Interesting Relatives

[Wrinkledlion X]

Anyone here have any interesting relatives? I notice this is usually a pretty good source of cool stories, because just about everyone has weird family stories somewhere.

My most interesting relatives include:

My grandpa, Sveinn- He immigrated to America from Iceland in 1953 and worked primarily as a military aircraft engineer for Northrop. He was one of the leading engineers behind the original Flying Wing, the B2 Stealth Bomber, and the F-16. Plenty of others as well, including a deep-sea submarine at one point. (At his house he has lots of cool original parts, like propellers and bits of plating. And mail from the Hindenburg because he can.)

He always tells us cool stories about the old days back in Iceland. Like the time he accidentally blew down his neighbor's front door with fireworks.

My uncle, Guy- He was born in Iceland (He's Sveinn's son) and immigrated to America as a boy. He later moved back to Iceland, where he became a sea captain. So basically he's been all over the world and he has a really cool ship. He lost several fingers in a fishing trawl-related accident, so he kind of has that as a badge of honor. Also, he's fought pirates off the coast of Africa.

Plus he has awesome eye-brows that stick out really far from his face and kind of curl upward in an awesome way. I'm told that I look similar to him when he was young, so I can only hope that when I'm older I inherit his eyebrows.

My other uncle, Pablo- This is on the other side of the family. He was a hardcore drug addict, and sadly I can't fit all of the hilarious stories about him into one post. He was awesome, though. I'll just tell you that he once mistook kerosene for beer and passed flammable gas for a few days.

My great-grandpa on Pablo's side, Fay Leo McGriff- Fay Leo was sort of the proto-Pablo. He had all the crime and such going on but with a stylish old-timey twist. Once, for example, he attempted to rob a gold-mine on Christmas day. He got plenty of gold, but the owner found him and attacked him. They engaged in a car-chase in their Model T's, but Fay Leo lost him and fled all the way to California. (The chase involved guns, with my grandpa in the car as a baby.)

My mom, Helga- She works with serial killers as a criminal psychologist and has been named Falconry Apprentice of the Year by the California Hawking Club.

[Pickerel]

Anyone here have any interesting relatives? I notice this is usually a pretty good source of cool stories, because just about everyone has weird family stories somewhere.

My most interesting relatives include:

My grandpa, Sveinn- He immigrated to America from Iceland in 1953 and worked primarily as a military aircraft engineer for Northrop. He was one of the leading engineers behind the original Flying Wing, the B2 Stealth Bomber, and the F-16. Plenty of others as well, including a deep-sea submarine at one point. (At his house he has lots of cool original parts, like propellers and bits of plating. And mail from the Hindenburg because he can.)

He always tells us cool stories about the old days back in Iceland. Like the time he accidentally blew down his neighbor's front door with fireworks.

My uncle, Guy- He was born in Iceland (He's Sveinn's son) and immigrated to America as a boy. He later moved back to Iceland, where he became a sea captain. So basically he's been all over the world and he has a really cool ship. He lost several fingers in a fishing trawl-related accident, so he kind of has that as a badge of honor. Also, he's fought pirates off the coast of Africa.

Plus he has awesome eye-brows that stick out really far from his face and kind of curl upward in an awesome way. I'm told that I look similar to him when he was young, so I can only hope that when I'm older I inherit his eyebrows.

My other uncle, Pablo- This is on the other side of the family. He was a hardcore drug addict, and sadly I can't fit all of the hilarious stories about him into one post. He was awesome, though. I'll just tell you that he once mistook kerosene for beer and passed flammable gas for a few days.

My great-grandpa on Pablo's side, Fay Leo McGriff- Fay Leo was sort of the proto-Pablo. He had all the crime and such going on but with a stylish old-timey twist. Once, for example, he attempted to rob a gold-mine on Christmas day. He got plenty of gold, but the owner found him and attacked him. They engaged in a car-chase in their Model T's, but Fay Leo lost him and fled all the way to California. (The chase involved guns, with my grandpa in the car as a baby.)

My mom, Helga- She works with serial killers as a criminal psychologist and has been named Falconry Apprentice of the Year by the California Hawking Club.

Wow! Got quite a few interesting relatives there! The flying wing was made much before 1953, though, so your uncle probably didn't work on the original flying wing.

I'm very interested in genealogy, but unfortunately all of my relatives seem to live the average, boring life.

I have however, traced my ancestry a little over 200 years back to wealthy British women who I found her ancestors. These went WAY back. Then some of the names started sounding important, and eventually I found out that I'm related to Charlemagne! I recently traveled to his palace in Aachen, Germany. It was great seeing such a beautifully made building built by one of MY ancestors!

Pickerel

P.S. For those of you who don't know, Charlemagne was the King of the Franks and owned a large sum of Europe. He was one of the Nine Worthies!

[Wrinkledlion X]

My grandpa actually worked on the Flying Wing long before going to America, but when I say the "original" I'm not referring to those old-timey Wright Brothers-era attempts at flying wings.

Also, on the Icelandic side of my family I can trace my ancestors back to 400 AD through church records.

Edited November 2, 2008 by Gunnar

[Pickerel]

My grandpa actually worked on the Flying Wing long before going to America, but when I say the "original" I'm not referring to those old-timey Wright Brothers-era attempts at flying wings.

Also, on the Icelandic side of my family I can trace my ancestors back to 400 AD through church records.

Sorry, I assumed that your uncle started working on military engineering when he moved to America!

Dang! Almost beat mine, around 200 AD. Although it's neat knowing who your relatives are from such a long time ago, I mainly enjoy stories. Your lucky to actually know these people.

Pickerel

[Erdbeereis]

Hmm... Let me think.

I have a cousin in Germany who is the lead singer of a very popular rock band there.

My grandfather (Who also is German. I don't have too many exciting American relatives... ) on my father's side is 87 and still plays soccer, plays french horn in an orchestra and rides his bike 30 minutes with his huge horn on his back to lessons. He also fought in WWII and has a big scar on his arm where he was hit by a bullet.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Nice idea for a thread!

[Darth_Legois]

Apparently they traced my grandfathers ancestors to vikings, Maybe im related to Ras!

Also my Grandfather faught for Finland against the soviet union in WWII but got wounded so they sent him home to die but he recovered and his family moved to Australia where my parents met [both familys were friends ect.. in Finland before coming here].

The rest are pretty average people I guess...

Viking ON

[frogstudio]

Well.. I've got some interesting ancestors if I go back in time. I'll start with my grandfather. He was a militar pilot and was the one to fly to South America the first planes with retractable wheels. This was a funny story. As all the pilots where used to have fixed wheels... they all made a perfect landing in front of President Peron... but forgot to take out the landing gear!!!! Needless to say, they all spent several weeks in detention. He was also friend to the famous German WWII ace, Adolf Galland. He also was the person who flew from France the Super Etandard jets which, during the Malvinas War, sunk the Sheffield (bringing those planes, was his last military mission, and then went on to fly civil aircrafts).

Going further in time, one of my ancestors was part of the "Primera Junta", which were the guys who declared the independance of Argentina in 1810. Going even further, another one of my ancestors was the "Adelantado Don Pedro de Mendoza", one of the first Spaniards to arrive to America, and on the other hand I have an Inca princess in my genealogy, so I can proudly say I'm deeply rooted to this beloved continent. And last, even further in time, my ancestors fought against the moors in the Spanish "Reconquista" and this is how my family got it's coat of arms back in the middle ages (in fact, the shield shows a knight's arm with a sword, stabbing a saracen). :)

Edited November 2, 2008 by frogstudio

[HumanPackMule]

I've got several interesting relatives. For starters, I'm decended from Edgar Allen Poe. My grandfather designed the mold for the Tic-Tac candy case, and my great grandmother lived to be over 100.

[Luke McAwesome]

You know, I don't really hae an interesting family.

My dad owns an ATV repair shop, my mom's a waitress, and I'm a LEGO freak.

My cousin used to have one of the old Freestyle buckets when she was a kid and her dad(My uncle) gave it to me, and guess what, free bricks!

Edited July 19, 2009 by Striker™

[prateek]

My Grand Uncle was a flight control person so he moved around to different places and inspired all my extended family to move all around the world. As for close relatatives, I don't think they're all that interesting, especially compared to everyone else.

Edited July 20, 2009 by prateek

[user]

My Dad's side of the family is known for very strange non-injuries. For example my dad once got cancer but it disappeared the next day. One time my cousin accidentally blew up a glass door and unknowingly caught a piece of glass with three fingers if he did'nt catch it his toes on one foot would of been cut off. My sister was mauled by a freaky dog that lunged for her throat and and my sister ducked her head fast enough to save her live but she almost got her lip ripped off.But know you coud'nt even guess by looking at her there are barely any scars left. Ta Ta!

[Lt. Col. Thok]

Umm...something interesting....

I'm descended from American (redcoat) Loyalists on one side - my great times x grandfather fought in Yorktown and later Waterloo, and from American ummm, un-Loyalists I guess you could say ( ), on the other side (but only partially - the rest is Irish) - one such great times x uncle or grandfather fought at Antietem and Gettysburg. How's that for irony?