Interesting stuff MD...
Personally, I don't know about any personal family skeletons, my parents have always censored their past to the degree that they evidently were perfect. I have been chipping away, though...
A few rather interesting (to me) tidbits about my family :
- On my mother's side, my great-grandmother, who was a Swiss missonary in Japan, married a Shogun, who became my great grandfather. My mother has a great picture of the two of them, with him in full armor/get-up. It is one of those great brown-and-white photos of the early ages of photography. I am not sure whether my g-grandfather was actually a governor (one meaning of shogun), or merely militarily related, one day I might do some digging...the family name was/is Nakano, which from what I gather is almost like Smith in Japan.
- Also on my mothers side (and related to above), in the early 1940's the Government came in the middle of the night and took away my grandfather (as a japanese-american) to a internment camp in Idaho. My grandmother was kicked off her farm, as the family assets and land were seized by the government, and left with her 14 children. Fortunately, many of the older boys were able to work to support the family, as the 1940's were not exactly easy for a middle-aged woman to get a job. My mother got a check for $25K from Clinton in the mid-90's and a written apology, as did all her siblings. My grandmother got around $200K. Better late than never. Also, my grandfather met quite a few interesting people in the camp, including a rather famous furniture-designer and architect. At my parents house, they have some great silk-screens and furniture that attest to this legacy of friendship.
- On my father's side, before he married my mother, he was evidently quite the ladies-man. Evidently, he got involved with a member of the Vanderbilt family and eventually got her pregnant. The family invited him over and payed him off (I do not know the amount), never to show his face again. So I have a half-sister who is a Vanderbilt and about six years older than I am.
I know, not that cool...
Personally, I don't know about any personal family skeletons, my parents have always censored their past to the degree that they evidently were perfect. I have been chipping away, though...
A few rather interesting (to me) tidbits about my family :
- On my mother's side, my great-grandmother, who was a Swiss missonary in Japan, married a Shogun, who became my great grandfather. My mother has a great picture of the two of them, with him in full armor/get-up. It is one of those great brown-and-white photos of the early ages of photography. I am not sure whether my g-grandfather was actually a governor (one meaning of shogun), or merely militarily related, one day I might do some digging...the family name was/is Nakano, which from what I gather is almost like Smith in Japan.
- Also on my mothers side (and related to above), in the early 1940's the Government came in the middle of the night and took away my grandfather (as a japanese-american) to a internment camp in Idaho. My grandmother was kicked off her farm, as the family assets and land were seized by the government, and left with her 14 children. Fortunately, many of the older boys were able to work to support the family, as the 1940's were not exactly easy for a middle-aged woman to get a job. My mother got a check for $25K from Clinton in the mid-90's and a written apology, as did all her siblings. My grandmother got around $200K. Better late than never. Also, my grandfather met quite a few interesting people in the camp, including a rather famous furniture-designer and architect. At my parents house, they have some great silk-screens and furniture that attest to this legacy of friendship.
- On my father's side, before he married my mother, he was evidently quite the ladies-man. Evidently, he got involved with a member of the Vanderbilt family and eventually got her pregnant. The family invited him over and payed him off (I do not know the amount), never to show his face again. So I have a half-sister who is a Vanderbilt and about six years older than I am.
I know, not that cool...
