Crazy Genealogy Findings?

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by ansible90

Whenever I hear these family stories, I wonder how people find them. Are you getting them from newspaper articles or some other source? I feel lucky to find a birth date or other mundane fact.

When the stories are actually criminal there are often (not always) records. Newspaper or jail record.

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by ansible90

Whenever I hear these family stories, I wonder how people find them. Are you getting them from newspaper articles or some other source? I feel lucky to find a birth date or other mundane fact.

I looked in this thread to see if I told the story but am not seeing it. It must have been in another thread.

I happened to get lucky with one, some info was on the relatives find a grave that he shot his daughters husband. That lead me to google, where I found the gal that runs their find a grave profiles had blogged about the family. She's not related but she's done a lot of research on my grandfathers brothers.

Basically, one of my grandfathers brothers tried to kill his brothers wife to put her out of her misery. She suffered from chronic pain. Instead he blinded her. Her husband ended up passing a few years later from cancer. The shooter ended up dying in a mental hospital; his body was donated to science. The last surviving brother ended up putting a gun to his head. I believe he was the one that shot his daughters husband.

My son's 3rd great grandfather also has a story on google on how he was one of a few men being looked at in the murder of Lord Mountmorres. He was cleared.

[Sarahsez]

Originally Posted by ansible90

Whenever I hear these family stories, I wonder how people find them. Are you getting them from newspaper articles or some other source? I feel lucky to find a birth date or other mundane fact.

Because of my genealogy research, I've learned that I have some lines that weren't the law abiding citizens I had originally assumed.

Some of my ancestors are from Eastern Kentucky. I've been able to find newspaper articles through the Chronicling America website (free). I had enough info that I could get some info from newspapers.com (not free). The Eastern Kentucky people tended to have the most documentation. I haven't gone too far back from the 1900's yet.

For other lines, I have had some success with newspapers.com. I had to go in and think of every spelling of the names that I could. I had to play with the search terms. For instance use 'moonshine' instead of 'whiskey' or 'alcohol'. Play with the spellings of names. Search by last name without a first name unless it is Smith. For instance, great uncle Harvey appears as 'H. H. misspelled last name'. His grandkids may not have known about his claim to infamy if I hadn't found him. Lol! They always thought my direct line was the only one that got into trouble.


If you know of anything specific, you may have to check the local libraries near where it happened. I still have a few stories where I know something, but don't have the current ability to go in person. I don't want to hire someone to do it so I'm holding on to it.

Ask around. Find the oldest relatives you can and show up with pictures if you have them. You may get some hints or good stories as your relatives look at them. For instance, I have an 89 year old cousin I met in December. She is just about the last person alive that knew my great grandfather. She was able to tell me about his kindness and sense of humor. You don't get that from the newspaper article where he is painted as a full time criminal instead of a man who shot a person in the arm to save another man's life. She also gave me some info on her mother's second husband who was murdered by a brother inlaw.

The other thing is just to google as much as you can. I've found a few books were my ancestors were mentioned. They were preachers and leaders in the community.

I don't have as many stories about the women. They just didn't get documented as much.

[KathrynAragon]

OK, I am also related to Thomas Willis, who sailed with Captain James Cook on the ship Resolution. There is a Willis Island off the coast of Georgia named after him. Anyway, the ship's log describes him as "wild and drinking." Personally, I like that! He lost a leg in battle off the coast of Spain. So apparently he had a peg leg on top of everything else!
https://www.captaincooksociety.com/h...llis-1756-1797

His later descendant - Patrick Vardell Willis, my great great grandfather, was living in South Carolina in the mid 1800s. He was single when his parents both died, so he wrote a letter to his mom's sister asking her if she would send her daughter, who was about 13 at the time and his first cousin, to take over the "woman's role" of running a plantation. Well, apparently he meant more than just managing the books and household, because within a few months, she was pregnant by him, and the local community was so incensed that the couple was forced to run for their lives. They didn't stop running till they reached what was the west in those days - southwest Arkansas. Unfortunately, the young cousin died shortly thereafter and PV Willis married the woman who would become my ancestor. They built a big farm and some businesses and were very successful together.

But he sure did get off to a rough start! LOL

No mention of the child from his first union (I don't recall if they got married). I think the young cousin died in childbirth and so did the baby but I can't swear on that.

To whoever's family tree intersected with the Turnipseeds in SC - my Turnipseed ancestors were also from SC and I believe they married into this particular Willis family.