52 Ancestors Week 6: Surprise

+14 votes
1.5k views

imageReady for Week 6 of the 52 Ancestors challenge?

You're encouraged to share a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches the week's theme. This week's sharing prompt:

SURPRISE

From Amy Johnson Crow:

What is something surprising that you've found in your research? What is a surprise that one of your ancestor's had? Have you found something in a surprising place?

Share below!

Participants who share every week can earn badges. Click here for more about the challenge and how to participate.

If this is your first time participating, or you don't have the participation badge, please post here.

in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)
Sorry...I meant to answer rather than comment. I will paste into an answer below.
I think the biggest surprise I have found so far is that my g-g-g-g-Grandfather William Herbert Bridges, created tapestries that were works of Art, and that one of them is still in existence today in a collection held by the Sovereign Hill Gold Museum of Ballarat.

Needlecraft has always been a big thing in our family, my mother, her mother, and her mothers mothers were all excellent at embroidery, and my sister has inherited the talent - I just never imagined it may have been passed down from a male, and it struck me as unusual that a male who had migrated to Australia during the Gold Rush had found time to DO tapestry, let alone a work of art the size of the one in the collection.

84 Answers

+8 votes

Probably my most surprising ancestor is my 6th great grandmother Margarita Alberti, who was a nun at a convent on the Spanish island of Menorca in the mid-18th century when she was "rescued" by a British soldier, my 6th great-grandfather, whom she later married.

by Geoffrey Crofton G2G6 (6.9k points)
+8 votes

For the longest time, I believed that my 3rd great grandparents, Aaron Herdsman & Selina Savage were 1st cousins, the only instance of pedigree collapse that I had in my tree.  Selina was known as the daughter of Henry Savage & Ann Herdsman (Aaron's aunt)

I had looked for ages to find a birth record for Selina Savage in the town of Malton where she was supposedly born without any luck.  One day I was looking at Henry Savage's family in the 1841 census and noticed a girl by the name of Selina Wood living there.  I assumed she was a servant or other relative, but then it dawned on me and I searched for a Selina Wood born in Malton.  I found her immediately and discovered that she was the daughter of John Wood & Elizabeth Savage!  Later research has confirmed that she was Henry's niece, so she wasn't married to her cousin after all.  

The lack of pedigree collapse continues even now, much to my surprise.  I have many cousins that do have it and are related to me in several ways, but not in my own tree yet until way back, eg. the royals in the 1500s

by Susie O'Neil G2G6 (8.8k points)
Hah! It seems over the generation's Aaron's marriage to his cousin-in-law got garbled into him marrying his own cousin. A good example of the importance of investigating what we "know".
+8 votes

My paternal grandmother

Elizabeth Florence "Lizbeth" Salvatore formerly Del Carlino

suffered from major depression and several psychotic episodes. Now I know she also had PTSD. Her mother died when she was around 12 years old. She went to live with her older sister Rose.

I had heard her talk very negatively about her father, mostly just how mean he was to her mother. And then I remembered her saying she had caught him in bed with another woman. I guess I forgot it and never believed it but now I'm pretty sure it happened.

What I discovered was that he was seeing a woman in Ohio and they had a son while he was married to his wife. Once

Maria Dominica (Mary) Delcarlino formerly Diodato aka Del Carlino
passed away at a the age of 39 her father went to Ohio and married this woman and moved her and their son to Philadelphia where they had a couple of more children. He left all of his children from his first marriage behind. They all ended up living with Rose, the oldest daughter and child. She was married when her mother died.
by Louann Halpin G2G6 Mach 7 (70.8k points)
+9 votes
Not many things surprise me today. At 75, I take most things in stride.

But, at the request of my daughter, I am scanning all my genealogical papers so that she won't have to deal with them. I came across and read a medical report that my mother had answered for her doctor. It was within five years of her death and many items in it surprised me because she had never talked about them. I learned that I had had three siblings lost through miscarriages, that she had horrible nightmare that kept her awake or woke her up, and that her migraine headaches were much worse than I realized. My mother and I talked often and over intensely private things, so I was surprise these were never brought up.

I also found that when she wanted to find out what my job as a programmer entailed, she didn't just take a short course in how to keypunch, she attended the Automation Institute of America and took a course from 5 July to 6 Sept, 1968, full time. She received no grades, but I was quite impressed by the effort and the nice notes she received from her instructors. It was so much effort to be able to talk to me about computers before personal computers were a part of everyday life.

Very few things in my genealogy have surprised me. I knew where my family came from on both sides and that misspellings were common. I knew most of them were farmers and the rest tended to be pastors. I found a few divorces, a few ran out on their wives, and a few participated in wars. It seemed that every other generation they would move from one state to another. In general, they weren't among the historically interesting people.
by Judy Bramlage G2G6 Pilot (209k points)
+7 votes
A bit behind, but I did my ancestor Mathew Lindsey (Lindsey-4172) who was a prominate tavern keeper in Wells Maine

https://genealogybyjanelle.blogspot.com/2019/02/surprise-matthew-lindsey-1774-1843.html
by Janelle Weir G2G6 Mach 5 (54.1k points)
+6 votes

Yesterday, I was following hints for my husband's ancestors.  Looking at the military records, it was draft registrations and wartime privates for nearly all of them.  Then a new one showed up.

"Did you know your great-grandfather attended West Point?" I asked my husband.    

"No," he replied.  

"He was appointed from Arkansas and accepted by the local medical office in June 1891 when he was seventeen," I continued.

"I don't know anything about it," he said.

Now, we have a new mystery to follow up on.  I'll phone Hubby's parents today and see what they know and then I'll trek to the Genealogical Library for whatever they have on Hilman Briton McMath (1869 - 1954).  I love surprises.

by Peggy McMath G2G6 Mach 6 (62.1k points)
+5 votes
My biggest surprise has been the lack of records from the early 19th Century in much of North America. I can find a decent amount for early settlements, and it tends to pick back up right around the tail end of the 19th Century. But for those 80 or so years, there just is not a whole lot and I will have an individual with plenty of sources, but their parent will have nothing beyond an obituary and maybe a land record (if I'm lucky). Their grandparents, however, will be fully sourced with town and church records.

I feel like this has caused the majority of my brick walls, too!

Another thing that surprised me was how much in-marrying happened within early American towns. Several generations of two or three family will intermarry and create some very complicated (and difficult to trace) family lines, often with naming conventions that even further confuse.
by Patricia Ferdig G2G6 Mach 3 (36.4k points)
+5 votes
I was surprised to find that I’m related to 17 Presidents. WT is a great place to find family. I’ve lost connected with many cousins.
by Bob Keniston G2G6 Pilot (260k points)
+4 votes
I can't publish this outside of WikiTree as there are members of the family that may not appreciate my candor, even though times have changed in the last 30 or so years. My "SURPRISE" was when I learned, at the age of 58, (two years ago) that my maternal grandmother and grandfather never married. That she had run off with an already married, older man, with four children. I found this out through a 2nd cousin once removed and had it confirmed by a first cousin. Totally blew my mind because my mother had never told me about this and she let me believe for all these years that they were married. Kind of rocked my world for a while, but that is a long story that has nothing to do with my response to this weeks challenge.
by T Counce G2G6 Mach 7 (72.8k points)
+4 votes
I was amazed to discover a few years ago that an ancestor on my father's side had married an ancestor on my mother's side and my father's line carried them down to me.  In around 1760 Charles Davis www.wikitree.com/wiki/Davis-21217 of Charles County, Maryland married Anne Dent  www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dent-1897 from the same place.  The Davises eventually produced my paternal Grandmother Marie Davis Middleton and the Dents, through Anne's brother eventually produced my maternal Grandmother Opal Dent Tunnell.  

It surprised me that such a close relationship could be repeated when my parents, one from Georgia and one from Oklahoma met each other in New Mexico and married!
by Kathryn Wenzel G2G6 Mach 1 (17.9k points)
+4 votes
One of my largest genealogy surprise was finding Quakers in my kids' family lines through their Dad. His parents always said that they were 100 percent Irish Catholics but it's was not to be so. Not only did I trace some of their ancestry to Quakers in Philadelphia and West New Jersey but also to Englishmen who founded villages in New Jersey. Plus, a Hessian soldier in the American Revolution that defected from the army and then, became American (Upperman-6).
by Maggie N. G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
+3 votes
I was surprised to learn that I'm not descended from three of the children of William Towne and Joanna Blessing.  I'm descended from four of them - Edmund Towne, Jacob Towne, Mary Estey and Rebecca Nurse.
by Bret Cantwell G2G6 Mach 1 (11.9k points)
+3 votes
Having only recently discovered who my grandmother on my father's side was, I was surprised to learn that she was a hand-tabulator or "calculator" before we had computers. I also learned that my half sister is a CPA and I have an affinity for math myself--especially finance. I guess it runs in the family!
by S Leeland G2G6 Mach 6 (65.4k points)
+3 votes
52 Ancestors  Week 6.

I was surprised to discover more members of my Blevins family moved from Arkansas to Oklahoma than what we had previously thought. We always knew that brothers John Fuller,  William Edgar,  and David Matterson Blevins and sister Elizabeth Jane Blevins Tate had moved to Oklahoma in the areas around Pauls Valley,  Purcell,  and Wynnewood.  But last year,  I discovered and confirmed,  that their 1st cousin, Isaac A Blevins, followed them to the Purcell Oklahoma area with his wife and youngest children.  Later,  when Isaac died in 1935, his son Remmel Blevins came to Oklahoma to take care of his mother and younger siblings. I think my grandmother Juanita would have been very intrigued by this discovery.  Now I'm curious to find out if even more of the this Blevins family moved to Oklahoma.
by Michelle Parker G2G5 (5.3k points)
+3 votes
I think one of the surprises is which members of your tree touch your heart. Some I shed a tear for and some, who may have more data, or more sorrows etc, just don't have the same impact.
by Lynlee OKeeffe G2G6 Mach 1 (18.6k points)
+5 votes

Hi,

This gentleman had a surprise to discover, a liason which produced two children, which my grandfather obviously knew nothing about.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Urquhart-113

by David Urquhart G2G6 Pilot (166k points)
+4 votes

George Ferris Anderson was a huge surprise because, for all of my mothers' life, she thought his name was Robert Harrison as that was the name he used from about 1902-1948. 

It just happened researching a DNA connection I saw George Anderson with the same birthdate as Robert Harrison. Also, he listed his parents' names as George Harrison and Priscilla Peddicord. The parents of George Anderson was George Anderson and Priscilla Harrison and her parents' surnames were Harrison and Peddicord.

His application for Washington Veterans home listed his correct name and parents names. Also, his second wife applied for residency with him and her maiden name was unique. 

by Azure Robinson G2G6 Pilot (539k points)
+4 votes

My Great Aunt Mary Jane Dale was a beautiful woman who seemed to demand attention and awe from everyone that met her. When she walked in the room she was center of attention and she loved it! 

Imagine my surprise when she found out I was going genealogy and she told me to keeping her chapter out of my book! 

Surprise Aunt Mary....You’ve been added!

by Pam Fraley G2G6 Pilot (150k points)
+3 votes

My maternal grandmother Clorene (Musick) Lane was an exceedingly kind, generous and loving woman who would not stand having any alcohol in her home. She was the eldest of three surviving siblings, all of whom were college educated in Bowling Green, Kentucky during the early 1920's. The surprise came fairly recently when a cousin and i started swapping stories with the wife of our great uncle. The college education of my grandmother and her siblings had been supported largely by Bootlegging!! Oh my!!!

My mother often told me stories about the Fast Car which my grandmother's brother Grant Musick had in Bowling Green. Most people know that early roots of NASCAR lie in the fast cars running liquor during Prohibition. When all the stories came together, it was clear that Grant needed that fast car for a reason, to bootleg liquor. He may have been buying sour mash whiskey from local Moonshiners and transporting it to Bowling Green, but we can't be sure. We suspect that heir stepmother, who lived with them in Bowling Green and known for frequently taking a little nip, was likely responsible for making contacts and arrangements for whiskey deliveries to local establishments or personal houses in Bowling Green. This was a huge surprise to us considering the considerable distain for alcoholic beverages by my grandmother and her sister. With our new perspective, it's possible that their experiences with family bootlegging during Prohibition were the source of their anti-alcohol attitude.

by Bill Vincent G2G6 Pilot (172k points)
+3 votes
I grew up believing i was descended from Gov. William Bradford.  My great-aunt Lulu Whitman shared this several times.  (Wish I'd have questioned her about this!) .  There are numerous relatives  named Bradford.  In beginning to research our family history I spent many, many hours seeking a connection.  I was surprised to find a connection to at least six Mayflower passengers, but none to William Bradford!
by Marsha Craig G2G6 (9.9k points)

Related questions

+13 votes
8 answers
+12 votes
19 answers
+20 votes
78 answers
2.0k views asked Feb 3, 2020 in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)
+18 votes
40 answers
1.7k views asked Feb 5, 2018 in The Tree House by Robynne Lozier G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
+18 votes
17 answers
+12 votes
8 answers
+9 votes
15 answers
+12 votes
10 answers
+10 votes
13 answers
+11 votes
13 answers

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...