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People Share The Weirdest Facts From Their Family Tree

People Share The Weirdest Facts From Their Family Tree

People Share The Weirdest Facts From Their Family Tree

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Do we every really know another person? Especially family. Every family comes with a past fraught with secrets and 'Dynasty' level drama. In this day and age uncovering family secrets and pasts has become something of an obsessive hobby. Everyone is hitting up the Ancestry and DNA apps and pages to try and trace lineages as far back Jesus. And Lord some of the things that are unexpectedly discovered... some truths make you thankful for vodka.

Redditor _QueenMoogle wanted people to divulge _What are some weird or interesting facts about your families?

LEARNING FROM THE PAST IS IMPERATIVE!

My great-grandfather saved my life, even though he died 89 years before I was born.

He was a semi-well known medical researcher (enough for a wikipedia page and a family of bacteria to be named after him.), who ended up dying after being crazy enough to inject himself with one of the diseases he was studying. 100ish years down the line, I caught one of the diseases that he studied; his research had paved the cure of that and a few other serious diseases.

BREATHSAVER!

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My grandmother is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, which makes her special according to some Appalachian old wives tales. Her breath heals canker sores, apparently. People who suffered from canker sores used to drive from miles around to go to her so she could blow in their mouths and make the sores go away. I have multiple family members who swear it works.

THE VANISHING...

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My great uncle disappeared after Vietnam. He killed his best friend playing with a gun when he was a kid and hadn't been the same after, had a bit of a death wish. Vietnam had made him even more morose and withdrawn, so when he vanished, the family just assumed the worst one way or another.

20 years later, come to find out, he had moved to Mexico and started a family. My grandmother got a call from his teenage daughter, letting us know he had passed away. Stomach cancer. Nobody had any idea. Dude just lit out and severed ties without saying a word.

IT SOUNDS FISHY...

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My grandmother had 3 siblings and my grandfather had 6 siblings. They got married, then my grandma's brother married my grandpa's sister, then my grandma's first cousin married my grandpa's other sister, and then my grandma's second cousin married my grandma's third cousin. I have a whole, whole lot of double or triple cousins.

SO I OWN THIS RIGHT?

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A few centuries back, one of my ancestors gifted a palace to a nearby city.

I visited it last year and it was quite weird thinking about how wealthy they must have been back then.

onyx_z

My family have a similar story but with a large estate. Gambled all the money away apparently... it's real sad mannnnn

Cruddlington

Our family is supposed to be descended from Lord Byron. I went to Newstead Abbey the ancestral home. He sold it to privately finance his own war with Turkey to free the Greeks from Ottoman oppression. Big place. Lots of land too. No money or titles trickled down to me. : (

lotsanoodles

PAGING MAURY!!

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It recently came to light that my mom's sister is actually her mother, making my aunt actually my grandmother.

MARRYING INTO THE DRAMA...

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My wife's family is the coolest family ever. My wife is directly related to Marco Polo. Her family has deep deep roots in Italy and Sicily. Her Mother's side of the family almost all have the last name Polo, including her own mother. They actually showed me the lineage pretty far back, with surprisingly few unknown areas in the family tree.

Her great grandfather was actually kicked out of his small town in Southern Italy for being in the Italian Mafia. Yes. They raised money to send him to America from Italy in the early 20th century, to get rid of the patriarch of their mob.

You think that's all the Mafia in her family? Hahahaha, no it gets worse. On her Mother's side of the family there are also Cubans. Specifically, the Cuban Cigar Mafia in Cuba and Florida. Her Grandmother has grainy old pictures from her days as a "Cuban Cigar Princess" in parades and at town events in Yborr City and Tampa. My wife's crazy grandma took out one of those coffee table books on the Cuban Mafia, and there were circled people in pictures with a bunch of machine guns and cash, and she pointed like _"There's your uncle Diego, and his wife Odalys, OH and there's Ernesto! He's such a sweetheart." When my wife's great grandfather died, they put a block in the sidewalk in Yborr City that said _"[Name]. Our Patriarch." They showed that to me too.

I love this family,

THE POPULAR GENE...

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My great-grandmother and great-grandfather were both carriers of the albinism gene, but neither one of them were actually albino themselves.

They had nine children together: each and every single one of them was albino.

SO CLOSE TO POWER!

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My grandmother dated Bill Clinton in high school, he had a pretty major crush on her. She broke up with him because he was in the band.

Breezeshooter42

Similarly, my mother went on a date with Bill Gates in high school. She decided not to do a second date because he was too nerdy.

PimpRonald

THE CRUCIBLE...

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My 9x great grandma was Rebecca Nurse, one of the women accused and hung at the Salem Witch Trials. Also my grandpa may have murdered his wife (not my grandma).

GOOD OLE SAL...

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Great granddad survived a coal mine collapse, escaped the Mafia, and lied his way into the US army all at the age of 16.My great granddad, Salvatore, worked with his father in the coal mines of Appalachia until a mine collapse trapped him and a bunch of other men in the mines. He thought he was going to die, so he prayed to God and said, "hey, if you get me out of here, I'll never go into the mines again." Lo and behold he gets out.

Great granddad says, "okay, glad you're safe, we're going back in the mine tomorrow." Salvatore is like, "hell no." They get into a fight that ends with Salvatore leaving. He makes his way to New Jersey where he finds himself working in a bordello as a translator between the Italian (Mafia) owners and their patrons. Well, the mob boss's daughter catches feelings for Salvatore and the Family starts pressuring him to marry the girl. Sal takes one look at the situation and thinks, _"this can only lead to bad things," _and sneaks out of the window in the middle of the night.

He makes his way down to Atlanta, and WWI is in full swing at this point and, fearing the Mafia might try and find him, he signs up with the Navy to try and get away from America for a while. They take him in, train him up as a bugle boy and assign him to a ship.

A few months later, everything is going good, the ship captain has confirmed that they are ready to set sail and then he finds out that his bugle boy, Salvatore, isn't actually of age or a US Citizen. Whoops. Well, the captain can't go back and say that he isn't ready to sail, because he would get into a ton of trouble. So he takes Salvatore down to the courthouse and explains the situation to the judge.

The judge says, "no prob, I kniw what to do." So the captain gets him a bottle of Jack, they slip the number 17 into Salvatore's shoe. And when the judge asks Sal, "are you over 17?" Sal says, "yes," and they make him a citizen. Everything is in order. Sal goes and fights in the war. Lives. Comes back. Does a bunch of other really cool stuff. And dies at a ripe old age.

WHOOPS!!

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A relative declined an offer to invest with Henry Ford. He thought it was a fad.

THE ANSWERS LIE WITH THE SEA...

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My great-uncle was accused of arson and murder and ran away to sea, eventually dying in a knife fight in Shanghai (according to the family story). I desperately want to know more about this, but everyone who knew the story is now dead and none of them wanted to talk about it when they were alive anyway.

His sister also led a fairly adventurous but much more legal life and was lost at sea for a while (although thankfully found again).

DUCK & COVER...

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My family claim that one of my great great uncles was the first man in Ireland to get run over by a van. He worked the docks in Cork and supposedly got hit by a freshly delivered one.

Probab

WE AREN'T 'THE BRADY BUNCH!'

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My family lives on what we call the compound. Essentially they own continuous plots of land my Dad, Grandparents, uncle, and cousin all have houses next to each other on the compound. Great for visiting and we had our wedding there (on a river). Dad keeps trying to get my husband and I to join them. Nope.

SHOW US THE LIGHT!

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My great grandparents both worked for Thomas Edison, which is how they met. That great-grandmother is super badass, too...she came to the States when she was 15 and didn't speak English, just as the German Depression was getting bad. She had to teach herself English and raise enough money to bring her starving family over from Germany to join her here. She lost all her savings in the US stock market crash and had to start all over, but she did it!

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH...

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We only die in March. Dogs, grandparents, uncles, we all die in March.

WE'RE A DATELINE EPISODE...

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My grandad was poisoning my nan's tea with rat poison for ages. She was documenting it and told the police, they did a huge bust on him and arrested him in front of all their kids (inc. my mum).

In court, he admitted to it, he agreed to all the charges, he did the deed. Eventually the judge, flummoxed, asked "... But why?" _And his answer was _"Because we agreed to it."

Apparently, they had made an agreement to use rat poison to home-treat her deep vein thrombosis (this brand was basically a blood thinner so the rats couldn't clot when they got injured, and they both distrust doctors). This woman is crazy and I fully believe my grandad's side.

Case got thrown out of court.

RESTRAIN YOURSELF POPS...

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We recently found out that I have at least 5 half siblings because my parents decided it would be nice (and financially beneficial) for my dad to make some donations around the time I was born.

CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS GONE DOWNHILL...

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Jack in the Box used to have a clown for the voicebox in the drive thru... until my grandmother got drunk one night and shot it up after they wouldn't take her order as she walked through.

Things People Secretly Love But Would Never Admit To In Public

Reddit user sweet_chick283 asked: 'What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?;

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Bruno Guerrero/Unsplash

What makes us all unique is our passions and the things we love, whether it's singing in the shower, reading books, or listening to specific music artists.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are judged for our various tastes and interests thanks to social media, and it makes us consciously selective about sharing the things we love on the internet.

Curious to hear about people's personal desires under anonymity, Redditor sweet_chick283 asked:

"What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?"

These aren't really chores for the following Redditors.

Good Clean Fun

"Mopping, im a janitor and generally hate my work... but damn mopping is so good."

– MrDDog06

"When you have a great rhythm going it is something special. I get the same feeling while I vacuum, but won’t let my wife know I enjoy it."

– Bogus_34

Act Of Unwrinkling

"Ironing clothes. A dozen of them. Can’t explain how it relaxes me. I told one person and they looked at me like I’m crazy."

– eerie_white_glow

"My mum misses the days when dad would be out on a Friday night, my brother out with friends and me upstairs quietly playing PS1. She would pour herself a Bacardi & Coke and do the ironing while watching her TV shows."

"I'm sure she doesn't really miss it now that we've moved out and they've retired but it was her wind-down after a busy working week so I can see how people can find it relaxing."

– xdq

Our solo actions can spark joy.

Big Brother Is Watching

"pretending to be on the Truman show and whenever im in my house i act all inconspicuous so they dont know that i know that they’re watching me."

– Bec_121

"C’mon man, you’re not supposed to let him know. You signed a contract when signing up for live views. I’m reporting you."

– doeswaspsmakehoney

The Multi-Tasker

"Playing video games naked at home while eating cheese."

– thickening_agent

Releasing The Kraken

"I love the feeling when you've eaten good fibre and let out a solid long train log in the toilet. That feeling is heavenly."

– therapoootic

"Even better when it’s a clean wipe and not a poo crayon."

– TheWarmestHugz

Ultimate Comfort

"My (male 41) weekend routine is coming home from work, make hot chocolate, start a fire, dress in a ugly pink nightgown made for old ladies and watch forensic files."

– crazyloomis

Some people are obsessed with collecting things.

So Kawai

"Sanrio stationery stores. All those different multicolor pens, a thousand kinds of erasers, spiral bound notebooks galore... my kids sadly have absolutely no appreciation for this wonderland..."

– HavingNotAttained

It's A Staple

"Office supplies have a weird, special place in my heart ever since I was a kid. They don't even have to be 'cute' necessarily."

"Japan's legendary stationery stores is unironically a reason I want to go."

– _CozyLavender_

Not Caring Anymore

"The older I get the shorter that list gets. Not because I love less things, but because I don't care about hiding it."

– Bi-Beast

"YES!! I'm 53 now. I'm working my first job in public since 2006. Today is Halloween and we're allowed to dress up so I am sitting here waiting to go to work dressed as a VERY bad Wednesday Addams. My bf said I'd 'look stupid' because no one else will probably dress up and I'm like, 'WHO CARES!' My makeup looks horrible and not like I practiced, but I DO NOT CARE! I'm having fun with it anyhow and I don't care if my coworkers dress up or not. I'm bein' ME! :)"

– deanie1970

Honorable mentions start here.

The Savior

"Picking up worms from the street and sidewalks when it rains and moving them into the dirt so they don’t burn in the sun, every time it rains I do this."

– sky_kitten89

Hero Of The Moment

"Yoooo I scoot SO many snails and worms. I work as a tech/mechanic at an automotive shop, I had a peoject car towed to my house the other day and it was covered in snails. I saw them when the tow guy/coworker was unloading and I was like, 'oh! It comes with free snails!' and began moving them. He laughed then realized and said, '... Oh, you're serious. Uh... Okay.'"

"I don't care who knows it. These little things barely can look out for themselves, why shouldn't we if we can take a moment to help? I don't care what happens next, it probably doesn't matter overall but I can help this moment."

– chris14020

Why should some of the hidden desires mentioned above have to be secret?

Redditors opening up about some of these would make them a hit at parties–no shaming.

As a matter of fact, I'll totally be down for a Forensic Files viewing party where we all make hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and cozy up together in our respective pink ugly nightgowns for old ladies.

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Anita Jankovic on Unsplash

Life is all about learning new things, including learning new things about the people in your life. Sometimes, the things you learn are shocking, disgusting, or even scary.

I was the new kid in town when I was in fifth grade and my first friend was this quiet (and cute) boy in my class. He and I remained friends through middle school, and even though we drifted apart in high school, our interactions when we ran into each other in the halls or the cafeteria were really nice.

All throughout school and even beyond, he remained quiet, polite, and reserved. Just a few years ago, I read a news article written about him. He had apparently fatally wounded his father after an argument.

I had to reread the article several times to make sure it was really about my old friend. I think about it a lot, and still can't believe it!

I'm not the only one that has a shocking story like that. A lot of Redditors learned shocking or scary things about people from their childhood, and are ready to share.

It all started when Redditor ValuableHovercraft90 asked:

"What's the scariest thing you have found out about someone from your childhood (old friends, teachers, etc)?"

So Creepy

"That the boy who lived across the street and moved when I was 6 is still obsessed with me and my sister 30+ years later and posts ramblings on Facebook with our names and that he's going to be with us. Pretty terrifying honestly."

– mrscrawfish

The Worst List

"A neighbour died when he was 30. Police searched a trailer he owned and found weapons, bombs and a list of people he wanted to kill. My uncle was on that list."

– Flashy_Somewhere_648

"I'm glad this ended the way it did."

– CreepyCandidate4449

Terrifying

"One of my best friends (and locker partner) from high school was kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq. After a nightmare of 6+ months, all went silent. We buried an empty casket in his memory 10 years later."

– francois_du_nord

"This is horrifying. How incredibly sad for family to never get any closure. Very sad to read this. :("

– fizzycherryseltzer

"About 15 years ago my dad received a very good offer for work in Iraq, as a construction specialist. He was considering going, since at the same time the financial crisis started in Europe, but then one of his friends, a civil engineer, was kidnapped. Never returned back either."

– 19lgkrn70

"Same thing for my dad old coworker told him how great the money was. Dude got sniped working on a radio tower or something. My dad luckily was like, "I got a wife and family that would kill me for doing something so dangerous.""

– tristanjones

End Of The Friendship

"One of my dad's good friends, and my "uncle", just stopped coming around one day. I was told he was always busy with work, away, etc."

"Turns out, he killed 3 people in a drug deal gone bad and got life in prison."

"What's scary, is that we were over at his house for a weekend BBQ with a bunch of people earlier in the day of the night he did it, and it happened at his house."

– pnwking509

School Friends

"Don't know if it was scary, but I grew up with a kid whose birthday was the day before mine so we almost always shared birthdays in elementary school. We were friends, even spent the night at his house growing up. Later on in our teens, he started getting into some really dark stuff. I recognize that now as his being a sociopath, but like most everybody else at the time, figured it was just him going through some kind of emo phase. Over the years, we lost touch but I would occasionally run into him around town and our meetings were cordial, if not friendly."

"Last year, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing a man back in 1993, roughly 3 years after we got out of High School. Apparently he, his sister and another man lured this guy out to the boonies and killed him to steal money he had gotten in an insurance settlement."

"The only reason they were caught is the other guy got religion, felt remorse and went on the local TV station and aired a confession before turning himself in (He got 25 to life)."

– 530_Oldschoolgeek

"A girl I went to school with did the same thing. She was the nicest girl, got good grades & was kind of a dork. Mixed with the wrong people after graduation. She and two others lured an old man into an abandoned building, stabbed him and robbed him. He later died from his wounds."

– HereF0rTheSnacks

The Worst Afternoon

"I had a friend in grade school who was being raised by her single dad. She had a unique name and pretty face. She never talked about her mom, and she was super outgoing, so all us kids just made friends with her quickly. It was weird her dad never brought her to our birthday parties, even though she was always invited, but we didn’t think much of it. A couple times, she was allowed to ride the bus home with me after school, and we played and had fun until her dad came to pick her up. Later in the school year, she invited me to ride the bus to her house, and my mom agreed. I was 10. It was the scariest afternoon of my young life. I cannot articulate the extreme tension in her home. We weren’t allowed to make any noise, and we mostly stayed outside, me desperate for my mom to arrive."

"Her dad screamed at us for opening the door, and I was too nervous to go into the house to use the restroom. I knew she was embarrassed that there were no snacks or comforting interactions, like at my house. I didn’t really tell anyone how uncomfortable the experience was. After that day, I didn’t hang out with her a lot. We were in different classes, drifted apart, and decades later, when my own daughter asked to go to a friend’s house, I thought about that girl."

"As an adult, I figured out her dad probably worked a night shift and tried to sleep during the day…or he was an alcoholic who was really angry. Maybe both? I looked her up on social media, and thanks to her unique name and face, I recognized her immediately. She’s a perfectly well-adjusted woman with a beautiful family. She even had pictures of her kids with her dad and tributes to him as the greatest father and grandpa. Her whole page made me wonder what the hell I experienced that afternoon in the 4th grade?"

– OlderAndTired

School Is Supposed To Be Safe!

"In our school, we had something called "de halte." In English, it means "the halt" literally translated. Basically time out. BIf you had a meltdown in class or you were just a little sh*thead, you were sent there for 15 minutes or so to cool off.

The de hatle teacher got fired and jailed for breaking 4 different wrists of 4 different students by bending them the wrong way..."

– Ok_Win7358

*Skin Crawling*

​"There was this classmate a grade below me but all grades shared the same drama class. She was weird and kind of "off." I tried to befriend her at one point and was rebuffed. It later came out that she was actually an almost 30-year-old woman who would show up in a new area claiming to be a 15-year-old runaway. Kind of freaked me out."

jackfaire

It turns out it was a good thing that the friendship didn't work out!