Question of the Week: What's an unusual story you've found in your research?

Question

Have you found any unusual or interesting stories while doing genealogical research? 

Tell us about one of them with an answer below! You could also answer on Facebook or share the question image with friends and family on social media to get them talking. 

Answer 1

What a great question! There's always something fascinating to find in the lives of our ancestors. There are more than a few in my line that really capture my imagination, but I'll present to you a couple from Louisiana that both have experienced kidnapping.

Ancestor #1 - In 1729, The Natchez Native Americans attacked the French settlement of Fort Rosalie in Louisiana, killing around 230 French colonists. There were only 2 Frenchmen that they chose to kidnap and keep alive, and this is thought to be because the Natchez needed their skills. So, perhaps Pierre Mayeaux (one of my 8xGGs) was kept alive because he was a teamster and could drive the large wagons to deliver the spoils of war to the Natchez main village. The other spared man, named Le Beau, was a tailor who was used to refit all of the French colonists' clothing to their new owners.

Ancestor #2 - Dr. Charles Claude Monnot, my 3xGG, was a surgeon in the Grande Armee de Napoleon. After Napoleon was captured and imprisoned in 1815, many French Bonapartists expatriated to America. Dr. Monnot was one of those who joined the Bonapartist group Society for the Cultivation of Vine and Olive, who planned to create a colony in Alabama. He and some members split from the group plan and, instead, tried to establish a new colony on lands disputed between Spain and United States, in an area near what is now Liberty, Texas. At that time, the pirate Jean Lafitte had his operation headquarters in Galveston, Texas and the two groups of men became acquainted since the Bonapartists had to move through pirate waters to reach their intended land. Of course, the colony was a failure, so, in 1818, Dr. Monnot and others went to New Orleans and some, including Dr. Monnot, created a homestead along Bayou Lafourche in Assumption Parish, Louisiana. This became Napoleonville. It wasn't too long until Dr. Monnot and Jean Lafitte met again. Jean Lafitte decided he needed a surgeon on his ship, so he sent his privateers up Bayou Lafourche to Napoleonville to kidnap Dr. Monnot, which they did. Dr. Monnot was in Jean Lafitte's hands for several days before his friends fought and captured him back. Dr. Charles Monnot wrote down his account of this experience and it still exists in family records.

Answer 2

I was told an interesting story about one of my husband's ancestors. Its about an Uncle entering a church on horse back to try to stop his niece marrying. I do not know if it is true, but the full story is on the profile of Mary Catherine Towning.

 

Answer 3

I have two!  From:  Draper Stories by the Draper Family

Story1: Nancy (Kerlin) Barnet (1793-1831)  The Grave in the MIddle of the Road!  Place: Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, USA   

Nancy Kerlin Barnett, Married to William Barnett, Febuary 29, 1808. He was born September 27, 1786. He drowned in Ohio River September 24, 1854. William was the great great great grandson of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Daniel G. Doty, 1846 - 1934. protected his grandmother's grave by staying at her graveside with his gun, while the county relocated this Cemetery in order to build the road. A concrete slab was placed over the grave to protect the marker, August 8, 1912

Story 2:   Thomas and Lucy Coleman Draper  We discovered that my ancestors Thomas and Lucy Coleman Draper are not buried where Find A Grave says they are.  They are now buried beneath a road, as the cemetery was plowed over by the South Carolina Highway Dept!

AN ODE to THOMAS & LUCY DRAPER by Dave Draper (C)2022)

• Thomas Draper Jr., from Farnham, Virginia way,
• Was in need of a wife, and was married one day
• To Lucy Coleman, who became his wife,
• And moved to South Carolina, to start a new life!
• They had a lot of kids, and farmed in "Twelve Mile"
• They lived and loved, and had hard times for a while.
• But, they never lost a smile, as they grew old and weak,
• They were buried in a plot out by "Mill Creek"
• Well, one day the State needed a road to carry
• Trucks and cars through that Draper Cemetery.
• It was built over their graves, because they didn't care
• They removed the old tombstones located there!
• But they left what was left, just dust in those graves,
• With rock and asphalt , the highway was paved
• So, be warned, when traveling down there at night,
• Strange things some have seen really gave them a fright!
• Ghost like specters have been said to appear,
• When you take a look back in the rear view mirror
• If you are family, there is nothing to fret
• Road Workers, beware! It's YOU they will get!  
• ---by Dave Draper 

Comments

Yeah, I'm not gonna be riding around South Carolina any time soon. Though, this might explain a lot. Time to get a proton pack.

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Cousin Chris, you crack me up!

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One only needs to store away nefarious spirits, not misunderstood ones.

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Okay,  Egon. =)

Answer 4

Death of an Outlaw, The Cock Family- From Cornwall to Ontario

John Cock Esq (Cock-177), of Lanke and Trefreoke in ancient Cornwall, was my 6th great grandfather. The Cock's connect to the ancient Cornwall family of Arundell (Cock-1570 and Arundell-317). John's sister, Jane, married Richard Bligh, and was the grandmother of Vice Admiral William Bligh (Bligh-45) of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.

The Outlaw

But this well heeled and respected family was not immune to tragedy. John Cock (Cock-177) and Ann Cann had a son, John Cock Esq (Cock-176) who was the heir of their substantial estate.  

According to author Edmund H. Hambly, their son John became known as a desperate character, an armed outlaw, wanted on a warrant for various crimes.

He was difficult to arrest, his disregard for the law so great that he shot and killed a constable who was attempting to arrest him.  He was finally caught by 3 brothers, who lay in wait for him one night knowing he would pass them by on his way home from Port Isaac. 

The Hanging

He was taken to London and hanged at Tyburn (Marble Arch) about 1768. He left behind a wife and 6 children.

 The estate was passed down to his son John Cock (Cock-174) Esq, and then to his son Frederick Cock (Cock-1520), who would be the last of my direct ancestors to hold the property. Frederick conveyed the estate to his brother, John Farnham Cock about 1818. 

From Cornwall to Canada

Frederick did have one son, Captain Frederick Cock (Cock-167). , who should have been the heir, but he was a Master Mariner and perhaps had no wish to run an estate. We don't really know. He went instead to Canada and had quite the life there. 

Captain Frederick Cock was my 2nd great grandfather, a pioneer of Brunel, Muskoka, Ontario. There are poems about his life there, living on an island in Mary Lake in Ontario. The island was known as Cock's Island and later referred to as Deadman's Island where it is believed that Frederick was buried.

An excerpt from the poem by Ethel Robson posted on his profile;

"A tale is told of long ago, an old man of the sea, lived on an island in the lake, with his daughters double three...."

It still amazes me to this day that I have such a rich history from my Mother, who grew up farm poor in Boyle, Alberta, Canada. Our inheritance is the stories, which we record here to pass on to our children. 

Answer 5

My husband and I share the same set of great grandparents.
I knew quite a bit about my father's family history, descending from a well to do family from Connecticut.  They moved into my area in the early 1800s with expanding settlements.  I  knew my greatgrandmother's family had moved into the area and they descended from a German immigrant brought in to replace British soldiers in the New York Colony.  It had not worked out, the Germans revolted and followed the Hudson and Mohawk River routes into upper New York.  My grandfather and father attended a family reunion for several decades and I just assumed we were plain old settlers.  After we were married I found out my husband and I are third cousins and his parents also attended the reunions.  A distant relative wrote
a poem for one of the family reunions.  She was a locally praised poet and self published a book of her poems.  Just
recently I found his family's copy of this poem and, much to my surprise, I found our ancestor was not a plain settler.  His family was rich and owned a lot of land outside of New York City.  However, during the Revolutionary War time his family supported Britain.  They were stripped of their land,
banished from the area.  Only one supported his mother and brought her, via the immigrant route, to the area and settled.  I was absolutely flabbergasted they had been Tories.  For the record:  Tories were colonists (in the future United States area) that supported Britain's interests in the colonies against the colonists who wanted to break away and be independent from Britain during the Revolutionary War, 1776-1780.

Answer 6

I found this guy named Giuseppe Barberio and his story is a bit of a strange one. It starts off normal enough. He immigrated from San Pietro a Maida and settled in Haverhill like many did in the early 20th century. He took up a mining job and he ended up in Montana of all places. There things get a little weird.

Apparently, while he was in Montana doing his thing, his Naturalization paper from Massachusetts was stolen and he had to get a new one in Montana or face deportation. So, he got a new form and on it there's a two page document explaining his entire ordeal. 

After that mess, he returned to Haverhill, settled with his wife Angelina Politano and lived a good life. 

That's decent and everything. But, I can't help wonder if someone in Montana has his original Naturalization paper in an attic somewhere. Was this like an early case of identity theft or something? I mean why would someone steal a Naturalization paper? So weird. I get the feeling the theif expected riches and all he found was: a bible, the paper, a couple bucks and maybe a letter from home. That's about it.

OH! And his daughter Angelina married Nazarene Benedetti and they had kids who founded the famous landmark,  Benedetti's Deli!

Comments

Being part Barberio I might be partial, but I do love this story it does make ya wonder! 

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Right? There's a movie here!

Answer 7

I have a few. Most are tales of multiple deaths that befall families in an instant. There is one wherein the father killed his wife and children before killing himself. I guess that is not all that unusual as the same scenario played out one street over while I was in high school. The unusual part of that was we shared the same address, same last name and one of the victims shared one of my brother's name. A tornado claimed 4 of 5 lives in one family, per the obituary. Four of 6 lives were claimed, in a weeks time, during the Spanish Flu pandemic, back when pandemics were a force of nature. Then there two cousins who were brothers. They owned and operated a steam powered sawmill. One day in the dead of winter, cold water was added to the boiler as several people huddled around the firebox. The explosion that followed killed 13 including the two brothers and three of their offspring. What a story the survivors gained. Then there were three brothers shot up by town folk, two died, just for trying to rob a bank (OK two banks) at the same time. They were victims of being born in the wrong time. If they were alive today, they would have gotten away in a little blue compact, with 100's of dollars' worth of detergent and any one who dared to stop them would have been FIRED!

 After some more thought, I recall a cousin who lost his two young children, one a toddle the other slightly older when they both fell into a well. Another family lost two children who were left in a playpen as they preceded to clear brush from their homestead. When the wind picked up, their attention was on saving their home as the fire spread from the fire that burned the brush. By the time they noticed the fire approached the children, they could only watch in horror.

Comments

Was that the Dalton gang? Several movies have been made about that (the surviving brother, who was shot 20 times and left for dead, moved to Hollywood once he got out of jail. A new movie just came out.) My distant cousin, Dick Broadwell was involved in that.

Dick has his own interesting story - he was the son of a well regarded farmer and was involved in the land rush of Oklahoma. He claimed some land and a woman nearby also claimed land. They got married, she convinced him they should sell both plots and move to Texas. Once they got to Texas, she took off with all the money. After that, he turned to a life of crime, and joined the Dalton gang.

In Coffeyville, Kansas, they tried to rob two banks at once but were recognized. Townspeople grabbed guns and surrounded the banks. Dick was able to get on his horse and ride out of town, but died within a mile. The two Dalton brothers died and I think another gang member died. Four townspeople also died in the hail of bullets. The scene of the dead gang members laid out in a row was made into a postcard, later recreated by the Eagles band for the album "Desperadoes".

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The fifth person is said to be Tom Evans. When buried, the body was said to be that of Bill Powers. Six men were seen riding into town, only 5 were seen at the time of the robbery.

Answer 8

There's always fascinating stories behind every person I research, but some of the more interesting ones in my opinion end up with follow-up stories that carry down through the generations.

Back in the days when the settlers were facing issues with the native Americans, the story begins with a major issue that the settlers were facing and failing miserably to address. They had a fairly large flock of sheep that they were tending, and it seems that on a fairly regular basis, their sheep were beginning to go missing from the flock, and it was too frequent for it to be a coincidence. They began to post more guards around the sheep and one morning they woke to find the guard dead. Scalped. And more sheep missing. More nights passed. Another guard turned up scalped. They had suspected the Indians were doing this initially, but now it was certain. But how were they doing it? There were a couple of guards watching the flock so it was odd that only certain nights this would happen and only some of the guards were killed. There seemed to be no pattern.

Well, one of the Fulkersons was living with this community and was not only known as a good shot, but also known for his cleverness in piecing things together. It turns out that it was his night to take a watch, and he was determined to figure out what was happening here. He began patrolling the flock, watching carefully for any sheep that might be prepared to wander away or intruders coming into the area. As it began to get dark, he noticed an odd sheep - one he had never noticed before - that was walking out amidst the rest of the flock. The other sheep were mostly ignoring it, but a few walked away from it, which made him look a bit closer at it. He was a good ways away from this particular sheep, as it was on the far side of the flock. It began moving across the meadow, mostly sideways, but ever so slowly creeping closer to this relative. There was something very peculiar about this sheep in the way it moved, and in the way the other sheep acted around it. He couldn't quite put his finger on why it bothered him so much, but he decided not to take any chances, and lifted his rifle and fired on the sheep. The sheepskin covered native American stood in pain from the rifle shot, and he put another in him for good measure, ending the days of fear that had followed since this had begun. As a token of his successful protection of the sheep, he claimed the tomahawk from his foe and was heralded as a hero by the settlers.

This tomahawk was passed down the generations from parent to child and kept as a reminder of days gone by. Eventually it made its way to a case and set atop the mantle at the home of this particular Fulkerson family. Sadly, about 2 generations ago, there was a house fire that claimed the tomahawk in the disaster, and it is no more. But the family will always remember the heroic actions of their ancestor (I wish it had been mine), even though they no longer have the artifact to show for it.

Answer 9

My GGrandfather's father-in-law Philip Forsyth died age 78 leaving 3rd wife Hattie age 36. Her cow was sold by mistake at the Estate Sale. " Apr 12th 1893 I went to Hatties after noon and paid her $30.00 famley allowance tried to Settle with her for the cow that was Soald at the Sale that the court Set aside for her but could do nothing toald her to name her price and I would pay for the cow but She wanted her cow Returned to her toald her to take her pick out of my cows but She would not" Next day "I Started out this morning to hunt Hatties cow went to Jim Jonses and learned he had Soald the cow to Tom Johnston went thare and Bought her for $18.00 took her to Hattie and delivered her in the coral.”                                                  I discovered that a cousin had a photocopy of my Elisha's Journal from 1879-1886, so I copied it and started transcribing! While looking for more photos for the transcription, I discovered another cousin had 5 more journals 1886-1913! 2450 pages later, I have transcribed the whole lot! The indexes are at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Index_to_Elisha_Sample_Drivers_Farm_Journal_1879-1886

and here is the series page on Amazon(except for the second one which they have oopsed and cant seem to fix :). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7R5WH5N

Answer 10

My 10th Great-(Wicked?)-Step-Grandmother

 

In researching my Swedish ancestry I found a 10th Great-Grandfather was murdered. He was crossing a bridge at night and beaten so bad that he died from his injuries the next day. He allegedly made a death bed statement that it was because of his wife he was in his current condition.

 

His wife was associated with the accused attackers, allegedly having an affair with a member of a noble family, and her relatives were in debt to her husband. No one was convicted in the trial (probably due to the noble connections).

 

My 9th Great-Grandmother testified in the murder trial that she believed her Stepmother was involved in a conspiracy to have him killed. I'll take her word for it and agree she had a Wicked-Stepmother.

 

(This took place In 1647 and I do not have profiles in Wikitree for the involved yet)

Answer 11

I was contacted last year, through WikiTree, by a man who turned out to have ancestors in common with my wife. We chatted on the phone, and he asked me what information I had about her 3rd great grandparents, Edward Naven (1843-1880) and Eleanor Simpson (1847-1934). I told him what I'd found out, including that Edward must have died before 1881, since he's missing from the 1881 census. He asked me, "Did you know that Eleanor murdered Ed?" ─ No, I did not know that!

I dug into contemporary newspaper articles, and found that maybe she did (the jury at the inquest thought so), but maybe she didn't (the jury at her murder trial acquitted her). You can read the story ─ Did she murder her husband? ─ in the "Black Sheep" section on my family stories free-space page.

What do you think? Did she, or didn't she?

Answer 12

Scores of people are descended from Edward II, his wife, his lover, and her lover!

I always find myself most sympathetic to these reprobates of history, as I myself do nothing but get myself into love affairs that end disastrously for all involved. 

Comments

I totally forgot about Thomas le Despenser, a great-grandson of the abovementioned Hugh, who similarly ensorcelled King Richard II and used his favor to steal lands, became wildly unpopular, and reveled in his notoriety! If you were a gay Plantagenet king, it would be wise to stay away from any men named Despenser. This family has one tactic, and they're extremely successful at it!

Answer 13

My 2nd Great Grandfather August Klitzke in Sauk County, Wisconsin, naughty boy he was. After discovering that he was the illegitimate father to my 1st Great Grandmother, which he spent time in the local jail for, I kept reading more about him in the newspapers. Things like how he would rather stay in jail and shovel snow than pay the $10 for child support, how he went after his neighbors after their pigs had gotten loose, how he had a party where his brothers brought in moonshine, and then the night ended with him attacking one of his sisters-in law with a 2x4, upon which 10 members of the family testified against him and effectively banished him to Green County, Wisconsin. In fact the closest he got back to Sauk was being buried in Madison, Wisconsin. Truly a black sheep of my ancestry.

Comments

Hmm...You realize if he was doing this in the present, he'd be streaming all this stuff. Especially that moonshine party. Wow.

Answer 14

I discovered one of my ancestors became pregnant at 10 years old and delivered at 11! The father was 20 and he was charged with Seduction and Debauchery. He was found guilty and had to pay a $50 fine. Big Wow! Wish I could learn more about this.I got this info from the court papers.

Answer 15

My great-great-great grandfather Louis St. Ores, was involved in a case that went to the California State Supreme Court.  The only way I found out about this was in legal briefs that cited the case as precedent.

When I got the supreme court case records, my gr-grandfather was described as a one-legged, elderly man who was the proprietor of a traveling show.  He got into an altercation with a man named John McGlashen.  McGlashen was drunk and wanted to go into the show.  He had been eating oysters and drinking whiskey across the street. My gr-grandfather refused to let him in because there were women and children inside, and he was not fit company for them. McGlashen then assaulted him, and he ended up with some serious medical bills and loss of income.

Louis sued McGlashen and won, and McGlashen appealed the decision on the basis that he was drunk and therefore not responsible for his actions.  The CA Supreme Court settled the matter saying that intoxication was no excuse.

 I later learned that he got support from his Masonic Lodge brothers to hire the lawyer and pursue the case. I have no idea if my great-grandfather ever saw a penny from McGlashen, but at least it was a moral victory.

I think my favorite part of the story was the detail about the oysters and whiskey...but also didn't know about him losing his leg (it was in a wagon accident), or his traveling show.  He was a very persistent and enterprising individual...would love a time machine to go back an meet him.

Answer 16

My unusual story is of two brothers in Georgian Sheffield, William and John Bower,  and the tragic Cordelia Wolley (1763-86). William was a typefounder, and for some time in partnership with my ancestor John Slater, a printer and publisher; he fell in love with Cordelia, but their marriage was prevented by her parents, Godfrey and Katherine (-both already on WikiTree). Katherine was a Lamplugh, the great-granddaughter of an archbishop and very conscious of her Plantagenet descent, so this probably explains William's rejection, though I haven't been able to establish the social background of the Bowers.

Unabashed, William and Cordelia set up home together and had two children,  before they were finally married in 1785, when she no longer needed her parents' consent, but she sadly died in the following year. What makes this story more poignant is that, a few years later, William's brother John, a cutler and another ancestor, also married.  His bride was Mary Biggin, the orphan daughter of a scythesmith; she, however, was also descended from the Plantagenets, and from many other royal houses across Europe, through her paternal grandmother. All this had been forgotten,  but she was of no less noble origin than the Wolleys and Lamplughs.

Answer 17

I just discovered that a 5th cousin 1x removed, Aubrey Davidson, died in an odd manner. To whit: 

[...] the car first struck the side of a bridge as it travelled north on Highway 21 and proceeded for a short distance on the sidewalk which crossed the bridge. It then travelled more than 100 feet before striking a store owned by S. A. Stairs, damaging the steps at the front of the structure and demolishing a soft drink cooler. Next, the car wrecked a half-ton truck which also was owned by S. A. Stairs, went on another 50 feet, struck a stone wall, upended, bounced about 20 feet onto a nearby home, damaging the upstairs window and eaves as it came down, bedding one end in the ground. [...] He later expired in hospital from his injuries. His two passengers were only mildly hurt. He was 22.

Answer 18

A woman born in 1699 got married in 1723 and had five children between 1724 and 1733. That's not unusual. It also isn't unusual that two out of those five died  in infancy.

In 1735 her sixth child was stillborn after a difficult birth, Sad, but probably not all that unusual.

However, she had four more stillborn full term babies, 1737, 1739, 1740 and 1742. She died birthing her eleventh child in 1744. This is the worst case of 18th century neglect of reproductive health that I have come across in ten years of research.

Answer 19

I found an interesting story regarding Forest Fay Freed, while researching some tangent lines.

As an 8-year-old in 1900, the census taker recorded his name as "Garret Greed", which may have been an unfortunate prophecy of his later life.

He ended up in prison for mail fraud. It wasn't stocks, bonds or gold that got him there, though.

It was over muskrats and roller skates! The muskrat scheme alone involved two farms and $80,000. 

Another interesting element was seeing how some of the local newspapers stepped around the sticky spots when they reported about his death. 

The newspaper transcription on his FG profile said that "he died in hospital" but didn't mention that the hospital was at the prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Quirky and sad.

Answer 20

Just a few days ago, I stumbled upon a newspaper article with a surprising story about a relative I knew personally.

This relative was my father's cousin, Phil Anderson. It seems that in 1940 when he was age 17 and in his last year of high school, he slipped away from home on the first day of school Christmas break and hitchhiked from his Massachusetts home to Dallas, Texas, so he could go to the Cotton Bowl football game. He didn't have a ticket (nor much money), but he did have family in Dallas (Texas was his father's home state). He successfully reached Dallas and got a ticket to the game with the help of an uncle. Sometime in his stay in Dallas, he stopped in at the office of a local daily newspaper and offered them a long article about his hitchhiking experience, the game that he had seen, and his opinions of the teams and the players and coaches. The newspaper printed his article (apparently they paid him for it) and also published an article about him. They expressed amazement that this boy, who they described as looking more like 15 than 17, and who was polite and well-spoken, had hitchhiked "a mere 2000 miles to see a football game" and wrote an article that "made pretty good reading."

This is a bit of serendipity found in an online newspaper search -- and a story I definitely never heard from family!

Note: This story is not yet on this man's profile (which is currently private with a public family tree).  I temporarily uploaded one of newspaper articles as a private image (so I can see it to write about it), but due to copyright I will have to take the clipping down before I make his profile public. 

Comments

You can keep a brief summary of the article, that's not a problem. Just not a large verbatim chunk of it, or an image of the whole article.

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Keeping clippings for my own use is one thing, but posting the clippings as public images on WikiTree is not kosher.