What is your most amazing (personal) family history discovery?

[al b]

Diging through piles of papers found Great Grandmas gg Uncle was a merchant privateer 1641 {PIRATE} Very interesting 

[MarieC]

That IS interesting, al b!  Do you have any details of his voyages or activities??

MarieC

[Bellejazz]

There are some great stories here it just goes to show there is so much more to family history than meets the eye.

 

- Belinda.

[Notinpastyet]

I never stop been amazed by the things I fine out- sometimes I'm left shock,sad,surprised,laughting,enriched to find out more.Cheers Nipy

[al b]

ar ar ar   Dont know a whole lot about him he died of natural causes didn't get shot ar walked the plank his name was Digory Gordge Google tells a little  al b

[al b]

What happened every one quit?

[Stubbsy]

Hello Wotty,

I just checked your interests and my wife's famil may be of interest.

She is descended on one side from the Pile/Pyle family of Northumberland and on the other from the Hopps family of N. Yorks/Durham. Two of her Hopps's moved to Yorkshire to work as nurses in a mental asylum.

Cheers!

[Stubbsy]

Sorry if I went a bit "off message" there but I do have a story to add.

One of my lot called John Milner was born in England in 1585. He sailed for the Virginia Colony and in 1639 at the age of 54 he married 21 year old Elizabeth Rolfe.

Elizabeth was one of the very first children born to settlers in the North American Colonies. She was the daughter of Captain John Rolfe and his third wife Jane Pierce of Jamestown. His second wife was a Native American girl, the daughter of a local chief; an Indian Princess.

Her name was Pocahontas.

Cheers,
John Milner Stubbs

[Aulus]

Not a story like any of the above, but what amazed me most was just how mobile people (not just the rich) were throughout the 19th century.

E.g. moving a family of 16 from Staffordshire to Furness (as one of mine did) in the 1860s must have been some undertaking.  Okay, you'd probably do anything to get out of nailmaking, but what a journey and presumably without any real guarantee of employment at the other end.

Another family (somewhat better off, well at least until bankrupted!) seemed to think nothing of virtually commuting between Bury St Edmunds and London several times a month.

All, to use a modern term, non-trivial journeys then.