52 Ancestors Week 42: Proud

+10 votes
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Time for the next 52 Ancestors challenge...

52 Photos and 52 Ancestors sharing bacgesPlease share with us a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches this week's theme:

Proud

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in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)

30 Answers

+10 votes

2G Aunt Emma (Truslow) Lipps was a teacher in an era where that was one of very few respectable occupations for women.  She must have been so proud of her daughter Emma who not only followed in her footsteps of being an educator but went to earn both her Master's Degree from Emory University and a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and was a professor of Biology at Shorter College in Rome for more than 40 years. 

by Dorothy O'Hare G2G6 Mach 8 (87.7k points)
+9 votes
Both of my grandfathers were proud to go into the military. They went in voluntarily and did not have to be drafted. both survived and lived good long lives.
by Jennifer Robins G2G6 Pilot (248k points)
+11 votes

Proud couple on their golden wedding 29 Dec 1978.

The picture shows a sister of my paternal grandfather Hulda Lewerenz and her spouse Werner Düring on their golden wedding with their four grandchildren.

My parents and I wer invited to that festivity. In the early morning as the party ends we had big problems to get home by car from Hamburg to Leezen (a village 30 km north of Hamburg).

In this night the first of two snow catastrophes began in the winter of 1978/79 in Schleswig-Holstein.

I will never forget the ride home.

by Dieter Lewerenz G2G Astronaut (3.1m points)
+11 votes

My mother was very proud of her first cousin Lynn St.John. Lynn's father died when he was only 8, and his mother did not marry again until he was 14, and she married a man 15 years older than she was. Lynn went on to be a football, basketball and baseball coach. He was the head basketball coach at Ohio State from 1911 to 1919, and he served as the athletic director for 33 years. In 1956 Ohio State built a new basketball arena and named it after him. My mother took me to Ohio to tour the St.John Arena when I was 14. There was talk about tearing it down in 2017 when they built a new arena. This is two resent photos of the arena.

by Alexis Nelson G2G6 Pilot (843k points)
+8 votes

I’m proud to be related to my cousin Jeanie House. She was in the army nurse Corp and after Ww2 provided medical care to concentration camp victims. 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/House-4597 

by Joelle Colville-Hanson G2G6 Pilot (150k points)
+10 votes

My mother remembers that, when she would visit her grandfather, Nelson Smellie, as a child, she loved to play with a big, gold medal that he kept in a box in his desk. The provenance of this medal is explained in the excerpt, below, from the write-up that appeared in the local paper when he died in 1960. No doubt his Scottish grandfather, David Smellie, was a proud man when he won that gold medal in 1845!

by Richard Hill G2G6 Mach 9 (92.6k points)
+10 votes
When my fifth-grade son announced that he was First Captain of the school crossing guards, my maternal heart swelled with pride. First Captain! What an honor!

It turned out that he was in charge of the crossing at First Street.
by Joyce Vander Bogart G2G6 Pilot (198k points)
+8 votes
Week 42 - Proud. This week I will highlight Ida Blanche Smith-155199. When a cousin sent me the history of her mother, it included details, that her grandmother used to always tell her mother, as a girl, that they were descended from a Spanish noble woman, who was disowned after marrying a commoner. It was apparently Ida's great grandmother, on her Smith side. I haven't found any evidence of this, but haven't gotten far enough back either. She also claimed that her Leverson side was related to Stanley Livingston, which I have managed to disprove. I think perhaps that Ida was just proud of her family, and certainly thought the best of them, even if the stories were a little tall.
by Ben Molesworth G2G6 Pilot (161k points)
+8 votes

I'm proud of my 3rd Great Grandfather, Harrison Dodge , and the legacy he left.

by Chandra Garrow G2G6 Mach 7 (70.1k points)
Hi Chandra.  You and I are 5th cousins twice removed. Harrison's gr-grandfather Nicholas (your 6th gr-grandfather) was my 4th gr-grandfather.  Nice to meet you Cousin!
+8 votes

I'm quite proud of my 5th great-grandfather, William Hewett. The story goes that he was serving in the British Army under General Howe at the beginning of what would eventually become the American Revolution. Evidently what happened was that he and one of his friends deserted them and ended up living somewhat off the grid as a farmhand. When the patriots went around finding volunteers for their army, he ended up joining them!

I remember finding a copy of his discharge papers for the first time, and seeing that it had been signed by George Washington. It's still one of my favorite stories to tell to this day, how an orphaned British boy ended up becoming an American patriot. It makes me wonder what happened to his friend after all. I wonder if he decided to join the American Revolution also, or if he stuck to working as a farmhand until things blew over.

by Raven Martin G2G6 Mach 1 (10.3k points)
+7 votes
My parents were proud of me when I got accepted into Southern Illlnois University for my master's degree
by David Hughey G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
+10 votes

Geraldine Brodigan's parents must have been proud of her for obtaining a degree in nursing in the 1930's. Her father was born in Rock Island, Illinois, within a coal mining community. Her grandparents from Ireland indicated on census records that they couldn't read or write. 

History of Nursing is Depicted

by C Ryder G2G6 Mach 8 (87.9k points)
+10 votes
I think the one thing I have to be proud about is that fact that over the last 2 years, using DNA tests, I was able to finally track down my mothers biological family.

She told me last month that she is very happy with what I have done.  She can die happy, knowing at long last where she comes from. She is currently 83 years old and in reasonably good health.

She was born out of wedlock and was fostered out for the first 3 years of her life and then adopted at age 3.

This is something that I needed to know for myself as a teenager when my mother finally learned that she was adopted. She had not previously been told.

So it has taken me, some 40 years to complete the journey!!
by Robynne Lozier G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
So glad for you and your mother Robynne!
Ditto for what C Ryder wrote!
+7 votes

I was a little surprised and became very "proud" when I started my family history search a few years ago.  I became aware of the role which many of my ancestors played in the Revolutionary War.

So far, I have discover 15 BLOODLINE ancestors who were in the battle.  And this number multiplies when non-bloodline ancestors are included.

I became a member of the SAR.  My initial goal was to have at least one Patriot approved by the SAR for each of my grandparent's branch of the family - Oma M Allison (Rammel) ... Harold Knott Rammel ... Alice Elizabeth Drake (Sims) ... James Sims.

I have submitted 3 Patriots to the SAR so far.  Still working on the Rammel ancestor.

I hope to submit several more as time permits.  Gathering the proof of bloodline can be a little tedious and time consuming.  But at 79, time is something I hope I continue to have a lot of!!cool

by Bill Sims G2G6 Pilot (126k points)
+8 votes

I am very proud of my father - mainly because of his pride in everything any of us ever did. His beaming smile and the twinkle in his eye - you just knew. 

He was the father of four daughters and a man who loved the outdoors, horse riding and any sport but mainly boxing. Not having sons didn't stop him from passing on his skills to his daughters. We could all box by the time we were 3 and ride horses not much later. 

He would get the cheekiest giggle up when he would tell mum about our teenage years sporting days playing polo cross. He could not hide his pleasure when his team of girls would beat the local adult male "Chamber of Commerce" team.   

Dad was blessed with 19 grandchildren (17 of which he guided through their childhood years and 2 of which he stood beside us as we buried).

Watching him interact with his 8 grandsons was a special gift. I knew how great he was with girls - this was different but very special.

He only knew 2 great grand daughters of his 27 great grandchildren that are the newest in his line of descent but I can see his face smiling often when I see them growing and learning (on the internet this year)

If there was a few words that sum up my father it is "the greatest strength is gentleness". He was the strongest man I have ever known. Miss him every day.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Martin-58789

by Rosalie Neve G2G6 Pilot (174k points)
+9 votes
I am proud of my parents for preserving our family history by writing to their mothers for information.  And I am proud of my grandmothers for their interest in genealogy, and their ability to pass it down, long before computers and back when going to a genealogy library was almost an impossibility for them.  

Both my parents came from long lines of New England ancestors.  Both were Mayflower descendants, although we didn't find that out until my time.   They were both from Vermont, with many generations there, and lots of Great Migration types who came over btw 1620 and 1650.  We call ourselves yankees.   There came a time when they were young parents that dad's work left Vermont.   So they moved south, and part of the family was born in PA. My parents realized our family was culturally different than the neighbors, and wanted their children to appreciate where we came from.   

Neither of them forgot their roots, and while their mothers were living, they wrote to each asking for any information they could give about our ancestry.   Both my grandmothers were natural genealogists, and there followed a series of letters that became the beginning of this genealogical trek that I have been on for most of my life.  

My maternal grandmother was born in a rural town in Vermont where her ancestors, and my maternal grandfather's ancestors, had lived since before the Revolution.  I recall as a child not understanding my grandmother when she would tell the family stories, kind of like the Kunte Kinte oral history in Roots.  I am so proud of her for her phenomenal memory, and the fact she cared so much about all those names in all those generations.

My paternal grandmother had a yankee side, and an Irish side, one of four children, but the only one to survive.  She had a unique view of the world, because she was from what was then considered a mixed marriage.  She was able to communicate to us how different her parents' families were, and my study has allowed me to better understand each perspective.  She had grown up with a grandmother who had been put on a ship for Canada at the age of 11, torn from her mother and her Irish home.  That part of the family experienced great poverty, which affected them accordingly.  The other side was kind of the opposite.  It is not that they were rich, but they were prosperous, and religious.  Some would say over religious. They believed it was important to help their fellow men, and they believed in temperance, which the Irish did not.  My grandmother absorbed both cultures, which was not always a happy fit.  She made choices in her life to accept the good from both, and walk away from the bad.   It has been an education for me to understand that, and appreciate the choices she made.   

So my lifelong hobby of genealogy owes much to my parents and my grandmothers, of whom I will always be proud.
by Carolyn Adams G2G6 Mach 9 (90.8k points)
+6 votes
Why am I proud of my Italian heritage? Well, we have my grandparents to thank for that. Check it out on this week's 52 Ancestors: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2020/10/52-ancestors-week-42-proud.html
by Chris Ferraiolo G2G6 Pilot (756k points)
+7 votes
My 3xgreat grandfather William Fraizer served for 7 years in the Peninsula Wars between 1807 and 1814. He served with the 71st Regiment of Foot. My great grandfather David Buller served with the very same regiment renamed the Highland Light Infantry during WWI. He never made it past the first month on the field. My great uncle Samuel McCullough served with the Derbyshire Regiment as mounted cavalry in South Africa's Boer War and China's Boxer Rebellion and died aged 22 in Beijing. Both my great grandfather Robert Thomas Penman and great uncle William Penman served with the Scots Guards in WWI and my uncle died. Their younger brother Henry Jack Penman served with the Grenadiers. My dad John Mulholland Penman served in the Royal Navy on the destroyer equipped merchant fleet with the convoys. Finally, I just discovered a while ago my ancestor Charles Macdonald served for 49 years as a guard at Stirling Castle from 1703 to 1752 during the Jacobite rebellions.
Elizabeth Russon
by Elizabeth Russon G2G6 Mach 2 (28.1k points)
edited by Elizabeth Russon
+9 votes

One of my Mother's proudest moments was when see met & drove the cart for her golf hero, Arnold Palmer, while assisting at her golf club's tournament on Maui, Hawaii.  

by Brad Cunningham G2G6 Pilot (188k points)
Drinking an Arnold Palmer in your Mom's Honor!

My mum was on a first name basis with Bart Starr!
Ah Carol, one of the coolest names every in NFL & I still root for the GB Packers to this day!!
Hi Brad!

You can be an honorary member of the Baldwin family from Wisconsin. My mum would take us to the woodshed if we rooted for any other team! Bart was a kind spirit and supported Brett Favre during his addition recovery. Bart and his wife had twin boys and one of them, Bret, died of a drug overdose. I think Brett Favre was like a son to Bart. We are family strong when it comes to our Packers and Packer fans!
+6 votes
I am proud of the family I have discovered over the last nearly 30 years of genealogical research. When I began, I knew that my father was the son of a Depression Era farmer and carpenter and my mother was the daughter of a milkman, certainly modest beginnings. I had a photo of me in my Mom's arms with three more generations of her female line. I discovered another generation in my great grandmother's Bible. My first job as a Reference Librarian was in a Federal Depository Library and I learned about census records. Later I moved to London, England and then California, where I became a volunteer at a Family History Center, still learning and teaching genealogy. I belonged to a couple of local genealogy societies and visited federal archives and university libraries. When I moved to New Mexico, the first things I looked for were a genealogy society and a Family History Center. I'm now Education Director of the former and I have been a Center volunteer for more than two decades. My library is open for exchanging books, but the Genealogy Research section is not available now. My genealogy society meets on Zoom. I last saw my Center on March 13 2020, but I hope someday we'll reopen.

For today, I keep researching. This is my first post, but I plan to make it a weekly habit. so the ancestor I'm profiling today is me. Not my ancestor, but an ancestor with eight descendants and more ancestors to find.
by Victoria Sullivan G2G3 (3.8k points)

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