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.

Erm. My nan was married to one of the Walls Ice Cream brothers.

Not many interesting things happen in my family!

During ww2 my grandad was ineligible for service but prior to it had worked for the gas Board. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the gas mains and pipes in Sheffield and during the heavy Bombing, as such, was able to know what to switch off to keep the city from burning, and what to connect to keep the city safe, and the gas on (or back on ASAP) . All while being abused for not being at the front...(his disability wasn't an obvious one).

My grandma got divorced in 1950.

My granny worked at Bletchley.

My grandpa was in the Polish resistance, he stole books from his library to prevent them being burnt, was arrested, escaped a forced labour work party in WWII broke his leg but still escaped and was rescued by the Americans, sent to England then returned to fight for the allies in Europe.

My Grandad was a wireless engineer, worked until well into his 70s (lied to hr about his age when they computerised the records) and taught himself to build, use and program computers by buying them at auction and getting books from the library. He lived until he was 100.

Discovered penicillin.

Founded Kentucky! (I have never been there...)

My cousin invented the tangle teaser.

My 4x great grandfather was the lord Provost of the city we live in. It's basically another name for a mayor of the city. They are head of the council

And he also had a street named after him which is my maiden name (married now)

@FoamingAtTheUterus

I am distantly related to Grace Darling through her brother

In the country where I live, my great grandma was a famous suffragette.
DS found a Facebook page run by a woman my age claiming to be her great grandaughter as well. She definitely isn't!

One side of my family is descended from show people.
Their specialty was bare-knuckle fighting!
There is a nickname that was passed down through the family which is related to the sport.

My great grandmother went by at least five second names. Her first husband beat her so she ran away with their lodger. Because she took some small items from the marital home (e.g. Knife and fork), and this happened in the 1800s, the police tracked her down and she was charged with theft and sent to jail for a month.

One of the men she later later lived with killed himself. He jumped off a viaduct. His hands were tied behind his back. Some trick by him.

And my grandfather won the DCM in the first world war.

All a bit outing if any of my relatives use mumsne t (waves to relatives).

Forged a cheque while working as a clerk. Went to prison for it - a year earlier and he would have been transported. Then later became president of a friendly society and died a wealthy man.... he may have just got better at not getting caught!!

DH’s ancestor was a highwayman. He was imprisoned locally (during which time he found time to write his memoirs) and hung in our town. We pass the prison where he was held on the school run.

One of my ancestors was a Saint.

I am not religious, so goodness knows what they would say to me!

Wow..some of these stories are amazing.
My great aunt left for America in the 1920s or 30s.
Started off as a cleaner and ended up very rich with a motel in Tampa

She married a Norwegian but they had no children. Family rumour has it that they sold land to Walt Disney when he was scouting for where to build Disney world.

It’s a lovely story.

I’d love to get to the bottom of it.
I’m impressed at how far back some of you have got..I’m stuck at 1861 trying to find my great grandfathers parents name.
I’m trying to see which part of Ireland they originate from.

The same great aunt hailed from Burntisland and either her mother or her grandmother had a hotel where Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Beatrice used to frequent and apparently she was very friendly with my ancestor

I visited it and it’s a lovely place..so it was nice to see my relatives lived in such a lovely place.
I hoping to trace my maternal grandmothers ancestors in the hope they came from a nice place in ireland

@FoamingAtTheUterus I'm related to Grace Darling!

DH is related to shipwreckers and pirates 🙈

Another codebreaking granny at Bletchley, recruited from Oxford where she was studying MFL, including German. My grandad was a Danish resistance fighter who blew up too many trains and bridges and had to go into hiding. The family used to go for long bike rides to deliver food and explosives. The children used to carry dynamite in their school bags. There's a museum with a whole room dedicated to his exploits. He never ever spoke about the war; we think he saw some truly awful things and just compartmentalised it.

This is my great something grandfather:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hinks

Basically bred a new of dog and quite famous for it. No mention of the dog fighting he also dabbled in. Not a nice man I think

My Great-Grandmother was a suffragette who was arrested for chaining herself to railings in Whitehall. Her name is on a tapestry in the Museum of London.

Fought Fascism as a member of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.

My 32 x great Grandad was Macduff!

Wish i had something to share. My family are do boring! Such an exciting thread though!

Great grandfather was a celebrated dermatologist who liked to therapeutically X-ray his patients and also to treat them with radioactive chemicals. He also apparently had a special interest in syphilis and had a basement full of waifs and strays. His wife, my great grandmother, fell in love with someone else, someone she met whilst in the park with the children. So he allowed himself to be photographed going into a brothel, allowing her to divorce him. I’ve always quite liked that story, I’ve always thought that quite romantic really.

My garandfather's grandfather was gamekeeper at Donington Hall when it was the home of the Hastings Family. Flora Hastings was lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria but was sacked for getting pregnant out of wedlock. The official story is that she wasn't really pregnant but had terminal liver disease.
My mother (who has been researching the family tree) reckons she's found evidence not only that she was actually pregnant but that my wayward great great grandfather had something to do with it.

But all we know for certain is that he definitely was gamekeeper on the estate at the time.