Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[tonyb]

I wear as a badge of honor (or something) that my maternal grandfather was a product of an incestuous union. If offspring resulting from couplings between such closely related persons are at higher risk of birth anomalies or developmental disabilities, well, he showed no sign of it. Some might suggest that it shows up in such offspring's grandchildren. And 10,000 comedians are out of work.

 

[Zombie_61]

...For some reason, I don't even find genealogy remotely interesting - I, one, doubt its accuracy for a number of reasons (record keeping was slipshod at best and, as noted in an earlier post, a lot of things happened "off the books.")...

I'm proof of that. I was adopted, but it was definitely an "off the books" event. So if someone were to trace my genealogy strictly by available documentation, it would be inaccurate from the first step.

Sorry Lizzie but the way you express yourself is very funny at times. Please know that I think very highly of you. Not that it means anything to you of what I think. But I cherish every time you post on any subject.

I agree. Additionally, I've learned more history from reading Miss Lizzie's posts than I ever learned in school.

 

[Stearmen]

Furthest back I've been able to trace in my own family is one Mary Eastey, who was hung for witchcraft in Salem as one of Cotton Mather's "eight firebrands of hell" on September 22, 1692, and of whom I'm a direct descendant. Not quite a DAR or Mayflower Society pedigree, but much more my style.

I found this quote about poor Mary: "She was a kind, religious woman whose dignified demeanor fit the strict Puritan mold." http://historyofmassachusetts.org/mary-easty-salem/

 

[2jakes]

....I've learned more history from reading Miss Lizzie's posts than I ever learned in school.

You are aware that there will be an exam & she
can be a very tough cookie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sit up straight in your chair and spit out that gum, or you'll get a ruler acrost the knuckles.

 

[Zombie_61]

Sit up straight in your chair and spit out that gum, or you'll get a ruler acrost the knuckles.

Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Sit up straight in your chair and spit out that gum, or you'll get a ruler acrost the knuckles.

Now, now. Nun of that...

 

[Trenchfriend]

Woohoo, this morning I comprehended, that my nice digital radio-controlled alarm-clock in the bedroom will be 20 years old, this Christmas! I got it for Christmas 1996, when I was 12.

This good old devices had still the solid 90's electronic. Not the cheaper electronic-crap of the following 2000's.

 

[2jakes]

Cleaning up the spare room, I found my pomade which I lost in 1963.

I used it this morning to lube the gears on my bike with great results.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@2jakes
Yeah, Memphis, Tennessee!

 

[BobHufford]

Woohoo, this morning I comprehended, that my nice digital radio-controlled alarm-clock in the bedroom will be 20 years old, this Christmas! I got it for Christmas 1996, when I was 12.

This good old devices had still the solid 90's electronic. Not the cheaper electronic-crap of the following 2000's.

I have a Sony clock radio from the early 1980s that still works great except the buttons to change the time are so worn that I can only go "up". If I want to set my alarm earlier I have to wrap around to the correct time.

 

[belfastboy]

Sit up straight in your chair and spit out that gum, or you'll get a ruler acrost the knuckles.

I was educated in the public school system in the 50's and I take great delight in telling my grand nephews that ..."In my day it was legal for teachers to hit you." The only time the line was crossed was if/when they drew blood, apparently only that was tooo far.

 

[belfastboy]

My disturbing discovery was finding out my paternal grandfather was a cad of the first order. While sifting through family heirlooms, letters and pictures I came across a sweet love letter penned by grandpop to Daisy. I was wonderfully written and full of espressions of love....except she was the sister to my then pregnant grandmother to be. Whilst he was impregnating Mimi he was also romancing her sister Daisy. He did not marry either of them, enlisting in the Black Watch deciding that WW1 and the trenches of the Somme were preferable to facing the wrath of the two sisters. My father was then adopted by his grandparents and Dad dropped down a generation as his aunts and uncles become sisters and brothers.

 

[sheeplady]

My disturbing discovery was finding out my paternal grandfather was a cad of the first order. While sifting through family heirlooms, letters and pictures I came across a sweet love letter penned by grandpop to Daisy. I was wonderfully written and full of espressions of love....except she was the sister to my then pregnant grandmother to be. Whilst he was impregnating Mimi he was also romancing her sister Daisy. He did not marry either of them, enlisting in the Black Watch deciding that WW1 and the trenches of the Somme were preferable to facing the wrath of the two sisters. My father was then adopted by his grandparents and Dad dropped down a generation as his aunts and uncles become sisters and brothers.

Of my great-uncles married the kid sister of his ex-wife. His ex-wife ran around on him while he was in Korea, while the sister (his second wife) wrote to him every week. He waited until he was divorced over a year from the eldest sister and the youngest sister was 18 before he took his eventual second wife out on a date.

Despite the fact that my uncle and great-aunt were married the rest of their lives and stood beside each other through thick and thin most of his siblings thought their marriage was... in poor taste at best and horrible at worst. They'd actually talk about how *they married each other* (gasp) at the same time talking about *how horrid the ex-wife was.*

 

[HudsonHawk]

It was not uncommon, at least in the South, for a widower to marry his wife's younger sister. This was especially true if Little Sister was still fairly young and could bear children. If a man was widowed early in life, it was almost expected that he simply went to the next sister on the list. My great-great grandfather did this, as did his brother. There is another instance of this on the other side of the family.

 

[Fading Fast]

My disturbing discovery was finding out my paternal grandfather was a cad of the first order. While sifting through family heirlooms, letters and pictures I came across a sweet love letter penned by grandpop to Daisy. I was wonderfully written and full of espressions of love....except she was the sister to my then pregnant grandmother to be. Whilst he was impregnating Mimi he was also romancing her sister Daisy. He did not marry either of them, enlisting in the Black Watch deciding that WW1 and the trenches of the Somme were preferable to facing the wrath of the two sisters. My father was then adopted by his grandparents and Dad dropped down a generation as his aunts and uncles become sisters and brothers.

We had a thread (link below) going for awhile on all the "scandalous" behavior of our Golden Era relatives (my grandmother, as you'll read in the first post, carried on a multi-decade affair with the husband of a couple she was very friendly with).

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/shocking-stories-about-your-golden-era-relatives.80658/

 

[tonyb]

It was not uncommon, at least in the South, for a widower to marry his wife's younger sister. This was especially true if Little Sister was still fairly young and could bear children. If a man was widowed early in life, it was almost expected that he simply went to the next sister on the list. My great-great grandfather did this, as did his brother. There is another instance of this on the other side of the family.

Happened all the time. We moderns, with our communications and transportation technologies carrying us hither and yon, might lose sight of just how "local" life was in generations past. My wife and I speculate how far back we might have to look before coming upon a common ancestor. We both are descended in part from people who came over from the Cologne area at roughly the same time.

 

[MisterCairo]

I know who Skinny Minnie Miller is.

 

[sheeplady]

There's a joke in my mother's family that we are related to a Count So-and-So. My mother called me one day all excited because she found on the internet that my grandmother's (common) middle name was the same as the first name of the count's wife. So I was related to royalty.

I almost fell off my chair laughing. This is the same family that had their barn burnt down by the FBI for an illegal still.

My grandmother was one of 12 children. I think they were starting to run out of names.

 

[Zombie_61]

There's a joke in my mother's family that we are related to a Count So-and-So. My mother called me one day all excited because she found on the internet that my grandmother's (common) middle name was the same as the first name of the count's wife. So I was related to royalty...