Who is your most interesting incidental find while doing genealogy?

+8 votes
324 views
We have all been there; down a hole where only rabbits go. Have we found people of historical significance that are relatively unknown? Who is your most intriguing find and why?
in Appreciation by K Smith G2G6 Pilot (455k points)

5 Answers

+11 votes
Native people who figure in the history of early contact with Europeans.

Samoset Samoset-2 https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Samoset-2

Messamouet Mi'kmaq-24 https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mi'kmaq-24

Samoset and Mesamouet are largely unknown, yet they were important figures in their time. Both men were aware of the Europeans long before the arrival of the Mayflower.
by Murray Maloney G2G6 Mach 6 (65.0k points)
+7 votes
You've made me realise how many unfinished profiles I have!

This one, my 1st -x2 cousin https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Eland-233 became editor of the Rand Daily Mail and was strongly opposed to the removal of Africans' rights, He was the son of a rather reprobate gt gt uncle of mine, and the father of this chap (who hasn't got a profile as he's living) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F._R._Ellis

I've turned up so many fascinating people who are all interesting in their own right, it's hard to pick out individuals (and I must finish their profiles!)

(edited for spelling as always!)
by Gill Whitehouse G2G6 Pilot (202k points)
+8 votes

I love a good eccentric.

Erik Jan Hanussen had this wild life story; he was literally born minutes after his mother was released from jail, and he grew up to become an occultist and astrologer, as well as a fake aristocrat. But most intriguingly he was allegedly clairvoyant -- he predicted the Reichstag fire that heralded Hitler's rise to power, and was assassinated by the SS. He appeared as a minor character in the movie The King's Man, played by Daniel Bruhl.

محمد أحمد ابن عبد الله (1844-1885) |al-Mahdi was a Sudanese Messianic figure. This is the man who the severed head of Gen. Gordon was brought to. Allegedly, al-Mahdi's own head was carried off by Gen. Kitchener.

Heinrich Manfred Ahasverus Adolf Georg von Lehndorff was part of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler. He was executed along with many others. His daughter became the supermodel Veruschka. 

Lorenzo Da Ponte, best known for his collaboration with Mozart, was also a musician, failed priest, scalawag, who seems to have known everyone worth knowing in his day.

Anna Eleanora (Franchi) Craufurd was an adventurer who started off in the circus and worked her way up to courtesan. She had two children with the king of Wuerttemberg, married rich twice, and lived in India for some time. She was also a lover of Axel von Fersen and attempted to save him during the French Revolution. Her grandson was the multi-talented Alfred d'Orsay.

Cassius Marcellus Clay may be best known today as the man for whom Muhammad Ali was originally named. All men fantasize about being the baddest man on the planet; Cassius Clay actually was the baddest man on the planet. He freed his slaves, campaigned for abolition, served as a general, saved prisoners of war, fought all comers and survived numerous assassination attempts (usually killing or maiming his attackers in the process) and married a much younger woman in his 80s. This is a man who confronted an angry mob while dueling-wielding pistols and made them stand down.

Justinian II, not the more famous Justinian I, absolutely deserves his moment to shine. He was by no means a hero; he had the thirst for revenge of any 3 Mortal Kombat characters and the self-restraint of Mike Tyson. Justinian issued an arrest warrant for the pope. When he was overthrown, mutilated, and exiled, he came back with a vengeance. He married a Khazar princess (the Khazars were a nomadic Turkic-speaking Jewish tribe) and personally killed two assassins sent to finish him off. He led an army to the gates of Constantinople and entered the city through a secret underground passageway. There he regained his throne and set about wrecking bloody revenge on everyone who had ever crossed him. Justinian had the two men who'd deposed him in the first place, Leontius and Tiberius, trussed like turkeys and used them for footstools. He was double-crossed yet again and this time they beheaded him to make sure.

by Jessica Key G2G6 Pilot (335k points)
edited by Jessica Key
I was surprised to learn that Cassius Clay was my 3c6r. I had 2xGr uncle named after his 2nd cousin Henry Clay.
+6 votes
by K Smith G2G6 Pilot (455k points)
edited by K Smith
+4 votes

maybe not the most intriguing, but quite interesting to me.  I camed accross this emigrant from the Kingdom of Hannover to a place called Carolina Mills.

If I have googled correctly it is in Rhoade isand, and not in Carolina.  The Carolina Mills Company was a textile mill complex located on the Pawcatuck River in the village of Carolina, Rhode Island.

I seem to remember a history class or reading a book about this place many moons ago.  It is fairly well known that some industries in America and Australia sent recruiters to Germany and Europe to find new talented workers during our fast growth.

Here is a link if you care to see it.  Not much really, not fancy at all, but maybe of interest to someone.  
[[Bode-570|Wilhelm Julius Heinrich Bode (1850-)]]

by Mike Schindler G2G6 Mach 2 (23.4k points)

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