wrong - I highly doubt it was anything that James Bond-esque. But I guess we will never know

My grandad was one of the first British soliders who went into the Bergen Belsen concentration camp when it was liberated. He never spoke to me about what he saw there, but he did, many years later, speak about it a bit to some older relatives of mine. He saw some horrific things.

My great grandma was widowed when her two children we very young, and brought them up alone, while also working as a headteacher.

I am related way way back to the spy Henri Le Caron.

My grandfather was on the Sunderland flying boat that spotted Lifeboat 12 from the torpedoed evacuee ship SS City of Benares.

@QuintusEstInHorto - you must be related to my dh then!!

I'm directly descended from Scottish and German royalty.

An explorer who has a bay in the Antarctic named after him (can’t be bothered working out exactly how he’s related to me, a great uncle of some kind I think)

My gf used to draw during WW2 and sent pictures / charactures back home to my gm. Some of his pictures were not delivered to my Nan and taken to be used as paraphernalia and now on display at the Imperial War Museum.
My other gf used used to drive the flying Scotsman for the queen, my fm has letters thanking him from the royal family.

GGrandfather was a master of the guild of coach painters and used to go to Deeside to paint all the fiddly coats of arms and decoration on royal carriages for when they were in Scotland.

We have an unusual surname, all related somewhere. I was once contacted by someone who thought we were The Missing Link in the family tree she'd compiled; she sent me a copy and one ggggg+father was married to the daughter or granddaughter of the Campbell who carried out the Massacre of Glencoe. My family tree investigations never got further than an 18th century soldier up in front of the Kirk Session for "fornication" and "fathering a bastard" which sounds more typical of our family....

My great-great grandfather was double qualified as ship's captain and ship's engineer. He took ships on their maiden voyage to test them out. He travelled far, including Brazil where one of the daughters of his third marriage was born.

He had three wives who apparently travelled with him. There are no death records for wife 1 (my GG grandmother) and wife 2, so I reckon they must have died abroad.

I also have a 2x great uncle who was an artist and sculptor. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and has works in the V & A, the Tate and the Grosvenor Museum. Living at the same time was another sculptor who was an in-law - husband of my 2x great aunt and brother-in-law of the artist above. He sculpted many famous people of the day, including one of Queen Victoria's children. He took to drink after one of his children died, travelled Cornwall as a tramp in his later years and was buried in a pauper's grave.

One of them killed a sabre toothed tiger. I mean..probably. Might have been teamwork though, thinking about it..

My grandmother is Polish and found herself on a cattle train taking her to a concentration camp during World War Ii. She was one of the lucky few that managed to escape before she got there!

My great grandfather with only a couple of friends took out a German machine gunning station in Ypres in the first world war. He won a bunch of medals for it but, just like my grandfather with WW2, rarely talked about the war.

Oh, and my other grandfather always used to say it was our ancestors who built all the stone circles, Knowth etc. We used to laugh but after getting a DNA test, he's probably not wrong! We are only 2% Scandinavian - some Irish megalithic remnant population no doubt.