"My great-grandfather was knighted by the king of Greece for inventing a way to save the grape crops that were dying rapidly. He basically built an easy-to-replicate tenting system to protect them from a drought/heat wave that also worked to preserve irrigation water. When he came to the United States, he got the government contract to manufacture all of the tents for our soldiers in World War I."
"My great-great-many times over uncle is E.T.A. Hoffman, who wrote The Nutcracker story and is considered by many to be one of the original modern horror story authors."
"I found out I'm related to Charles Arther Floyd, more commonly known as Pretty Boy Floyd. He was a bank robber in the '20s and '30s and died in 1934 in a shootout with the FBI. He's an uncle several times removed."
Several family lore examples reveal unexpected, notable ancestors spanning invention, literature, and crime. A great-grandfather received knighthood from the king of Greece for inventing a tenting system that saved dying grape crops during droughts, conserved irrigation water, and later secured a U.S. government contract to manufacture military tents in World War I. Another lineage connects to E.T.A. Hoffmann, author of The Nutcracker story and an early modern horror writer. A separate family line includes Charles Arthur 'Pretty Boy' Floyd, a 1920s–30s bank robber killed in a 1934 shootout with the FBI. Readers are invited to share their own genealogical discoveries.
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