What’s the worst thing someone connected to you did?

[Nisey55]

I'm glad the ancestral subject came up. Reminded me that apparently I come from a line of scoundrels known as the cajun mafia.
It explains so much, but apparently they weren't very successful because as far as I can tell every ancestor I ever had was poor as dirt.

 

[Arathrael]

Yes, much better, however a few things
- I’ve watched way too much Monty Python to take the word ‘vicar’ seriously
- unfortunate lack of magic beans in this story

The vicar in question (and questionable vicar) was also into Monty Python. Think he called himself Eric the Half-a-Bee on the University BBS. Lost touch with him after he, if I remember rightly, flunked out of university (I had the impression he was aiming to do the minimum to get a degree, and undershot it). Had no idea what happened to him until someone else from uni asked if I'd heard what happened to him, and was surprised when they said he became a vicar - I didn't remember him being particularly religious, although I have the vague recollection his girlfriend might have been - and then somewhat shocked when it turned out it was actually this they were talking about: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-30212063

 

[Geldo]

Just started doing the old genealogy thing and ouch I’ve got people in my tree who make Charles Manson respectable.

 

[Dago]

My first time reading this thread and I am very disappointed that we went 7 pages without this

 

[antipop]

there was that one time the guy down the street killed his whole family and then himself....

he was a my baseball coach and my mom was really close to his wife....i spent a lot of time at this house as a kid....they had 2 kids and i was sort of between them in age

it actually happened when i was in high school so that was fun...it's one of those memories that remains vivid no matter how much time has passed

 

[Madmarsha]

My first time reading this thread and I am very disappointed that we went 7 pages without this

AFAIC, we could have gone 7,000 pages without raising the spectre of Tom Cruise. He does not complete me.

But that's just me.

 

[Madmarsha]

Just started doing the old genealogy thing and ouch I’ve got people in my tree who make Charles Manson respectable.

Please share. I LOVE people's genealogy stories.

 

[Geldo]

Please share. I LOVE people's genealogy stories.

One of the worst slavers in history
Ran both the East India Company and Royal Africa company. The former starved hundreds of thousands to death in the name of free markets and The latter sent tens of thousands into captivity. He’s so notorious he was at the centre of the UK’s BLM protests.

Quite a shock for a penniless lefty like me I can tell you

It’s not all bad. I’m a direct descendent of man who built this gem of a castle in Llangollen and my gt gt gt gt gt gt gt grandmother was the lesbian lover of Queen Mary 2

The pic is Castell Dinas Bran a real Welsh castle not an English castle built in wales like most of the others

Did you get your dna done? If so what did it say? I was delighted to confirm that I’m more Welsh than English thank God

 

[SaintJ]

One of my cousins (who has since passed), not a bad guy, but he and his business partner torched their bar for the insurance money and got caught, and he flipped to beat the rap. Not sure how I feel about that one.

I have like 40 first cousins (huge Irish family), so we've actually gotten off pretty good. Most of the wounds have been self-inflicted.

 

[Saintman2884]

One of the worst slavers in history
Ran both the East India Company and Royal Africa company. The former starved hundreds of thousands to death in the name of free markets and The latter sent tens of thousands into captivity. He’s so notorious he was at the centre of the UK’s BLM protests.

Quite a shock for a penniless lefty like me I can tell you

It’s not all bad. I’m a direct descendent of man who built this gem of a castle in Llangollen and my gt gt gt gt gt gt gt grandmother was the lesbian lover of Queen Mary 2

The pic is Castell Dinas Bran a real Welsh castle not an English castle built in wales like most of the others

Did you get your dna done? If so what did it say? I was delighted to confirm that I’m more Welsh than English thank God

One of your East India Company ancestors responsible for one of those mass man-made manufactured famines in British India during the 19th century? Was it before or after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 because that massive uprising and EIC’s trade policies, lack of cultural sensitivity that caused it and their initial lack of a decisive response it is was lead to them going out of business, their assets, power and influence being absorbed by the Crown in the 1870’s when they began running India directly as a crown colony. Either way, most British historians today, particularly economic ones, concur that by the mid-19th century, the E-I-C's best days as an effective colonial trade administrator/monopolist mercantile enterprise was well behind it and even to many contemporary mid-late British statesman, businessman, even most commoners, its continued existence back then was predicated by its many past accomplishments. By the 1850's, Geldo, EIC was a gradually dying, crumbling, hollowed-out rump of a once-prosperous multinational corporation.



Their were several mass famine-starvation events caused by British colonial administrators in the 1880’s and 1890’s in India that got so bad that their was a bit of an open diplomatic spat between Washington and London because U.S. relief food aid tankers were being stopped at Indian ports by British imperial comptrollers who were under orders not to permit international relief food shipments reaching starving Indian civilians in New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Kerala.

FWIW, Kerala is one of India’s oldest cities and reportedly where St. Thomas arrived ca. 50 C.E. and preached and even converted a local, powerful Indian king. He was later executed ala martyred when Indian sapees speared him to death in two, separate sections of his body. Kerala, Geldo, about 2,000 years ago, was major part of a lucrative maritime Romano-Indian spices and silk trade network and Roman merchants operating out of their Egyptian ports in Red Sea would travel across the Indian Ocean during certain months of the year and ancient Kerala had a large, thriving Roman-Jewish expat community that St. Thomas mingled with upon arrival. Most of these stories or exploits are detailed in the Apocryphal Book of Thomas if you want to analyze or interested in it from a historical perspective.

 

[Madmarsha]

Did you get your dna done? If so what did it say? I was delighted to confirm that I’m more Welsh than English thank God

No, but my sister did. We are 70% northwestern and northeastern European (no breakdown but I know I'm not as Irish as I wish I was). Also in there is Sardinian 11%, Ashkenazi Jewish 10%, and then sprinkle in some southwestern European, south Asian, middle eastern and North African which she said is Persian.

Like I said, I just love genealogy. I've watched most of the genealogy shows. I love Skip Gates "Finding Your Roots" which always includes the DNA findings.

 

[Geldo]

One of your East India Company ancestors responsible for one of those mass man-made manufactured famines in British India during the 19th century? Was it before or after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 because that massive uprising and EIC’s trade policies, lack of cultural sensitivity that caused it and their initial lack of a decisive response it is was lead to them going out of business, their assets, power and influence being absorbed by the Crown in the 1870’s when they began running India directly as a crown colony. Either way, most British historians today, particularly economic ones, concur that by the mid-19th century, the E-I-C's best days as an effective colonial trade administrator/monopolist mercantile enterprise was well behind it and even to many contemporary mid-late British statesman, businessman, even most commoners, its continued existence back then was predicated by its many past accomplishments. By the 1850's, Geldo, EIC was a gradually dying, crumbling, hollowed-out rump of a once-prosperous multinational corporation.



Their were several mass famine-starvation events caused by British colonial administrators in the 1880’s and 1890’s in India that got so bad that their was a bit of an open diplomatic spat between Washington and London because U.S. relief food aid tankers were being stopped at Indian ports by British imperial comptrollers who were under orders not to permit international relief food shipments reaching starving Indian civilians in New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Kerala.

FWIW, Kerala is one of India’s oldest cities and reportedly where St. Thomas arrived ca. 50 C.E. and preached and even converted a local, powerful Indian king. He was later executed ala martyred when Indian sapees speared him to death in two, separate sections of his body. Kerala, Geldo, about 2,000 years ago, was major part of a lucrative maritime Romano-Indian spices and silk trade network and Roman merchants operating out of their Egyptian ports in Red Sea would travel across the Indian Ocean during certain months of the year and ancient Kerala had a large, thriving Roman-Jewish expat community that St. Thomas mingled with upon arrival. Most of these stories or exploits are detailed in the Apocryphal Book of Thomas if you want to analyze or interested in it from a historical perspective.

Generations of EIC big wigs I’m afraid. Right from the very beginning. Another direct descendent Walter Pyle was killed at the battle of Plassey.

 

[Geldo]

No, but my sister did. We are 70% northwestern and northeastern European (no breakdown but I know I'm not as Irish as I wish I was). Also in there is Sardinian 11%, Ashkenazi Jewish 10%, and then sprinkle in some southwestern European, south Asian, middle eastern and North African which she said is Persian.

Like I said, I just love genealogy. I've watched most of the genealogy shows. I love Skip Gates "Finding Your Roots" which always includes the DNA findings.

Wow that’s so exotic. I’ve got a bit of Danish and Norse but everything else is UK

 

[Nisey55]

No, but my sister did. We are 70% northwestern and northeastern European (no breakdown but I know I'm not as Irish as I wish I was). Also in there is Sardinian 11%, Ashkenazi Jewish 10%, and then sprinkle in some southwestern European, south Asian, middle eastern and North African which she said is Persian.

Like I said, I just love genealogy. I've watched most of the genealogy shows. I love Skip Gates "Finding Your Roots" which always includes the DNA findings.

Who did your sister use for DNA test? I've always wanted to see what my family is all about but I'm pretty sure it would just come back French mutts.