The Most Interesting Stories People Have Ever Learned About Their Ancestors

A Dark Past

"The Uncle of my grandfather was part of Hitler's personal SS Corps."

- Eichelhaeher-Hermann

"I have a friend whose uncle of a grandfather was a bodyguard of Hermann Göring."

"He lost both his legs after he messed up and was sent to the Russian front as punishment, but still praised Hitler and the Nazis until he died."

"I also have an SS grandfather who dug up human remains at the Swiss border in 1941."

"Some general advice here: Don't ask your German friends about their family history. You're gonna have a bad time."

- Monarch-Of-Jack

Ranch Hand for Theodore Roosevelt

"I don’t know the date’s exactly off the top of my head but they’re written down at home."

"My Great Grandfather (Grandma's dad) was born in the Black Hills Germany. He allegedly killed a German officer and went on the lam to the United States."

"He worked as a ranch hand for Theodore Roosevelt for some years before he married my Great Grandma. He was gifted a buffalo rifle from Roosevelt which was taken by one of grandmas brothers after their dad died."

- Anonymous_Whale1

For the Woman He Loves

"My great grandfather killed my great grandmother's suitor and kidnapped her a night before her wedding."

"Apparently in the region of South India I'm from, women used to pick their future husband off a lineup of men wishing to marry her."

"My great grandfather was rejected by my great grandmother, and so he went about executing the dude chosen by her and kidnapping her, which apparently was seen as an extremely macho move."

"My Grandfather was born in 1896 so the time period would've been around 1860-1880."

- Glock_and_Dagger

An Impressive Gift

"My great-grandfather lost one of his arms during WW1, and right after the war, he decided to ask my great-grandmother to marry him."

"To show her how much he loved her, he decided to give her a really nice pair of shoes from a good shoemaker who lived in the countryside, and cars were not that common at the time."

"He took his bike and rode 70 kilometers (43 miles) to the closest big city to get her a really nice pair of shoes and rode 70 kilometers back with the box on his lap to give it to her. WITH ONLY ONE ARM."

"Pretty romantic, but that's not the end of the story."

"The shoemaker f**ked up big time and gave him two left shoes by accident, so my great-grandpa took his bike the next day, and did the 70 kilometers back and forth to exchange one of the shoes."

"And they lived happily married ever after."

"Every time I tell the story to someone married, they look at their husband with disdain, which I find pretty funny (I never told the story to any of my girlfriends, though)."

- Albescents

Family Lineage

"If you trace my family line back far enough you get to Norwegian royalty. It's a second son of a third son, kind of thing."

- LoveDistinct

A Supportive Family

"I come from a VERY conservative family, and when I realized I was gay, it terrified me to come out. I came out to my mom and she didn’t have an easy time handling it, but within 48 hours, she was my best friend and a strong advocate."

"The turnaround was very strange. She also told me to never be scared to tell anyone in the family, which again seemed like being set up for failure. But it really wasn’t. Everyone was super supportive and kind and very defensive of me."

"For years I wondered why and then one day I was at a family do with my grandmother and her four sisters, the Matriarchs of each branch of the family and the five most terrifying but loving women you ever met."

"They pulled me aside and we’re VERY interested in how I was doing if anyone in the family had been mean to me, and if anyone had given me a hard time about being 'special' as they called it."

"I said no, surprisingly everyone in the family had been lovely. They didn’t ask any more questions but told me to come to them if anyone was being mean."

"This was so overwhelming to see these elderly, super-conservative women being so supportive, so I cornered my mom and demanded to know why they were so nice."

"Then my mom told me about Ravi. Ravi was a beautiful, charismatic, loving, kind, sweet teenager who was my grandmother and her sisters' best friend in the 1940s. He was allowed to hang out with the women because he was 'not a threat' (he was super gay but you didn’t talk about it)."

"My gran and her sisters absolutely adored Ravi, until one day his personality changed. He became dark and withdrawn. Eventually, he killed himself."

"My gran and her sisters were devastated and didn’t know why, until they found out that Ravi had fallen in love with a boy and his parents had figured out. Ravi’s parents destroyed him psychologically through isolation, berating and eventually questionable medical interventions. Ravi’s soul was broken so he took his life."

"My grand and her sisters never ever forgave their community or Ravi’s parents for what they did to him, so when my mother called my grandmother weeping and screaming that I was gay, my grandmother came down on her like a ton of bricks with all the power and might that she could muster. She told my mother that if I was ever treated differently, If I was ever isolated or bullied by a member of the family, they would have to face the consequences of dealing with grandmother and her sisters."

"Her sisters also told all their children to treat me with respect and love, all without me knowing, because they never wanted anyone to go through what their best most loved male friend had all those years ago."

"I owe my happiness to that man, fly free my brother, wherever you are."

- Astro493

Such a Punch Line

"My Great-Grandmother had two suitors: a man in America and a man in Manchester, UK."

"The guy in America bought her a ticket to cross the Atlantic and be with him, and she was set to go, but at the last minute, the guy in England proclaimed his love and won her over."

"And that’s how my great-grandparents got together, as opposed to my great-grandmother dying on The Titanic."

- BigRagu79

A Pirate's Life for Me

"My great great great great grandfather was abducted by pirates as a boy and raised as one… in Canada. They were river brigands. My mom has a book on him."

"Her parents were from Czechoslovakian and Germany though, so I’m not sure how that happened. I always told people I was part pirate, though."

- iluvgrannysmith

A Wild Story

"Great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Andrew threw rocks through his landlord's windows in Cork, jumped onto the next ship to Canada, started a farm on the Ottawa River, changed his surname to MacDonald so people would think he was Scottish, and imprisoned the tax collector in his cellar when they came to demand land taxes from him."

- ImperialistDog

Aerial Escape

"My grandad was an engineer for the British army in Egypt during World War Two."

"He and a buddy got drunk one time and slept in this small town, when they awoke they discovered the Germans had taken over the town. So they evaded capture and discovered an old plane that required maintenance, and the two ended up repairing the plane and flew it over German lines and into Allied territory."

- DeviousMelons

Wild, Wild West

"One of my ancestors was Curly Bill Brocious, the leader of the infamous Cowboys gang which fought against the Earps in and around Tombstone Arizona in the 1870s/80s."

"He was killed by Wyatt Earp himself by a shotgun blast that reportedly tore him in two."

- EppurSiMuove00

Family Trees

"My grandma (mother's side) was abandoned in an orphanage by my great-grandmother because she wanted to run off and marry another man, and he would not take her children. So my great grandfather, who was in the army during WW1, came to see them and promised to come back after the next battle. It was the somme, he died."

"The same grandmother did not know how old she was, by the time she obtained a copy of her birth certificate later in life, she found out she was a year older than she thought she was."

"My Dad's Grandfather was an advertising artist, semi-famous at the time, there is an original of his passed down in our family, it is with my dad's oldest brother now. It is of a boy running down a famous road in my northern city past a famous theatre still being used to this day."

- dracolibris

The Consequences of Love

"One of my great-grandmother’s grandma was an aristocrat. She fell in love with a peasant boy working on their lands. Her father told her he would disown her if she wanted to be with that boy. So one dark night the boy got my grandma escaped from their home and they ran away. Needless to say, she was disowned."

"And that’s the story of why I have to work now, instead of just seeing my monthly allowance show up on my bank account."

"Omnia vincit amor."

- Healthy_Chipmunk_990

Connections, Connections Everywhere

"My mom and my stepdad share an ancestor about four generations back."

"Also somewhere in this range, my great-[ex?]-grandma received a letter from her brother that had left Austria."

"He said, 'Come to America. If not for your sake, then for your children's sake.'"

" She talked her husband into it, they moved to the Midwest, and several generations later I was born."

- CrumblingInInverse

Anything's Possible

"I'm 34 but my paternal grandfather was born in 1895. He got shot through both knees sideways in Belgium during World War I then had to limp miles to safety... Sounds impossible but I have a newspaper article about it!"

"His brother also survived WWI, only to die in the Spanish flu pandemic. Sadly my grandfather died quite a while before I was born."

- Fit_Peanut_8801

It's amazing how far back some of our families go and how far back some families are able to trace their family's history. Knowing a little more about what our family has done can really tell us where we have been, so we can decide where we will go next.