Interesting old family "stories"?

[Mairte]

I have two....now remember, these stories have SO many years between THEN and NOW that likely we will never know the complete truth of it.
However, they HAVE been passed down generation to generation, so make good STORIES.
First one is on the Czechoslovakian part of the family. The same land has supposedly been in our family for 500 years. There is still family living on it and its common to go back and forth to visit every couple of years. The old stone house and barn still stand.
Anyway, SUPPOSEDLY my ancestors were knights that guarded the border. Since I was small, I have heard all sorts of short stories about the different "knights",lol. There is a hill on the property where they are buried. It reminds me of the King Arthur story because it is said that in times of trouble these knights will rise up to defend. Again, I know much if not all of it is lost in the translation but its still fun.
The second "story" is probably even more dubious than the first but still one I have listened too since I was a little girl begging for stories. 
Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back, an ancestor of mine was said to have married a Tuatha De Danaan woman.(Google it if you arent familiar with the term. Its interesting!) And it is claimed that is why there are sometimes certain "abilities" passed down. All those little stories would make a book too.
Some that would raise the hair on the back of your neck, odd things with no concrete explaination.
So? What are YOUR old family legends? You know, the ones that cant be proved but cant be disproved either? 

[Magpie Flynn]

First a family ghost story:
My Great Great Aunt was about to go through her confirmation in the Lutheran church and along with the new white dress her mother made her she wanted a pair of new white shoes to wear. They were a poor farming family, but promised to save some money so she could have the shoes for her special day. Unfortunately, my gg aunt got very sick and passed away before her confirmation. Her parents laid her out in her confirmation gown but buried her with her regular black shoes rather than the white shoes, which they had not yet purchased. Again, being poor they did not see reason spending money on a new pair of shoes just to bury them in the ground. The night after they buried her, they heard a moaning from outside the cabin, "I want my white shoes! I want my white shoes!". Frightened, they reasoned it must surely be the wind and their imaginations. But, the moaning returned for the next three nights each time asking for the shoes. Finally, the family had had enough, went out, bought a pair of white shoes and buried them at the girl's gravesite. And from that point on, they never heard the voice again.

Second an unsolved murder:
My great grandfather was a night watchman at the lumber mill in Pembroke, Ontario. The night before my grandfathers birthday (In the winter), my great grandfather went to work as usual, but when morning came he had disappeared. No one knew where he was or what happened to him, and while it was possible he had just skipped town it seemed unlikely for his character. When the ice thawed in the spring several months later, they found his body. It didn't seem that he had been robbed as his pocket watch and other effects were still on his person. They think he may have come across a band of drifters on his rounds and possibly gotten into a fight with them where he was hit with a blunt object and dumped into the river.

Last a angelic visit:
When my great grandfather on my grandmothers side died of a heart attack, my gram (great grandmother) didn't know what to do. They were living in Detroit but were originally from Pembroke, so she didn't know whether to stay in the states or go back to be with family up north. One night while she was laying in bed, she smelled lilies and at the foot of her bed was a bright, robed individual who simply said, "Do not worry, all will be well". She decided to move back to Pembroke. As she and my grandmother were leaving, they drove past the cemetery where my great grandfather was buried and a breeze swept through the taxi. Even the taxi driver felt it and exclaimed, "Wow did you feel that?" to which my Gram replied, "Oh it's just Arthur saying goodbye".

[Becky10]

When my grandpa was really little he walked infront of the St. Valentine's Day massacre just as they were going in and began the shooting. He ran down the block and hid in an alley way. Clint Eastwood, before he got to Hollywood, used to do those door to door photos with the ponies and came took one of my uncle. My other grandpa was in the Navy and their ship caught fire so he was unloaded off the ship into one of those rings with the floats on them and spent 5 days drifting in the ocean waiting for someone to come find them. Finally another boat came along and picked them up, we have a letter he wrote to my great grandma after this. My great uncle was some major Hollywood producer in the 30's but for the life of me I can never remember who haha, I need to pay more attention to these stories.

[Mairte]

I have a couple bit more recent ones I was thinking of too.
When my family first came to homestead here, sometimes when they had to go get supplies, it could take a couple days of travel. My grandpa was 10 years old and going on the trip for the first time with his father. A day into this, my great grandfather took sick so stayed at the campsite while the little boy continued on for the next day to go and get the supplies. He DID it but I just cant imagine!
One branch of Irish ancestors came over on a smaller boat than was common. A baby died along the way, they threw the dead child out into the ocean rather than risk whales knocking into the boat. For some reason, they thought the dead flesh would attract whales.
Magpie, Becky, I LOVE your stories!! 

[Welsh Wench]

My ancestress Ruhamah Jones--to say she was termpermental is an understatement!

"Cape Cod's Way" by Scott Corbett, pages 151 and 152, recount "...a beautiful she-devil who lived near Muddy Cove in East Harwich. Whites and Indians alike took to the woods when she went on the warpath, and tried desperately to give her no cause for offense, because she had a habit of jumping up and down on an offender's fresh laundry or pulling everything in that person's garden.

One fine Sabbath day she got into an argument with her sisters-in-law and a pitched battle resulted---this in 1678, when the Court was inclined to take a very dim view of disturbances on the Sabbath. Anyone else would probably would have been whipped, but this lady was only fined and given the promise of a whipping if she did not watch her step. Before she could have been whipped, someone would have had to fetch her, and undoubtedly nobody was anxious to draw that assignment.

Thirty two years later she was still going strong. One day she got into a quarrel with Mr. Edward Bangs, a prominent resident of the North Parish, and in no time at all his barn was a cinder. Though no one had actually seen her set the fire, she was arrested along with her son and bound over for trial. This was not her only fall from grace since the family brawl. Five years before she had peddled a little fire water to the indians and been fined for doing so.

When the trial for arson was held, the son was acquitted upon payment of fees amounting to eight pounds. The mother did not bother to show up at all and her poor husband, who must have been the most patient and downrodden of all Cape Cod males, had to forfeit fifty pounds of bail money. But again, nobody cared to fetch the hellion.

This doughty dame lived to a ripe old age. Fortunately, for local gardeners, she was confined to her chair during her later years. She died sitting, and had been in the position for so long that it proved simpler to bury her that way than to straighten her out.

[Mairte]

Welsh Wench, I LOVE it!!!  She sounds like QUITE the interesting personality.
Another small story I was told was that my ancestors poached rabbits off the local Lords land. I suppose it was a good thing they were never caught.

[Lady Christina de Pond]

family mystery

in my teens i started to wonder if we were kin to a famous outlaw my mothers maiden name and his was the same well my aunt started doing some research on the family tree but after a few generations she came to a dead end.
it is now believed that the person it ended with actually changed the last name via one letter because he had left town actually a town over from here because he killed someone so apparently famous or not there is an outlaw in my family
we will never truely know

[The Rabbi]

My family is one of shall we say fine ill repute. My great great uncle or so not real sure on the GG s worked as a traveling medicine man until settling down just outside of Nauvoo illinoise. He proceeded to open a mercantile of sorts. His accounting books of which he kept decent records. On Monday the store was closed so that he might replenish supplies which included the stealing of horses for his corral so that he might hold a horse auction on Tuesdays. Transactions indicate that he was capable of selling a man his own horse after having stole it the night before. On Wed. & Thu.  he would pull teeth and administer his somewhat dubiouse medicine to those in need. Fri. & Sat. the bar and brothel were open and on Sunday he preached the gospel all from the same building. Aunt Joyce may she rest in peace was a lady of the night who through her actions purchased five houses for poor families, donated untold amounts of money to help others in need and assisted in the rebuilding of a church all from being a prostitute. Aunt Joyce did not do these things to save her soul or make pennance she done them as they were the right thing to do with the excess money. She died penniless with a few people at her funeral The preacher whose church she had helped rebuild stood by my side and threatened to whoop the undertaker as I placed a bottle of beer in her coffin which he had blessed.  honoring such deeds I am the only person which I know that has recieved a ticket for sppeding, reckless driving,and driving under the influence, from the base of a taxidermied Grizzly Bear. Oh i also had an open container at the time.

[Mairte]

Lady Christina de Pond and The Rabbi, GREAT ones!!!! 
Lady Christina, this isnt my bloodline but my four oldest children are related in some way to John Wesley Hardin.

[Welsh Wench]

My ninth generation great grandfather was the domine (preacher) in the First Reformed Dutch Church in what is now Manhattan. He had been in trouble before for being drunk on the pulpit.
One night he went to visit a parishioner and they got drunk. The parishioner wanted to show his new cannon off that was on the roof. They stumbled up there and as the parishioner lit the fuse to show what it could do, my grandfather drunkenly fell against it.
It swung over, started a fire and burned the parishioner's house down!

He was on his way to Holland to answer some charges brought against him and was drowned in a shipwreck in the Bristol Channel in 1647.

His wife was arrested for 'indecent exposure' because she lifted her skirt to cross a puddle, thereby exposing her ankles.
Unfortunately she did this in front of a blacksmith shop.
Kind of like the neighborhood gas station, I guess!

[DonaCatalina]

I'm not sure I want to know the full story of my GG-Grandfather, but I am curious. I know he was in the 6th Georgia Cavalry, and when the rest of the unit surrendered he and some cousins left for Texas, leaving his wife and children in Alabama. He didn't resurface again until 1875 when they were all living together again in Navarro County, Texas. I have his Model 1873 Winchester rifle and black leather saddle scabbard. There are 7 notches carved in the wooden stock and none of my family would tell me about them. Now they are all gone and the story of what he did between 1866 and 1874 is lost forever.

[Mairte]

Dona, at least you got some information passed down? Though I am sure you would be intrigued to find out what happened those "lost" years....
My GG grandfather fought for the north, all I know is that he was infantry and the family has some sort of bayonet of his?
Another military member of the family just disappeared. He fought in world war 2 and his mother was supposed to meet him at the bus stop. He never showed and was never heard from again.

[Amyj]

LOVE this thread!  Family stories are the most interesting part of genealogy to me!!!
My family "stories":
On my Mom's side of the family, I am related to Cole and James Younger (of the Jesse James gang fame).  I later worked at a financial institution with a girl who is related to Frank and Jesse James!!!  Go figure!

On my Dad's side I'm related (something like 3rd cousin 3 times removed?) to Walter Cronkite.  My twin cousins got to have brunch with Walter and his "Lady Friend" at his townhouse a few years before he died.  My Dad's parents were at Walter's wedding to Betsy Maxwell (she's the relative I'm linked through).  My grandmother actually had to run out and buy Betsy a white bra since she showed up to the church in a navy dress (and matching undergarment) and couldn't wear said undergarment with her white wedding dress!

I had an ancestor who came to America from Heidelberg Germany as an indentured servant.  He found religion and when he was free he became a travelling preacher.

There are more, but these are the only ones that are actually verified/documented that I can think of right off the top of my head.

[Adriana Rose]

My Grandpa's family once owned Three Mile Island. He remembers swimming across the Susqwahana to help at the old farm stead wich is where the reactors sit today. He has the picture of the way it was and then with the plant its very interesting.

My GGG grandfather was a blacksmith around the time of the Civil War and he made it all the way trough in one piece. Then a while after he got back he fell off a roof and cut himself. He got tetnus and unfourtunatly it moved into lockjaw and he passed. I think its rather ironic that he made it through war and then died shortly after he got home.

[Welsh Wench]

My great great grandfather was a POW at the seige of Vicksburg. I have a copy of his Oath of Allegiance papers where he signed that he would never take up arms against the United States again.
His daughter married a man whose father was in the same battle--but a Yankee. (my great grandparents)

I also have a map dated 1803 which shows every plantation along the Mississippi in St Charles and St John the Baptist parish.  I am a direct descendant from five of them and have stood on their land and overlooked the River where they gazed over 200 years ago.