Shocking discoveries -- have you had any?

Question

This afternoon, I found a duplicate profile in my tree on Ancestry.com. "Oh," I thought, "I'll just merge these two since the details are identical."

...and that's how I discovered that my dad's parents were born the same year, to the same mother, but two different fathers. Um... ooopsie? She did at least marry them both, fortunately not at the same time.

I can laugh at this because not only is there no one left on this branch of the tree but my brother and me, neither of us has children nor intends to. Nevertheless, it did come as a bit of a shock!

While I don't expect most people to admit it if their father was the result of incest, I'd love to hear what sort of unexpected surprises others have found in their family trees!

(I'm still waiting for my GEDCOM to be approved, but I've entered the relevant bits manually already.)

Answer 1

Years ago, my father told me about an ancestor who served in the military for the UK during the American Revolutionary War. Some years after the war ended and the unit was stationed in Canada, my ancestor got into an altercation with an officer who was critically critically injured. My ancestor fled and was said to have change is surname from MacGill to Gill. I told this story to a Sales Manager for an Orillia, Ontario manufacturer at lunch. He in turn started to tell it to a resident of Orillia whose maiden name was Gill. She finished the story and two weeks later sent me information about my ancestor and his son and his son's family. This provided me for the first time with the names of my 3rd, and 2nd great grandparents. It was later discovered in his enlistment record that he had not been MacGill originally, but was always Gill.

Comments

Great story, Frank. Thanks for sharing it.

Answer 2

I have recently discovered that my second great grandfather had not one, not two, but three wives. Two of them at the same time!!!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather. Luckily one of those wives gave birth to a son who gave birth to a son and so I got the Y-DNA test done. My second great grandfather married a woman and then was on the run from the law. Son and father never met and the son's mother changed his last name.

Talk about yer one in a million chance.

Betty

Answer 3

I had one.  Family story was that father came to Canada from England to avoid WWII.  Married but last sibling (or more) had native blood.  Father disappeared.  Mother abandoned kids so they were sent to an orphanage.  After researching, the truth was father came from England with his entire family, not near either world war and before stock market crash in States.  All left for England three years later but two sons remained.  Father got Canadian mother pregnant, married her months later.  After getting her pregnant for fourth time he ran back to England and married someone else.  Mother had son, no job, four kids, and so gave up all kids two years later.  No native blood apparently.  Family story had little truth.

Comments

My family always knew the rumors that my gr gr grandfather was a moonshiner but in reading the historic newspapers of the time, I found out he was also a forger and bigamist.  He spent time in a federal pen for the forgery and bigamy.  He was caught moonshining twice two years apart but I think he spent time in county jail for that.

Answer 4

Hi Meredith,  This record says Samuel DeVaughn married Jennie King who was born circa 1867.  "Virginia, Marriages, 1785-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XR77-FJP : accessed 20 October 2015), Samuel H. Devaughn and Jennie King, 15 May 1888; citing Alexandria, Virginia, reference NO. 33; FHL microfilm 30,205.  

Comments

Retracted - wrong info.

Answer 5

Hi again,  here is the Tanner family in the 1900 and 1910 census.  I think there is a mistake in the Ancestry research you found.  Looks like two different Jennies to me.  

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMJN-9HJ : accessed 20 October 2015), Jannie Tanner in household of F M Tanner, Alexandria city Ward 4, Arlington, Virginia, United States; citing sheet 9B, family 174, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,733.

 

"United States Census, 1910", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPGB-YYN : accessed 20 October 2015), Jennie Tanner in entry for Frederick M Tanner, 1910.  

 

Answer 6

Yep, two different Jennies.  Here is Jennie King Devaughn in 1900 with Samuel and her family.

 

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMJN-9YW : accessed 20 October 2015), Samuel Devaughn, Ward 3, Arlington, Virginia, United States; citing sheet 12B, family 245, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,733.

Comments

Interesting! I'll poke around in this some more, but I also have family research my mother did back in the 1970s that may reveal other information. Thank you so much for the info, though! I'm fascinated by the whole thing, since my father didn't talk very much about his family other than that his parents "drank and fought and drank and fought and drank and fought, and neither of them was a damned bit of good to anyone."

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This is exceedingly complex... both "Jennies" (one of whom I know to have been a Virginia Lee/Ginny Lee) were born in Alexandria, one year apart. One or both of them were my great-grandmother. It's tricky because literally that entire branch of the family is long gone -- the only others remaining that I know of are the Herriman grandchildren of Ferdinand, one of the sons of Samuel and Jennie (King), and I last heard anything about them more than 20 years ago.

Thanks again for the information! It seems I was probably mistaken about my grandparents. The trouble is that this family is so crazy (literally in several cases) that nothing seems outside the realm of possibility.

Answer 7

I found out that I'm descended from one of the many Hugh White's. But this one in particular is the poor bastard who was responsible for the Boston riots. It was said about him that "If only he could know when to keep his mouth shut none of this horrific scene would have occurred." Nothing that I have read in my family history has ever made me feel as close to an individual as that statement did about this man. I feel like I not only discovered an ancestor but I feel like I found a past life.