Which ancestral lines grab your attention?

[UK4753]

The Boston Tea Party involved three ships.  The Beaver was captained by Hezekiah Coffin; Coffin is one of my families (I think it was spelled something like Coffyn in Britain).

My family is pretty common with mostly farmers, a few clergy, and just ordinary people.  They did not start great events but just were there when they happened.  Still, all this brings history alive for me.

 

[andrewalston]

There has to be a reason to get your attention grabbed.

In my case it can be:
.. an interesting place - somewhere far away, somewhere I have visited, or somewhere I know very well and can follow the references.
.. an unusual name (one of mine turned into a one-name study), or one I have encountered before (I followed two peoples with the same surname encountered in widely different parts of my tree, back to the same small village in Cheshire.
.. an unusual occupation.
.. a criminal - there are more records about them!

[pinefamily]

uk4753, does your Coffin family originate in Devon? One branch there married into the Pyne/Pine family and ended up Pine-Coffin, mainly in Portledge and surrounding areas.
Andrewalston, you are probably right; there are most likely reasons that some lines grab our interests, even if they are not immediately obvious.
One of mine is a rather unusual surname, with a  highly probable single origin. Mostly yeoman farmers, with one branch of clergy and MP's.

[Scrumper]

I could go sideways and up on my tree, but I'm not interested in Bill, he's not in my blood.

[River Tyne Lass]

My Dad's side of the family is still holding my attention as I still haven't been able to find my Great x 2 Grandmother Elizabeth Conroy.  She was last 'seen' in Durham at the home of her daughter Mary Watson and husband William Watson and family in 1881.  Thereafter, she disappears -  no burial.

Mary Watson nee Conroy ends up in North Shields as a widow and died there.

[Mowsehowse]

The Boston Tea Party involved three ships.  The Beaver was captained by Hezekiah Coffin; Coffin is one of my families (I think it was spelled something like Coffyn in Britain).

My family is pretty common with mostly farmers, a few clergy, and just ordinary people.  They did not start great events but just were there when they happened.  Still, all this brings history alive for me.

 

How fantastic!!
Only THREE ships involved, and your ancestral line was there!!

 

[3sillydogs]

My paternal granmother's line has a lot of the characters I learned about in history at school, not that I paid attention, it wasn't my favourite subject.  When I saw the same surnames cropping up on my hubby's side as well I delved into it and found one of grandma's ancestors was a Great Trek leader and all these surnames were part of his party that left the Cape and trekked into other parts of the country.  I have found we're related, albeit distantly to quite a few of the history making Trek Leaders either directly or through marriage.

And yes, I found that hubby and I are distant cousins!!!!!

[UK4753]

Pinefamily.  I have traced my Coffins back to Brixton, Devon which is near Portledge, I think.  The Portledge Coffins can trace their lineage back to about 1465 at least with rumors that they can go back to William the Conqueror.  But, of course, that is unproven.

Mowsehouse.   The three ships had taken a load of whale oil to England to sell.  They were then hired by the British East India Company to take a load of tea back to Boston.  Good timing.

 

[McGroger]

The height of my obsession will probably remain the three years (2012-14) I chased the people in my paternal line. This is the preface to a book I wrote about them:

"My first foray into family history was to try to find out how our ancestors came to Australia. The result was a 2600 word story called ‘Cheap Imports’. It set out the ‘when’, ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ of their getting here. It is summarised on the chart overleaf.

"There were 22 ‘cheap imports’. The first 14 were convicts or convict family. The next 7 were commoners, arriving as assisted passengers. The last, also on an assisted passage, was the descendant of a clan that had been outlawed for 2 centuries, the outlawry finally ending only at the time when our convict ancestors were starting to commit their petty crimes.

"I thought I could next write a book with 22 chapters—one for each ‘import’, fleshing out those basic details.
However, those ‘outlaws’ got in the way, stealing a whole book for themselves and making me write it first. (Books 1 and 2 will follow, one day.)

"You see... when I was a very small boy my father said to me, 'We come from Rob Roy, you know.' Dad showed me his copy of The Clans and Tartans of Scotland, and we all watched the Disney movie.

"For over half a century I’ve lived with a quiet pride in that claimed heritage. Occasionally I would hear that some member of our extended family in Australia was going to 'have a go at doing the family tree', or 'trace back to Rob Roy', or simply 'to prove it'.

"Approaching retirement, an always-warm desire in me caught fire. This book is my attempt."

Four years later I've barely started those other two books.

Peter