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Distant relative criminals - any and are you embarrassed?


MickinMD

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The latest PBS "Finding Your Roots" episodes includes celebrities who are embarrassed about having criminals for ancestors they never knew.

Personally, I'd just find it an interesting fact.  Would you?

I had to stop at the Canadian Border across from Buffalo, NY in 1975 in grad school to get a work permit for teaching Organic Chemistry lab at the University of Toronto - I was a sort-of temporary exchange grad student from IIT in Chicago.

I was asked, "Do you have any relatives who were convicted of crimes in Canada?"

I replied, "There's a family rumor that you guys hung a great-uncle of mine up here for stealing a horse in the 1800's, but I don't think anyone can prove it!"

The interviewer - who happened to have the same birth day/month/year as me - just laughed and gave me the work permit.

 

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Ancestry sites have helped families did up lots of dirt on long gone relatives. My great grandfather on my mothers side killed his family.  All except my grandmother who was out courting at the time. That was six kids and his wife. There was an article in the Washington post. My grandmother and grandfather never ever mentioned it. 

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I had an ancestor a few generations back that used to run the local brothel in our home town and was shunned and looked down upon by the good citizens of the city.

When Tuberculosis became an epidemic in the area he closed up the brothel and turned it into a home where he gave a bed to and cared for those with TB, as the local hospital didnt want them for fear of spreading.

He cared for many, eventually catching TB from one of the patients and dying himself.  The called him a hero when he died.

That is the only known criminal in my past that I know of

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My niece just started a podcast. I think I was like her OG subscriber. Self improvement. Technically it was a bit of a mess. But whatever. Only thing i was thinking I hope your mother doesn't hear this. Sounded like drunken evenings & frat boys and general tomfoolery. Now I did all that & more. But i didn't broadcast it to da world. 

*no lawful crimes were admitted to. 

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2 hours ago, MickinMD said:

The latest PBS "Finding Your Roots" episodes includes celebrities who are embarrassed about having criminals for ancestors they never knew.

Personally, I'd just find it an interesting fact.  Would you?

I had to stop at the Canadian Border across from Buffalo, NY in 1975 in grad school to get a work permit for teaching Organic Chemistry lab at the University of Toronto - I was a sort-of temporary exchange grad student from IIT in Chicago.

I was asked, "Do you have any relatives who were convicted of crimes in Canada?"

I replied, "There's a family rumor that you guys hung a great-uncle of mine up here for stealing a horse in the 1800's, but I don't think anyone can prove it!"

The interviewer - who happened to have the same birth day/month/year as me - just laughed and gave me the work permit.

 

Canadians are mostly criminals, just like the Australians and such. 

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5 hours ago, MickinMD said:

The latest PBS "Finding Your Roots" episodes includes celebrities who are embarrassed about having criminals for ancestors they never knew.

Personally, I'd just find it an interesting fact.  Would you?

Yeah, seems idiotic to care about ANY ancestors you never knew - good, bad, or indifferent.

I dislike any genealogy stuff that goes beyond my grand parents.  I try to think of any influence any of my grand parents had on me beyond my Dad's mom who had an impact on me as she at least lived until I was five, lived with us, and spent a good bit of time with us kids until her death.  The others were dead by then. Sure, we got some "inherited" stuff from them, and my parents, aunt, and uncles' stories of their childhood are fun, but not really more than that.

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10 hours ago, MickinMD said:

replied, "There's a family rumor that you guys hung a great-uncle of mine up here for stealing a horse in the 1800's, but I don't think anyone can prove it!"

The interviewer - who happened to have the same birth day/month/year as me - just laughed and gave me the work permit.

Don't try that now. Those guys have absolutely no sense of humor anymore. 

Mudkipz 

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4 hours ago, jsharr said:

6 or 7 x grandpa sharr was a traitor and deserter.  Deserted the British forces to join the Revolutionary army.  

I have a couple ancestors that left countries right after major political/war events happened and I wonder if they left Europe because of being hunted as traitors, terrorists, etc.

My maternal grandfather came from Poland right after a revolt in the early 1900's where many occupying Russian officials were assassinated. An aunt to me her father said he came to America after seeing his friend pulled apart alive after being tied to two oxcarts.  My guess is the friend was one of the assassins and if my grandfather was worried, maybe he was too.  There is no ship's record of him landing in Philadelphia as he said, meaning he probably traveled under an assumed name.  Or else he was an illegal immigrant!

My paternal grandmother's parents - he was originally from Alsace, France and she from nearby Wurttemberg, Germany - left for America right after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, when Prussian Germany annexed Alsace and Lorraine away from France.  Since my great grandfather apparently had no problem with Germans, I've wonder what about the Franco-Prussian War drove him to emigrate to Altoona, PA?

By the way, I can trace the ancestors of that great grandmother, born Wilhelmina Zimmerer, back to my 10th great grandparents: Hans Zimmerer who was also born in Wurttemberg in 1533, and his wife Magda (nee Hosl), born in Bavaria in 1540.  Since last names came to most Germans in the 1500's and Zimmerer means Carpenter and since I can't go back any further through ancestry.com's Lutheran Church records, Hans was probably a carpenter and may be my first family member with a last name!

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3 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

I have a couple ancestors that left countries right after major political/war events happened and I wonder if they left Europe because of being hunted as traitors, terrorists, etc.

My maternal grandfather came from Poland right after a revolt in the early 1900's where many occupying Russian officials were assassinated. An aunt to me her father said he came to America after seeing his friend pulled apart alive after being tied to two oxcarts.  My guess is the friend was one of the assassins and if my grandfather was worried, maybe he was too.  There is no ship's record of him landing in Philadelphia as he said, meaning he probably traveled under an assumed name.  Or else he was an illegal immigrant!

My paternal grandmother's parents - he was originally from Alsace, France and she from nearby Wurttemberg, Germany - left for America right after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, when Prussian Germany annexed Alsace and Lorraine away from France.  Since my great grandfather apparently had no problem with Germans, I've wonder what about the Franco-Prussian War drove him to emigrate to Altoona, PA?

By the way, I can trace the ancestors of that great grandmother, born Wilhelmina Zimmerer, back to my 10th great grandparents: Hans Zimmerer who was also born in Wurttemberg in 1533, and his wife Magda (nee Hosl), born in Bavaria in 1540.  Since last names came to most Germans in the 1500's and Zimmerer means Carpenter and since I can't go back any further through ancestry.com's Lutheran Church records, Hans was probably a carpenter and may be my first family member with a last name!

We can go back to the 1700s but not sure how much further back, at least on my fathers side we can.  Not sure about mothers side, but at least to the 1800s

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