Son of the American Revolution

Last night, I finally got around to reading some old letters to my dad from a cousin of his. Keep in mind, this letter is fairly recent as far as 6-7 years ago since I happened to come across it while cleaning out his closet over the weekend. According to the letter, there was indeed an ancestor in my family that was royalty but he lost his "position" as such and was driven out of England when he married a "commoner". Who was he and what was the position he held remains a mystery and is not mentioned in the letter.  

This is good Stuff .

    I have traced my family Back as far as the 1600s in Sicily on Dad's side and in Austria it's gotten to the Hapsburgs . Now where in all that I fit  I don't know for sure except most of the Men , Both sides were Seafarers Including all my known uncles and myself .

        During the War my real father , Died at the hands of the Gestapo, and Mom almost made it to the States .She didn't , But a real quirk here .The folks who adopted me didn't know that I was related by blood .

Mom's sister was really my Aunt , from Austria and Dad was related to My real father's family somewhere in Sicily Again ! How's that for a Mobieus Strip !      T.B.         P.S. All fought and died for the U.S.A. Or just against tyranny in Europe ! Except those that survived of course . Lotsa fambly . Sixteen uncles and more women than any man needs to be around ! Not counting OMA's and Grandmamas ! ( Their Words )

My grandfather has a half brother on my dad's side buried in Arlington as well.

My mom's family arrived sometime not long after the first boat.  I have on her side 3 famous releatives named Carroll.  They were 2 brothers and a cousin, and I can never keep straight who was who.  One signed the decalration of Independence, one signed the Constitution and the third was the first Catholic bishop in the US. 

John

My Great grandfather, West Point Class of 1903.

His marker at Arlington National Cemetery.

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/21012905/person/1014192779/photo/77def495-5fbd-4ce1-a1f5-f6f6fd6aacb0?usePUBJs=true

Here is the grave marker that the Sons of the American Revolution put on my 6x great grandfather Benjamin Haygood's grave site.

My parents, in recent years, have been going back through the "family tree". They gave my brothers and I copies of everything they've found, neatly packaged in a binder. On my Dads moms side, they have traced back to being related to Goerge Washington (his mom would be my distant aunt), Wiliam Wallace (his Dad was a cousin), and King Richard "the Lionheart" (his mom would be an aunt). Also on my Dads side...Great Grampa fought in WW1, my grampa ("Opa") was a radio op on TBF's in WW2, Dad volunteered for Nam, but it ended before he finished training...he was a tank commander (M60A1), then transfered to being a Huey pilot.

 Not much on my moms side....her moms brothers (my Uncles) remained in Poland and became forced labor (brick layers) in a couple of consentration camps.

My wife is really into that.  She has her family traced (and verified) back to the early 1700's.  There is a member of the family that they found who has it traced back to a lot earlier but there is a connection in the middle that hasn't been verified yet.  They've been working on it for the last two years going to churches and cemeteries to check records.

They are having a reunion next month and my wife has the ancestor chart all printed up.  It's 16 pages long (landscaped) and 3 pages deep.  She just checked with her aunt to see if their garage door is big enough to post it on.

Jim   

Cool. I can do one better. I've traced my family going far back as the Middle Ages in England. There is a rumour from my cousin that one of my relatives was "supposedly" married into the English Royalty. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen. Still trying to verify that claim for years now.

Heck, I even got in touch with a distant relative in England (by accident on Ancestry.com) seeking info on my GGG Grandfather. I fired a PM to him  on Ancestry.com forum and told him I was 7th generation of the family member he was seeking and am related directly to me. I provided a huge wealth of information, that it opened the floodgates of what he was seeking for years.

Delving into family history is pretty neat stuff.  I'm greatly fascinated by it but my brother and dad have really jumped in with both feet.  They once drove all over the country located old grave sites and long lost relatives to talk about family history.  It's wonderful stuff; almost like taking a trip through time.

Eric