Which ancestral lines grab your attention?

[pinefamily]

I know we're all nuts and obsessed with genealogy and related topics, but do you find yourself drawn to one (or more) family lines over others?
I know I have over the years, both in my own and my wife's family trees. Some just seem to grab my attention and draw me to them, which of course means devoting more time to them.
I'm interested in others' thoughts.

[Erato]

Definitely my paternal grandmother's branch.  It has all the best stuff.  Some of those ancestors  arrived in North America in the 1600s; many were paragons of virtue and others were scurrilous riff-raff who were repeatedly fined and flogged for bad-mouthing the neighbors, thievery, drunkenness, assault and blasphemy.  One was arrested for witchcraft but later released.  One built the windmill that later became the 'Old Powderhouse' which figured in the so-called Powder Alarm, a violent protest in the run up to the Revolutionary War.  Several served in that war, one at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Many years later, her grandfather's [my gg-grandfather] spectacular divorce trial produced headlines like "Raving Maniac!  C.H. Ware Loses His Mental Grip!"  Her cousin and his wife were victims of one of America's most famous serial murderesses.  Another cousin was shipwrecked on a Pacific Island.  Granny's uncle was a Wisconsin state senator who up and disappeared in Texas for twenty years but eventually showed up again.  Yet another relative was busted for safe cracking.  This branch of the tree provides endless amusement.

[pinefamily]

Sounds like the making of a miniseries Erato.

[UK4753]

I live on the other side of the pond. My maternal line has captured most of my attention. 

I have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower in 1620.  My Quaker line purchased and then populated Nantuckett Island off the Massachusetts coast where many became sea captains and founded the whaling industry.  One captain was in Boston Harbor in 1773 when his load of tea was tossed overboard - the Boston Tea Party.  Then there were those who fought in the Revolutionary War as patriots and a small group who remained loyal to the Crown.  There were early settlers who opened up the Ohio territory and who fought in the American Civil War.  My great-grandfather was one of six brothers who were in the Northern Army and was only one of two siblings who came out of that war unscathed.

I only wish I could discover more of my paternal line which did not immigrate to the USA until the 1850s / 1860s, but who became prominent in Chicago.  But try to find a Jones in Wiltshire...

 

[pinefamily]

While war is a horror of human invention, it is good to be able to tie our ancestors into historical events.
So onevof your ancestors was the captain of a ship where the actual incident took place? Amazing!
My knowledge of the event is minimal; was there only one ship involved or several?

[Top-of-the-hill]

  It all makes my family sound utterly boring! One distant branch went to America in 1837, which provided me with some interest, following them from New York to Minnesota and Dakota, when those places were being opened up. All the sons fought in the Civil War, got injured, but survived. A few of the English men left the villages to join the navy, Royal or Merchant, but that is about it.
   I have tended to concentrate on the Pay line, which, apart from being my main interest, has readily available BMD records, (even in the days when I had to read them in the Archives!)

[pharmaT]

Lots, for all different reasons.  One line had a significant number of members serving in India and British army in general, they are fairly well documented giving me more sources to look at.  These include letters between my 5x grt grandfather and his brother between 1790s and 1830s that survive until today and include stories of meeting "that little chap Napoleon", being on the run from Napoleon's troops alongside domestic things such as "dear brother I have mislaid my baptism certificate would you perhaps have a word with the minister on Sunday".


Another Great great grandfather was very interested in Early photography, a love tht he passed onto his children and grandchildren.  This means that for this line I hav lots of photographs compared to other lines.  I really want to know who they are, not just ther names but what they were like personality wise.


Another couple whose present day descendents are very diverse in terms of where they live (not just UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ) and they lives they have.  I find them fascinating

[coombs]

Yes I tend to be more biased to ancestors who lead colourful lives such as ones who were soldiers, landowners, yeomen, vicars and a couple of my ancestors were doctors and even owned manors in the 1500s and 1600s, and those manors are now tourist attractions and my ancestors are buried in tombs in the manor house. Borde Hill in Cuckfield, Sussex is my ancestors old manor. Sir Stephen Borde, a man who was knighted in 1603 in Whitehall.

My 3xgreat grandfather Thomas Musgrave was a widower in Dec 1885. He lived in Tanfield/Lintzford in Co Durham. He had a daughter in America. All but one of his children had left home by then. So, he decided to live with his married daughter in America. He emigrated there in Sep 1886 aged 58. I found him on the 1900 US census aged 72 living with his daughter and grandchildren. I descend from one of his sons who remained in England.

Ironically, Thomas' grandfather was in the army in America and Canada from 1775 to 1784.

[Romilly]

I've found two different branches, on my Maternal and Paternal sides, who became Mormons and emigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah.

This probably explains why I have so many DNA Matches from the USA and Canada on Ancestry. (Polygamy must have helped bump up the numbers:-)

Romilly