Most shocking thing you have learned about your ancestors?

[Reecedouglas1]

Most shocking for me was that my great great grandfather was in jail for robbery.

 

[bradl]

Mine among others had their citizenship (something they had for 120 years) stripped from them, in the "name of tribal sovereignty", which is still in direct violation of the treaty between our tribe and the United States; a legal battle that is still going on to this day.

BL.

 

[ejb190]

That most of the family history passed down though the generations was wrong...

 

[MacInTO]

The were cavemen. 😱😛

 

[Juicy Box]

I found out recently that my Great-grandfather, who was dead before I was born, ran his own speakeasy during the 1920's prohibition, and it made him very wealthy.

My Great-Grandmother, also died before I was born, was born before the American Civil War. That just seems like such a long time ago.

EDIT: I am 35 yo for perspective.....

 

[Stefan johansson]

Many of mine where infantrymen,serving in different wars 300-400 years ago.

 

[Huntn]

My ancestry in the U.S. goes back to 1630, New Haven, Ct. but I am unaware of anything shocking. My wife who does not know who her Grandather was on her Mom's side and has been researching her past and has discovered many interesting things including being related to many of the country's forefathers and including incest which is more common than you might believe, and it does not have to be father daughter, but could be grandfather and neice, besides families marrying into each other's families repeatedly which happened where there were small communities.

Although my tree is fleshed out more than most, I've been threatening to get a paid subscription to Ancestry.com and do a little research and see if there is anyone famous. 🙂

 

[SoggyCheese]

That they were fish. That's pretty amazing though when you think about it 🙂

Or the other thing, that we're pretty much all descended from Pharoahs.

 

[Roller]

That they were fish. That's pretty amazing though when you think about it 🙂

Or the other thing, that we're pretty much all descended from Pharoahs.

Fish? I can trace my ancestry back to a proto-organism about 4 billion years ago. 🙂

"The Light of Other Days," which was co-authored by Arthur C. Clarke, explores this theme. A central tenet is that someone invents a wormhole-based technology that permits viewing of anything in spacetime, including the remote past.

 

[rdowns]

My great-grandmother was a moonshiner during Prohibition.