Valiant ancestors in the playground!

[Killer Angel]

Stop celebrating the acts of valor made by our characters!
I say: let's make homage to some real people, our ancestors: be them fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, related uncles, and so on.
We won't go into political or historical discussions: exactly like the annual threads we make 'bout Memorial Day: we don't discuss history, we remember our fallen. We remember our brethren.
'cause if one of you got some ancestors that fought during the D-day, it will be totally cool, no matter the side.
Now, my ancestors:

WWI - My great-granfather fought in this battle. He received a medal for a victorious assault with hand grenades to a machine-gun's nest.

WWII: uncle of my father, fought here. Luckily, he was taken prisoners by english.

WWII: another uncle, a medical officier, met is end here.

[rs2excelsior]

I had several who fought in the Civil War. One was a company commander in Jackson's Corps, and another went up Cemetery Ridge with Armistead at Gettysburg in the ill-fated "Pickett's Charge." If I remember correctly, both of them were captured by the Yankees (the latter at Gettysburg).

It's not a direct ancestry, but I'm also VERY loosely related to William Wallace.

[CumCaritas]

Not necessarily valiant, but I am a descendant of Bartholomew Roberts.

Yeah, that one.

The real Dread Pirate Roberts.

[Haruki-kun]

My great grandfather on my mom's side fought in the Mexican revolutionary war.

My great grandparents on my dad's side fled Spain to escape the Spanish civil war. Or some similar political situation, I mix up the dates and events.

[Spiryt]

My grandpa's uncle died at Monte Casino. Like many other soldiers from all around the word.

[AtlanteanTroll]

My dad's dad fought for Italy in the trenches of WWI on the Albanian Front, got the flu of 1918, smoked cigars, worked in a glass factory, and finally developed asthma, but still didn't die of anything lung related.

My mom's maternal granddad was a missionary in China who had to flee with his wife and infant daughter during the Boxer Rebellion, before that he taught an adolescent Mao Zedong how to play tennis.

Also, I am directly descended from Giles Corey. Yes, the one from the Crucible. Not exactly war related, but he certainly died valiantly. For what is more valiant than dieing to protect your family's land without speaking anything more than "more weight" when being crushed to death?

[Aedilred]

My great-grandfather won a VC in the Boxer Rebellion. At the time he was the only person of his rank ever to have done so, although that apparently became a bit of a millstone later in his career. Later he went on to command Q-ships in WWI.

My grandfather and all three of his brothers were also in the services, mostly in WWII (RAF, army, Navy and one more in the RAF). My grandfather was in Burma; the next-eldest in North Africa. I recently unearthed some correspondence from one of his mates complaining that their CO had won the DC for some action or other when it should really have gone to my uncle. The third was in submarines; I don't know if he was in any major action, but he used to say later in life that he'd lost his legs to gunfire (they were amputated in his retirement for medical reasons!) The youngest went MIA in the Korean War and is still missing, although it's unlikely he's still alive now, given dates.

Going further back, I had at least two ancestors present at the Battle of Hastings, apparently (although I suspect everyone in the UK is descended from someone there). Another ancestor fought for the royalists in the Civil War and helped hide Charles II when he was fleeing following the defeat.

[Coidzor]

Well, if you go back far enough, I'm about 99% sure that I'm related to the people who sacked Rome before it was an Empire. Then again, I think you just have to be descended from Europeans for some of your ancestors to have sacked Rome. Sometimes multiple sets of ancestors across multiple sackings.

I'm Scottish, so of course I've got a bunch of goat thieves and cattle rustlers who occasionally got into bloodshed over that as I remember how cattle raiding went. Probably nothing valiant there, since I'm not claiming descent from Cúchulainn or anything so grandiose.

More concretely, as I recall there were a few who fought and/or died at Culloden on both sides.

I have a few ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, including one who essentially joined up with the guerillas in the Southern Theater as soon as he got off the boat and who is my grandmother's connection to the DAR.

The Mexican-American and American Civil Wars are kind of blank spots because of getting disowned on at least one side shortly after the Civil War. Given what I know, someone from my lineage was involved in both wars, but I can't recall how, exactly, aside from being descended from people on both sides of the conflict over West Virginia, such as it was.

Had a couple of great-great-uncles and great-uncles, respectively, die in WWI and WWII. I believe all of my family that served in WWII was with the U.S. Army Air Corps and at least one of them was a pilot of a bomber who died the predictable death of a bomber pilot. I should probably get their names before the people who remember the details pass on.

[TheThan]

Not necessarily valiant, but I am a descendant of Bartholomew Roberts.

Yeah, that one.

The real Dread Pirate Roberts.

ARRRG!
Legend has it one of my ancestors was a crewman on the famous Mayflower.

Later he turned Caribbean pirate.

[AtlanteanTroll]

ARRRG!
Legend has it one of my ancestors was a crewman on the famous Mayflower.

Later he turned Caribbean pirate.

I am directly related to the captain of that ship. You traitor.

[ArlEammon]

Most people in my family were lucky enough not to have been involved in the battlefield, and this luck stretches all the way from present day to the 1880's.

[thorgrim29]

He doesn't like to talk about it, but one of my great-uncles has a bronze star from vietnam, he was a gunship gunner and they apparently mounted a pretty dicey rescue operation.

Other then that I probably have ancestors who participated in the seven year war and the war of 1812 since I come from a few old french Canadian families and I probably have some american loyalist blood....

But to my knowledge I don't have ancestors who participated in either World War or the Korean war though I saw the graves of several people from my home town when I visited Normandy

[Mono Vertigo]

My grandmother escaped the Holocaust. At almost one century old, she still watches today relevant documents and films of the period on TV in the hope of finally learning what was her mother's fate (though as a Polish Jew, we have a reliable idea of what that fate was.). She hid her daughter succesfully as well.
So, I'm the direct descendant of a survivor, and she might have thanked one of your own ancestors by giving an American name to her son after the war.

[ArlEammon]

My grandmother escaped the Holocaust. At almost one century old, she still watches today relevant documents and films of the period on TV in the hope of finally learning what was her mother's fate (though as a Polish Jew, we have a reliable idea of what that fate was.). She hid her daughter succesfully as well.
So, I'm the direct descendant of a survivor, and she might have thanked one of your own ancestors by giving an American name to her son after the war.

Good for your grandmother. She's still squeezing the Grim Reaper's nads.

[Silverbit]

None of mine are as epic as the people above me's: my uncle's uncle was at Monte Cassino, and won a medal there (I'm pretty damn embarrassed now that I can't recall what medal), and I share a family name with some knights originally from Normandy (I suspect we were serfs on their land; my family is about the furthest away from Norman aristocracy it is possible to get). One of them changed sides a lot, and kind of looks like me. I've sort of adopted him as an ancestor.

[Topus]

I don't know about soldier ancestors, but I am a descendant, by mother, of Gabriele Maria Piozzi's family.
He wasn't a soldier, he was a charismatic singer-musician who was quite famous in European courts during the XVIII century. He also was harpsicord teacher for the young Marie Antoniette.
So, he wasn't a warrior but he had to fought his own battle. He moved to England and met the widow Hester Thrale Lynch and they fell in love. Their relationship was ostracized by london high society, because she was a noble, from the Salusbury family, while he was a musician, a stranger, and a catholic (and maybe because Samuel Johnson wanted to marry her ;P). Even Hester's daughters where against their relationship. They married, anyway, and they retired from London, going to Brynbella, their residence in Wales. Their story is in Hester's diary, Thraliana, in Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany and Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson.
He is buried in the Curch of Corpus Christi garden in Tremeirchion, but he doesn't have a gravestone, because, you know, he wasn't a noble.

[TheThan]

I am directly related to the captain of that ship. You traitor.

*draws cutlass*
You sure you wanna cross blades with a pirate?

On a more serious note, it’s fascinating that the descendants of people who knew each other almost 400 years ago would bump into each other.

[CumCaritas]

My grandmother escaped the Holocaust. At almost one century old, she still watches today relevant documents and films of the period on TV in the hope of finally learning what was her mother's fate (though as a Polish Jew, we have a reliable idea of what that fate was.). She hid her daughter succesfully as well.
So, I'm the direct descendant of a survivor, and she might have thanked one of your own ancestors by giving an American name to her son after the war.

I don't know where they were, but my great grandfather was one oft he soldiers who liberated Auschwitz.

[Mono Vertigo]

Good for your grandmother. She's still squeezing the Grim Reaper's nads.

She is.

I don't know where they were, but my great grandfather was one oft he soldiers who liberated Auschwitz.

Her mother was in the ghetto of Warsaw, and we presume her life ended there, but other family members ended up in Auschwitz, according to quick research. Thanks to your great grandfather, and hope he didn't get too scarred by what he saw.


Other than that, I'm sure a couple ancestors fought in WWI (probably my grandfather's brother), but we never got to discuss it. I still have an overly rusted rifle from then.

[BWR]

Unless you trust some uncertain geneology and count some old Norwegian kings as ancestors, none of mine did much of anything.
The closest we have is Sterk Arne (strong Arne) who was noted for carrying a lame cow down from the summer pastures in the mountains. Granted, cows then were a bit smaller than most now.

[Tengu_temp]

My great-grandfather fought in Armia Krajowa, the Polish anti-Nazi resistance during WW2. After the war was over, the Soviets didn't like it, and he was sentenced to years of heavy labor in a mine.

[Spiryt]

My great-grandfather fought in Armia Krajowa, the Polish anti-Nazi resistance during WW2. After the war was over, the Soviets didn't like it, and he was sentenced to years of heavy labor in a mine.

In the same vain, my grandma was mentioning something about her relatives sheltering some not exactly well defined 'resistive' elements in barns etc.

Would have to ask more, but I doubt she knows much more. All obscured in time and history. :/

[Brother Oni]

One grandfather was in the East River Column during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, primarily passing on messages, but also launching attacks and helping American airmen get back to allied lines (ironically enough, they were passed off to Communists in mainland China before heading back).

My other grandfather went off and joined the Nationalists.

That must have made family reunions awkward.

[Jon_Dahl]

My grandfather fought for about 4 years in the WWII. He was wounded four times. Three times due a schrapnel and once he was shot in the belly. He kept the bullet in a drawer. He was promoted to sergeant.

[Killer Angel]

I'd say that some of you got really cool lineage!

Well, if you go back far enough, I'm about 99% sure that I'm related to the people who sacked Rome before it was an Empire. Then again, I think you just have to be descended from Europeans for some of your ancestors to have sacked Rome.

The farther i can go back, is maybe in renaissance, some soldier of fortune, but the track is very nebulous and uncertain (the research wasn't done by me, but by my father, and in the end I have no real idea, going so back in time)

[FinnLassie]

I think I'm in the majority when it comes to Finns saying "my grandfather fought against dem Soviets in WW2!". *shrug*

*thinks*

Hrmhm...

Well, my grandmother was a Karelian evacuee. And Karelia's a topic that really scrunches my heart.

[Maxios]

One of my great-uncles enlisted in WWII to help free Italy. He became a prisoner of war, leading to his family assuming he was dead. This resulted in one of his brothers following his example, enlisting in WWII. His brother eventually helped liberate the camp where he was held captive (though he didn't realize it until my great-uncle returned to America.)

My grandfather was drafted into WWII, though he never was sent out of the country.

[AtlanteanTroll]

*draws cutlass*
You sure you wanna cross blades with a pirate?

On a more serious note, it’s fascinating that the descendants of people who knew each other almost 400 years ago would bump into each other.

I suppose. There's a society for people who are descended from William Bradford (as both of my mother's parents are.)

There are a fair number of people in the US who are descended from the original passengers of the Mayflower. I've run into at least three over the summer, but that probably had to do where I was, not the relative common-ness of such lineage. Still, I would not be surprised if there were other descendants of Mayflower folk here.

[Razanir]

Not necessarily valiant, but one of my ancestors punched out Abe Lincoln.

[Coidzor]

Not necessarily valiant, but one of my ancestors punched out Abe Lincoln.

At least if I'm recollecting his wrestling records correctly, that's still pretty impressive?