Have you uncovered any surprises while researching your family history?

[Kris10]

Are you related to anyone famous (or infamous)? Share your family history finds in this poll.

[MrKhay]

Vincent Kartheiser...actor, "Angel" tv series, and a show on A&E about pushing cigarettes back in the 40's... I also have some wealthy relatives in Europe...Germany and Luxembourg.

[Terimarie]

oh,yes there is gangest on one side and the other side is native american and England royla kings and queen's..I have got back as far as 1400 on mom's side.But dad's side is a bit harder to find because they were Jewish.
Terimarie

[pk]

My cousin Olin Rusti, (on my mother's side) did alot of the hand carvings on a building in the Little Norway Settlement, in Wisconsin.

My sister has spent years doing extensive reserch in our family history dating back into the 1300's. Way back (I could get the dates, names etc. and post later), on my mother's side in Norway she found several dukes, earls, and a King.

I always thought that my mother would have been famous but with family obligations wasn't able to further her singing. But way back many, many years ago.. (before I was even born!) she and her brothers formed a country band called the Cliffnotes. (there last name was Cliff). They use to sing all the time at dances. She use to also write a lot of the songs. A well known radio station out of Chicago, WLS, wanted to give them a contract to travel but she was married at the time and couldn't travel.

She did become a piano teacher and taught for over 50 years and was in the Music Hall of Fame for having so many Piano Graduates.

My mother's oldest brother use to hand crave beautiful violins and sell them. A few I believe may be in a museum.

The elderly cousin that taught him to make violins also made beautiful violins and has one on display in a museum near Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.

[geri_s]

I have a few, which I have kept trying to verify as fact, and I have old documents proving it. The first one was my great-great Uncle Norman Lilley. He was from a cavalry unit out of Wisconsin. He was from Weyauwega, and was taken prisoner, was sent to a notorious prison camp during the Civil War, and actually made it home alive. I think the camp was Rock Island or something like that.

Next, my great -grandmother's name was Angie McCoy. She was from the Tennessee/Kentucky borderline, and was a member of one of the clans that were legendary for it's fighting, the Hatfield's and McCoys. ( No wonder everyone in my family argue all the time!!!)

Last one, and my favorite, my grandmother's best friend in elementary school was Evelyn Frechette, later to be known as Billie, the girlfriend of John Dillinger. My grandmother went to school with her at the Menominee Tribal School, even though my grandmother was not Native American, but her family( the McCoy side) lived in the town of Red Springs. A few days before the big shoot-out at Little Bohemia, my grandfather waited in his car by the five & dime store in Clintonville, John Dillinger was waiting across the street, sticking out like a sore thumb in a black new shiny car, which wasn't seen in many of these parts back in the depression days era. Billie and my grandma were in the store, talking, and catching up on what had been going on. They weren't there long, because of the fear of being noticed, but my grandfather always said he will remember how John Dillinger looked; he said he was like a rich, dapper gentleman, the way he was dressed in a pinstriped suit, and spats and a fedora. Imagine, my grandparents knew when a most wanted man was around. They were dirt poor and could have used the reward, but never told a soul. My grandma loved her friend, and always told me how bad she felt about Billie's life turning out like it did. I believe this did happen, as I had seen photos of my grandma and Billie from school together, and my grandfather was a simple, honest, hardworking man, who I don't think would make something up like that.