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My great-great-grandfather was a local politician. He put the moves on the "house-girl" and Great-Great-Grandma was not happy about it and, according to the article in the paper, gave him a "blue eye." He claimed his innocence, saying that all the doors were open, so he couldn't have been doing anything improper.
There was a retraction in the paper. It said, "The blue eye he received was NOT given to him by his wife, after all. It happened when one of his horses turned its head quickly and hit him about the face."
They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, which was also in the same paper, so I guess they worked it all out.
I'd never heard the term, "blue eye" before (or since.)
Reminds me of a family story where my GGGGrandmother caught my GGGGgrandfather sleeping in the woods with another woman. (Everyone being native American). She went home and got a hatchet, came back and chopped their braids off.
I'm related to John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed. The really weird part is that when he was a little kid, his house was down close to the river. Due to terrible flooding the house was moved to higher ground in the late 1700s/early 1800s. And it turns out that the house behind the house I grew up in was it.
Last edited by in_newengland; 04-09-2022 at 08:32 PM..
I found some more online newspapers. My great grandfather made the paper often... for all of the wrong reasons. I found several stories because he was despised by the local law enforcement. He apparently went 'missing' when he was out on bail. No one could find him. Turns out he was in prison for another crime. It was hilarious to him that he was working in the fingerprinting section of the prison and handled his own paperwork. He said it wasn't his business to report to authorities that he was the wanted guy. Another article reported that he loved to walk around barefoot. And yet another article mentioned that he still had a noticeable bullet hanging out of his back from a gunfight 25 years earlier.
I found even more 'incidents' than we had previously been aware of. I also found that he had gone to Leavenworth prison and the mugshots make a nice addition to the family photos. I find it entertaining that I now know that he was 'uncircumcised' and had false teeth, but they failed to note the bullet poking out of his back.
Reminds me of a family story where my GGGGrandmother caught my GGGGgrandfather sleeping in the woods with another woman. (Everyone being native American). She went home and got a hatchet, came back and chopped their braids off.
I have found several salacious stories like this in my tree. I thoroughly enjoy them, but I never post the newspaper articles on Ancestry.com because I don't want to embarrass anyone. How would you feel if the whole world knew your great-great-grandmother ran the Best Little Whorehouse in county? That really happened in a branch of my family around 1915. The wife of one of my distant cousins was busted by the county sheriff for prostitution and for running a "house of ill repute." Apparently, after he went to work each morning, she turned their house into a Red Light District. He immediately filed for divorce after the bust. (He found out the hard way.) His ex-wife ended up marrying one of the five johns that was arrested that day along with her. Everyone kept their mouths shut. One of their great-great-great-grandchildren was absolutely shocked when I shared the newspaper article with her. She didn't have a clue, but it explained the divorce concisely.
I have found several salacious stories like this in my tree. I thoroughly enjoy them, but I never post the newspaper articles on Ancestry.com because I don't want to embarrass anyone. How would you feel if the whole world knew your great-great-grandmother ran the Best Little Whorehouse in county? That really happened in a branch of my family around 1915. The wife of one of my distant cousins was busted by the county sheriff for prostitution and for running a "house of ill repute." Apparently, after he went to work each morning, she turned their house into a Red Light District. He immediately filed for divorce after the bust. (He found out the hard way.) His ex-wife ended up marrying one of the five johns that was arrested that day along with her. Everyone kept their mouths shut. One of their great-great-great-grandchildren was absolutely shocked when I shared the newspaper article with her. She didn't have a clue, but it explained the divorce concisely.
I do share those kinds of stories. It's part of what makes our family our family and the people who would be embarrassed by such stories are dead. I asked my dad and a couple of his oldest siblings if they minded me sharing before I went full force at it. There have been a few family members who have been shocked by what I found, but I think they are over it now. The rest of the family is OMG! how did you find that. We have a lot of scandal. Us in the grandkid, great grandkid and later generations are entertained.
On both sides of my family, a large percentage of my ancestors earned a living as writers. That was the case in England, Prussia, and Poland, as far back as 1760. We haven't been able--so far--to trace anyone prior to that date.
In regard to my English writer-ancestors, one of then married Adeline Virginia Stephen, and after marriage she took his family name--Woolf. You probably know her better as Virginia Woolf.
As best I'm able to tell, one of my third great grandfathers was a bigamist who had three different families.
Some of my 4th great grandfathers served in the US Colored Troops during the Civil War after being freed from slavery, so literally were fighting for their freedom.
One of my distant cousins was the first black US representative elected from North Carolina (this was during the Reconstruction era).
My paternal grandfather, unbeknownst to me (I found out relatively recently but then again my grandfather passed before I was born) was an avowed communist who was imprisoned in his home country briefly as a political prisoner and later went on to write a manifesto.
More recently, one of my paternal great grandfather's nephews was the first prime minister of a small Caribbean nation. He founded the local party there. His son took over the PM role after him. My father tells us stories of visiting the island nation and staying with the PM when he was a child and of the PM coming to his family's house in Brooklyn when in town for UN business.
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That really happened in a branch of my family around 1915. The wife of one of my distant cousins was busted by the county sheriff for prostitution and for running a "house of ill repute." Apparently, after he went to work each morning, she turned their house into a Red Light District. He immediately filed for divorce after the bust. (He found out the hard way.) His ex-wife ended up marrying one of the five johns that was arrested that day along with her. Everyone kept their mouths shut. One of their great-great-great-grandchildren was absolutely shocked when I shared the newspaper article with her. She didn't have a clue, but it explained the divorce concisely.
