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.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

These stories were told to me by my parents when they were alive, so I know they are true.  My parents were born in America, both with parents who emigrated from Italy.  It was on my dad's side.

His father, my grandfather, who died when I was 4, during prohibition, provided liquor to the mob in NJ.  The family, my grandfather, grandmother, father, and 3 sisters, lived in an apartment house in Newark, NJ.  The mob wanted him to join, but he declined.  I understand that you don't usually decline to join (because they kill you since you could identify them), but they let my grandfather not join because he provided such superior liquor.

Every Sunday, my grandmother would take the 4 children out after the Sunday afternoon dinner.  They had to stay out for 3 hours.  Of course, the children never knew why they were out that long.  It wasn't until my dad was a grownup that he found out what went on.  There would be several black cars that would circle the block a few times, then they'd go around back & load everything up, which I guess took quite a while, then leave, and at the appointed time, my grandmother would bring the children home.

My grandfather was an alcoholic, and he met his end when he was visiting his sister in Philadelphia.  It was summer, and the apartments were hot, so they had the windows open.  He was drunk and sitting on the windowsill on the second floor, fell out, and died.

Also, my father's aunt and uncle owned the farm that became the runways for Laguardia Airport in NYC.  My dad remembered going to visit them in the summer when he was a kid, and remembered when they sold the farm so the airport could begin construction.

My dad was an electrician in the Navy in WWII.  He was on a destroyer, which he always called a "tin can."  Once when they were in the Pacific, the gunners on one of the big guns got shot, there was nobody at the gun, and there was a Japanese plane flying right towards them, so my dad and another man ran over to the gun and shot the plane down before it could crash into the ship.  Did they get honored?  No, the two of them were thrown in the brig for deserting their posts during an attack.

[Welsh Wench]

That's a great story, Renee!

All of these stories...it makes history come alive.
I love reading them. They make us who we are today.

The drunk domine of mine? The farm he and his wife had in Manhattan is now Wall Street and Broadway.

[Sitara]

My great-grandmother and her entire family came to the U.S. on the Lusitania.The very next trip the ship took, she was sunk by a German U-boat.

[Merlin the Elder]

My cousin was a world-class economist and banker. While serving as president of the United California Bank in Basel, Switzerland, the bank went broke as the result of huge losses while speculating in the cocoa market. Paul and several others ended up in Swiss prison. As you know, Swiss banking laws are very strict.

While in prison awaiting trial, he wrote a book. He also decided that he'd prefer not being in the dungeon, so he had all of his property held as collateral for bail, and was released. Gathering his wife and two daughters, they fled to England with only those possessions they could carry. He got his novel into the right hands through a friend of his, and a new co-career was born. His first five books all reached the NY Times #1 position.  One of his books, The Swiss Account, has been mentioned by some as the catalyst that started the action for the repatriation of fortunes to Jewish survivors and descendents of the Holocaust.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Paul, although I knew his mom (my aunt) and his dad. Even though he was my first cousin, he was considerably older, and was hanging with people who were/are filthy rich. Stephen King is my favourite author, but cousin Paul Erdman is my second fave. He makes economics fun with his financial world thrillers.

One scary note about Paul's writing: he predicted much of the pain and woes in the banking industry.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Thought of something for my mom's side.

After she died, I was going through her stuff & found passports and ship's tickets for my grandfather and grandmother.  I had thought they came to Ellis Island, but they actually landed in Boston from Italy.  My grandfather, whose name was James Deseno, had on his passport "Vincenzo DiSieno."

I asked my uncle (who named his son Vincent) why Poppy's name was wrong, it was supposed to be James, and I had 2 other cousins named after him.

My uncle replied that my grandfather hardly spoke English and was illiterate.  When he was trying to tell the U.S. Immigration man his name, evidently the man couldn't understand him, so the Immigration man told him, "You're in America now. Your name is James Deseno" and that's what he put down.  My grandfather figured this was America and the man must be correct, so he put his X on the document and thus became James Deseno.

[Mairte]

Renee, members of my family had something similiar when they came to Ellis (sp?) Island. Many of my ancestors had already been in the USA for a very long time but this particular branch's name is SUPPOSED to be O'Hegarty instead, the officials wrote it down as Haggerty.
I love everybodys stories!!!!  History brought to life is fascinating.

[Welsh Wench]

Adultery is alive and well in Rhode Island in 1685....in the story of my ancestress Ann Hill Tallman.

In May 1665, Peter Tallman filed for divorce from his wife Ann Hill Tallman, accusing her of adultery. In the Puritan colonies, adultery was a capital offense, though seldom punished to the full degree of the law. In Rhode Island, as well, adultery was a serious offense, but it was not punishable by death.

According to the testimony in court, Ann Tallman wrote a letter to Peter Tallman informing him that her youngest daughter was not his. After hearing the letter read to her, Ann confessed to adultery. The court sentenced her to a fine of ten pounds and ordered that she be whipped. She was to receive fifteen lashes in Portsmouth, and the following week, fifteen lashes in Newport. She requested mercy of the court. In considering her petition, the Assembly asked if she was willing to reconcile with her husband, "to which her answer was, that she would rather cast herselfe on the mercy of God if he take away her life, than to returne".

That certainly makes Tallman sound as though he were hard to live with. With Tallman's frequent travel to New Amsterdam for business and the other host cities of colonial government, Newport, Warwick and Providence; it is clear that Ann Tallman was home alone a good portion of the year. This may have loosened her marriage bonds enough to risk the significant dangers of adultery.

Ann Tallman was sent to jail to await the carrying out of her sentence, but she escaped and fled to her brother in Virginia. In 1667, she returned to the colony and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Rather than being punished for her escape, she was rewarded. Her fine was forgiven and her sentence was cut in half. Instead of fifteen lashes in Portsmouth and Newport, she would only be whipped in Newport. This must have reduced her humiliation. The people of Portsmouth had been her friends and neighbors for the seven years before her divorce. Although she had lived in Newport for eight years, time had passed. It had to be better to receive her punishment in front of relative strangers. The decision of the Assembly may have been made out of consideration for Peter Tallman. It is unlikely that he wanted a public reminder of his unhappy marriage.

So...can I get a big scarlet A for the little lady? Why she put it on writing I will never understand unless it was the ultimate, 'Oh yeah? By the way..youngest kid? NOT YOURS!'
Seeing that I am descended from the daughter in question, I can be pretty well sure that Peter Tallman is not my ancestor.

But whose boots were under her bed?  

[Mairte]

Welsh Wench, did she never leave even the slightest hint who might be the father of the youngest?
Mystery, I love it!

[Welsh Wench]

From research I have seen, there was an indentured servant named Thomas Durfree, age 17, in the employment of the Tallman household.

From the Court of Records of May 11, 1668--

A year later, Ann and Thomas were brought to court again. Court of Trials records of 11 May 1668 stated:

Upon and Indictment against Thomas Dorfie for Fornication, he being mandamassed [i.e. served with a writ of mandamus] and in Court called, did not apeere yet after apeering and under his hand owneinge Guilty the Court doe sentence him to be whipt with 15 stripes in the Town of Portsm or pay a fine of forty shills to the Genrl Treasury, and pay court fees".

The very next entry reads:

Ann late wife of peter Talman being Indicted for Fornication and beinge in Court Cald did not apeere the Court doe juge her Guilty of the Charge. The Court doe sentence her this beinge her second offence to be twice whipt according to law or pay a fine of Fower pounds and pay Court fees.

OMG SHE WAS CONSORTING WITH THE HIRED HELP!

She was 33....hello, Mrs. Robinson!

[Mairte]

LOL, she was well ahead of her time!

[Mairte]

My dad, one of my sisters and I were talking about heritage and how one of the far back "greats" grandmothers, last name of Bailey came from an estate in Ireland.
This is on my fathers side (have Irish on both parents sides). Turns out Bailey was her married name and she was originally from Scotland and her maiden name was Stuart. I was totally unaware of having any Scottish ancestory so it was interesting to find out! 

[Taffy Saltwater]

My family came from Spain via Mexico and settled northern New Mexico with the Onate party in 1598, having celebrated the first European Thanksgiving in North America in April (I believe) of the same year.  Take that, Pilgrims!  Asencio de Archuleta fought at the Battle of Acoma, where he accidentally shot a fellow soldier and the native Acomans came off very badly indeed, losing something like 800 men.  He was also one of the founders of the city of Santa Fe, NM. Our family were also early settlers in Colorado.  One who married into the family (but not a direct progenitor) was one of the assassins of French explorer La Salle and another, Tom Tobin, (again not a direct progenitor) who was a scout for Kit Carson.

Part of the reward from the Spanish Crown for the Onate settlers is that they were to be named "Hidalgo" (minor nobility).  The papers setting the title in place has never been located and it is unknown if the title would be for only the first couple of generations (i.e., to the grandchildren) or hold in perpetuity for all following descendants.

My favorite story was of one of my grandmothers (and w/o looking at my records I don't recall which one) during the time after the Mexican American War and Tejanos were invading New Mexico, stealing land from the Spanish landholders.  They would fence off an area and claim it as their own.  She would squat over the fence hole, thus making it impossible to fence off the family land.  They're still not too crazy about Tejanos in New Mexico.