re: What's the closest you or a family member has been to a part of history?

My grandmother's uncle was aboard the ship Carpathia the night the Titanic sank. It was the only ship to respond to the Titanic's distress calls and rescued several hundred people that were aboard the Titanjc when it went down.

It was sunk several years later by a German U-boat during WW1. He wasn't on it then.

My Father was a member of the team that predicted (correctly) the weather change that enabled D Day to happen.

My grandfather way down the line fought at the Alamo. He fought for the Texan army and his brother fought for the Mexican army. They’re even featured in the Alamo movie with Billy Bob Thornton

Speaking of revolutionary war era, my 5x greatgfather was a Colonel in the war. I was all proud until I learned he was a royalist fighting for King George. There's a minor North Carolina battle named for him. He's a footnote in American history. But the British blame him for losing the war. He became a double agent later in the war when he was part of Cornwallis inner circle. They say he passed Intel to Washington that cost England the war.

That’s. Good one pulling Jean Lafitte out. Dude was a badass historically speaking.

Pretty historical if you ask me

My 1st cousin, several times removed, Ninian Edwards, I think territorial governor of Illinois. His son Ninian Wirt Edwards and Abe Lincoln were brothers in law, both marrying Todd sisters; Abe married his wife in the Edwards home.

My 5th great grandfathers, James Garrard 2nd governor of KY and John Edwards, 1st US Senator from KY.

We've seen some correspondence between them and Thomas Jefferson and quite a bit has been written about the two.

It's strange to go back in the family tree and see how many of close kin were on opposite sides during the war between the states.

Some of the Garrards were high ranking union officers, perhaps one a general. But slave owners were scattered among them.

My uncle was a diplomat in Saudi Arabia who was assigned to frequently meet with and pacify Osama Bin Laden in the late 80s during his transition from wealthy Afghan freedom fighter to radicalized terrorist. Unfortunately my uncle couldn't convince him that the United States had absolutley zero interest in taking over Mekah and Medina and turning them into Christain enclaves.

He was also stationed in El Salvador during their civil war and was involved in some crazy shite. When Oliver Stone made the movie Salvador starring James Woods, he offered a special screening of the first cut to my uncle and his colleagues to verify accuracy. They told Stone that some of the scenes in the movie were just flat out wrong or propaganda and to their surprise Oliver Stone actually edited them out of the movie.

I was part of the team responsible for the very first live broadcast from the International Space Station in 4K Ultra HD.

Had a great uncle who witnessed the hanging of Mussolini in Italy.