re: Genealogy fans: What are some cool facts about your family's history?

Pretty much everybody who traces their history back to mostly England can probably find Anglo Norman’s they were related to that married royalty, so we all may be royalty. I didn’t mean to imply that the further west you went the less likely to be royal you are, for my family that is not the case. What I mean is we are descended from the second, or third, or fourth son, rather than from the first son who got the land. There is nothing wrong with this, I think it is why Alabama is tough, Mississippi is even tougher, and Texas southern boys are pretty tough too. (Though there are many Yankees and other Europeans in the mix)

Also, i think you may be more likely to be part indian if you are born in Texas or Mississippi compared to South Carolina or Virginia.

One of my great grandfathers some number back was Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. One of his great-great-great nephews (5th cousin or so to me) was Baldur Von Schirach, who ran the Hitler Youth and got 20 years at Nuremberg. Kind of an interesting twist there.

My great grandfather kidnapped my great grandmother who was 14 years old at the time and playing piano in a saloon....she was a savant piano player...never had lessons but just knew how to play the first time she sat down at one. He had just shot a man he felt was cheating him at poker and the only witness besides his crew was my great grandmother. So he hid her away so the sheriff couldn't talk to her. This was somewhere in East Texas around Woodville.

My parents told me once that my family's history can be traced back to one of the original pioneers on the Mayflower.

And I think once they said I could be related to Thomas Jefferson.

I am more certain about the former than the latter

One if my earliest ancestors to come to the new world was a minor French nobleman originally named Jacob de Lascaux (I’ve probably misspelled that) from Bordeaux France.

The odd part of him coming to here was he moved to Charleston, SC in 1720. That would be like you or me moving to North Korea today. I’ve asked a local historian from Charleston about this and they think he was either (a) a criminal on he run from France and/or (b) a member of a pirate crew on the run because piracy was rampant at that time. Either way, when he moved to America, he changed his name to a more English sounding name. He married, had kids. Those kids eventually moved to Tennessee and then some of their kin came down to Alabama with Ole Hickory to fight the in Creek Indian War. That’s how my family came to live in north Alabama.

My great-great grandfather was one of the survivors of the steamship Sultana, which exploded on April 27, 1865, on the Mississippi River near Memphis. He was just a teenager, lost his entire family and was left penniless. He was described in newspapers as a hero, having saved no less than 30 lives. A local church took care of him and raised money to send him back to Louisiana.

I'm a direct descendant of Col. Timothy Matlack, who was a battalion commander in the Revolutionary War, composed George Washington's commission as General and Commander in Chief, spearheaded the investigation of Benedict Arnold that led to his court martial, was the architect of the Free Quaker Meeting House in Philly, and penned the Declaration of Independence.

I'd be remiss not to mention that he was supposedly an accomplished brewmaster as well.

Sad to say that I have no knowledge of any National Treasure, though.

I've been there! Admittedly I was lost looking for a buddy who was hunting in a rice field. But I was there. Or more correctly drove through it.

Directly related in lineage from Wiliam the Protector (Earl of Pembroke), guardian of the young King Henry III. Linky Thang

Also related to Ulysses S. Grant, whose mother shared my mother's maiden name which continues in bloodline to this day.

Edited for accuracy.