Ever Find A Relative That Did Something REALLY Bad?

Just some drunks and wife abusers. Of course, we don't have any records of the Mohawk line so there could be some interesting stories out there.

Oh, and a bunch of French Canadians which is pretty bad. :wink:

R
 
Honorable mention goes to a third cousin three times removed. Shortly after the turn of 20th century he inherited the land on which the Grave Creek Burial Mound (Adena Culture) sits in Moundsville, West Virginia. A few years later he convinced the state of West Virginia to purchase the mound from him at a good price because if they did not he was going to level the Mound, use the dirt for fill and sell the land as building lots.

One of my great grandfathers comes in as first runner-up. He was born in west central Pennsylvania a number of years prior to the Civil War. Not much documentation, but family tales suggest he became enamored with the wife of the local inn keeper. The story goes that he was climbing out the window and sliding down the downspout as the husband was climbing the stairs. A quick road trip brought him to the same WV family that would eventually own the mound. In Moundsville he met the woman who would become my great grandmother. The fact that she was a teenager at the time did not deter him in the least. Ignoring her father’s dislike of him and knocking five years off his age so he didn’t seem so old, the couple was married in the early 1890s. Fifteen or so years later he decided family life was not for him and abandoned his wife and three children.

The grand prize winner goes my 3g-grandfather, the maternal grandfather of the lady mentioned above. Things started out well enough, when the Civil War broke out he was a 41-year old cooper living in Moundsville. He enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Infantry (Union) which in turns became the 3rd West Virginia Infantry, Mounted and then the 6th West Virginia Cavalry. After serving 2 years he was discharged for medical reason, but re-enlisted in the 2nd Maryland Cavalry serving as a scout along the upper branches of the Potomac. This is when the trouble started; he was accused of unwanted advances on a young woman in the area. Events are uncertain from here on, but it appears my 3g-grandfather forged a letter that attempted to implicate one of the woman’s male relatives, who had filed a formal complaint about the incident with the military, in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. Testimony before military commission trying the conspirators followed. It couldn’t have gone well as we next here of him in close confinement because of perjury charges. He was discharged from that confinement on May 16, 1865.

These episodes all occurred on my father’s side of the family. My mother’s ancestry, Danish Vikings who relocated to Normandy and a good number of generations later to Quebec, seems tame in comparison.
 
Honorable mention goes to a third cousin three times removed. Shortly after the turn of 20th century he inherited the land on which the Grave Creek Burial Mound (Adena Culture) sits in Moundsville, West Virginia. A few years later he convinced the state of West Virginia to purchase the mound from him at a good price because if they did not he was going to level the Mound, use the dirt for fill and sell the land as building lots.

One of my great grandfathers comes in as first runner-up. He was born in west central Pennsylvania a number of years prior to the Civil War. Not much documentation, but family tales suggest he became enamored with the wife of the local inn keeper. The story goes that he was climbing out the window and sliding down the downspout as the husband was climbing the stairs. A quick road trip brought him to the same WV family that would eventually own the mound. In Moundsville he met the woman who would become my great grandmother. The fact that she was a teenager at the time did not deter him in the least. Ignoring her father’s dislike of him and knocking five years off his age so he didn’t seem so old, the couple was married in the early 1890s. Fifteen or so years later he decided family life was not for him and abandoned his wife and three children.

The grand prize winner goes my 3g-grandfather, the maternal grandfather of the lady mentioned above. Things started out well enough, when the Civil War broke out he was a 41-year old cooper living in Moundsville. He enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Infantry (Union) which in turns became the 3rd West Virginia Infantry, Mounted and then the 6th West Virginia Cavalry. After serving 2 years he was discharged for medical reason, but re-enlisted in the 2nd Maryland Cavalry serving as a scout along the upper branches of the Potomac. This is when the trouble started; he was accused of unwanted advances on a young woman in the area. Events are uncertain from here on, but it appears my 3g-grandfather forged a letter that attempted to implicate one of the woman’s male relatives, who had filed a formal complaint about the incident with the military, in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. Testimony before military commission trying the conspirators followed. It couldn’t have gone well as we next here of him in close confinement because of perjury charges. He was discharged from that confinement on May 16, 1865.

These episodes all occurred on my father’s side of the family. My mother’s ancestry, Danish Vikings who relocated to Normandy and a good number of generations later to Quebec, seems tame in comparison.

I also am descended from Normans. One family name I was looking at is traced back to a knight who followed William to England, fought at Hastings, and was rewarded with land (where the family name comes from).

R
 
My family remained in Bayeux until the 1660s when three brothers moved to Quebec. Talk about a genealogical nightmare. The father, Jacques had married and had a son, named Pierre. He remarried and had another son, also named Pierre. Fortunately the third brother was named Denis.
 
Back in the 17th century, the brother of one of my ancestors was hanged for "sodomy of a mare." They strung up the poor horse, too……..

Why does this sound like a possible origin for 'Blazing Saddles'?

"I couldn't pothibly fit him in 'til Monday, Thirrr….."

despite my avatar….I got nuttin'…….that I'm aware of…..yet….

oh man,….good stuff…..great thread folks!!..
 
My 7x great grandfather killed a doctor for unknown reasons and fled Virginia for North Carolina.

I have come across a story in my research of a distant cousin that had a falling out with his wife and killed her and then their three small children, committing suicide shortly thereafter.
 
My ancestor in the 1650's was a Quaker merchant/sea captain. On one of his voyages to the Caribbean he didn't return for over a year and was given up for lost. When he returned to his Long Island home after all that time and saw his wife on the street he immediately ran to her and they embraced Unfortunately this was on a Sunday and apparently this being a no-no with the Quakers he was fined a substantial sum. So it appears that the worst thing any of my ilk ever did was the offence of Public Display of Affection.

The Quaker religion weighed heavy in my family for nearly 250 years. That is the reason I could never find a direct family member who fought in the Civil War. Allegedly, my Great Grandfather, a shop keeper in Brooklyn, NY, paid one of his employees, a black man to take his place. Although my father fought in WW2, I, myself, a pacifist, avoided the Vietnam War.
 
My family remained in Bayeux until the 1660s when three brothers moved to Quebec. Talk about a genealogical nightmare. The father, Jacques had married and had a son, named Pierre. He remarried and had another son, also named Pierre. Fortunately the third brother was named Denis.
Where in Quebec did they live?
 
http://www.ibssg.org/blacksheep/

International Blacksheep Society of Genealogists.

I joined when it first started, had an ancestor who seemed to forget to marry his pregnant girlfriends, or divorce his married ones and seems to have left a goodly number in his wake with brothers in law chasing him across state lines. I'm probably exaggerating because I never got it all straitened out, my grandfather only said that the horse thief story was more deadly but more acceptable to talk about, hahaha.
 
I always thought it wouLd be fun to join this group. Well, maybe after my mom is gone. I think it fits the title of this thread, or at least it would for a bunch of my relatives. My kids would think it a hoot!

I kid you not:

http://www.royalbastards.org

Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain


Welcome to the internet home of the Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain, known to many as the "Royal Bastards.”

The “Royal Bastards” is a sixty-four year old hereditary society (emphasis mine) founded by some of the English-speaking world's foremost genealogical scholars. Its purpose is to foster the highest standards of genealogy.

Membership is open to individuals who demonstrate meeting these standards through the Society's process of proving descent from an illegitimate child, grandchild or great-grandchild of a king of England, Scotland, Wales, Great Britain or the United Kingdom.



 
My g-g-g-grandfather from NC was excommunicated from his church for fishing and playing a fiddle on Sunday. At age 56 he left his wife and 14 kids and ran off with an 18 year old woman to Tennessee. He had four kids with her before she sent him packing. He returned to his first wife who accepted him back but made him build a room on the back porch to sleep in. He also had four bastard children. He died at age 97.

My wife had a female ancestor that was excommunicated in the 17th century for attending a masquerade party where she was dressed as a man, and for dancing and walking around after 8 pm.

Really bad people, I'm so ashamed!



At that time period most folks didn't do much on the Sabbath. The Little House series has some good examples of the Sabbath rest.
 
He also was captured by the Union 3 times and was sent and swapped out of various prison camps. When he signed his allegiance, he signed Craylor instead of Traylor and bragged for years about how outsmarted those dumb Yankees hahaha ill have to find the articles about him i found.
 
My 7x great grandfather killed a doctor for unknown reasons and fled Virginia for North Carolina.

I have come across a story in my research of a distant cousin that had a falling out with his wife and killed her and then their three small children, committing suicide shortly thereafter.

That reminded me....I am distantly related to Charlie Lawson who was a family annihilator. Killed his whole family except for his oldest son and then committed suicide...on Christmas day. Someone wrote a song about it. Not a real close connection at all but we do have have a common ancestor. My connection to him was My gg grandfather Benjamin Floyd Lawson who served in the CSA with the 60th NC.
 
One of my ancestors in Tennessee was a counterfeiter. He drowned crossing a river on horseback and legend has it that his counterfeit plates weighed him down. That was about the 1840s, and no lie, the plates were of 3 dollar bills.

My avatar, Col. Marcellus Pointer, was accused of shooting prisoners in Georgia in April 1864. I've written over 5,000 words on my blog to dispel that charge, as well as identify a far more likely shooter, namely the man who actually set up the ambush that captured the prisoners. That particular LT was named in a newspaper article written by an eyewitness as having done the shooting, although the writer did not describe it as murder.
 
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