Cyburbans 🧐 Your Ancestors From Long Ago & Far Away

[The Terminator]

Interesting genealogy fact that I learned from Mel Brooks:

A certain Austrian painter's middle name was Elizabeth and was descended from long line of English Queens!

 

[Doohickie]

I know all eight of my great grandparents came over from "Poland" in the late 19th century. I put Poland in quotes because at that time it didn't exist as a country. It was more of a concept kept alive by the language, the song (that would become their national anthem) and the Roman Catholic faith (to the east was Orthodox, do the west was protestant). The anthem is about their struggles to regain statehood, which they finally achieved in the aftermath of World War I.

My great-grandmother's brother was a Catholic priest. He was one of 20,000 recruited in the U.S. and Canada by Polish patriots to fight in World War I. Although Woodrow Wilson allowed the recruitment of Poles in the U.S., he did not allow the recruits to be trained in the neutral United States so they were trained at Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, by the Canadian military with funding from the French government.

As an educated man, he was given an officer's commission (colonel) and was a chaplain. He did command troops in battle though and received several decorations including the Polish Virtuti Militari which is roughly equivalent to the Medal of Honor in the US. He returned to America in 1919. He eventually became a priest at a parish in Toronto, and later in St. Catherines, Ontario.

He is probably the most famous person from my direct genealogy, although that just means you can find brief references to him in history books about the Poles in America and Canada as well as online references. He is buried at Niagara on the Lake, alongside trainees who died of the Spanish Flu in 1917 before the army went over to Europe, in a plot that was diplomatically transferred from Canada to Poland, so he is officially buried in Polish soil. He was still talked about regularly in my family when I was young even though he died 12 years before I was born. In our family we simply referred to him as Uncle Priest.

 

[Maister]

Concerning genealogy, I recall my great uncle Jack saying something like ' yeah, a lot folks think looking at their family history is a great thing so long as they find they're descended from decent people, but as soon as they find out that great grandpa was horse thief they're pretty much done with their research'.

 

[fringe]

I know all eight of my great grandparents came over from "Poland" in the late 19th century. I put Poland in quotes because at that time it didn't exist as a country. It was more of a concept kept alive by the language, the song (that would become their national anthem) and the Roman Catholic faith (to the east was Orthodox, do the west was protestant). The anthem is about their struggles to regain statehood, which they finally achieved in the aftermath of World War I.

My great-grandmother's brother was a Catholic priest. He was one of 20,000 recruited in the U.S. and Canada by Polish patriots to fight in World War I. Although Woodrow Wilson allowed the recruitment of Poles in the U.S., he did not allow the recruits to be trained in the neutral United States so they were trained at Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, by the Canadian military with funding from the French government.

As an educated man, he was given an officer's commission (colonel) and was a chaplain. He did command troops in battle though and received several decorations including the Polish Virtuti Militari which is roughly equivalent to the Medal of Honor in the US. He returned to America in 1919. He eventually became a priest at a parish in Toronto, and later in St. Catherines, Ontario.

He is probably the most famous person from my direct genealogy, although that just means you can find brief references to him in history books about the Poles in America and Canada as well as online references. He is buried at Niagara on the Lake, alongside trainees who died of the Spanish Flu in 1917 before the army went over to Europe, in a plot that was diplomatically transferred from Canada to Poland, so he is officially buried in Polish soil. He was still talked about regularly in my family when I was young even though he died 12 years before I was born. In our family we simply referred to him as Uncle Priest.

Joseph Conrad was raised by Polish nationalists that were exiled for their views. The young man's uncle took him, to avoid the draft, to Italy and signed him up with the French merchant marine.

 

[Doohickie]

Concerning genealogy, I recall my great uncle Jack saying something like ' yeah, a lot folks think looking at their family history is a great thing so long as they find they're descended from decent people, but as soon as they find out that great grandpa was horse thief they're pretty much done with their research'.

My great grandfather came to the U.S. as a young boy of six with his older sister who was already married and had a kid of her own. He was an orphan: His mom died in childbirth and his father, a game warden on an estate, was killed by poachers. That's the story that's been passed down through the family. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out he was the poacher and was killed by a game warden.

 

[Gedunker]

My grandfather was a polygamist. His family shipped him from Denmark to Argentina when Denmark and Germany were rattling sabres over Schleswig-Holstein in the 1890s. A dashing young man, he met an Argentine cutey and proceeded to marry and father two daughters. The marriage went sour, however, and divorce was not a possibility in uber-Catholic Argentina. They split and he returned to Denmark where he met my grandmother. My mother and her siblings were told that his Argentine wife had died and her family had adopted their son, as cover for his polygamy.

Genealogy done by my Argentine half-cousin proves otherwise. Interestingly, their family was told that my grandfather had died in a shipwreck on a voyage to/from Denmark as explanation for why he wasn't around.

People are fascinating in all their glory and their misdeeds. We wouldn't be here without them.

 

[Doohickie]

My grandfather was a polygamist. His family shipped him from Denmark to Argentina when Denmark and Germany were rattling sabres over Schleswig-Holstein in the 1890s. A dashing young man, he met an Argentine cutey and proceeded to marry and father two daughters. The marriage went sour, however, and divorce was not a possibility in uber-Catholic Argentina. They split and he returned to Denmark where he met my grandmother. My mother and her siblings were told that his Argentine wife had died and her family had adopted their son, as cover for his polygamy.

Genealogy done by my Argentine half-cousin proves otherwise. Interestingly, their family was told that my grandfather had died in a shipwreck on a voyage to/from Denmark as explanation for why he wasn't around.

People are fascinating in all their glory and their misdeeds. We wouldn't be here without them.

My Uncle Priest from a couple comments up had the same housekeeper, Lottie, for about 30 years. They were apparently.... umm.... compatible? (I'm not implying anything, mind you....)