Ran out to get a subway, the veggies they put in them are good for me. Then I got sidetracked on a couple threads and powerball. Back to normal.
Nearly everyone in the west could be descended from him, reasonably sure I am several different ways, but I don't care too much about that. Few in the Orient could claim descent.
I never found any presidents, must be one or two, distant cousin type. I've found some interesting ones, one was the first Earl of Warwick, the Castle, visited there in the 70's, took a beautiful photo of it, had no clue I had any connection.
I guess the best I can say about mine is most seemed hard working, resilient, people of faith here and there but not much in recent generations on both sides.
I once dreamed that my father was once Count Crispin, had never heard of him, and while my father was still alive, told him my dream. His response was, "a Count, eh?" Nothing after that. My father was very humble but was scrupulous in his career, civil engineer, and in managing family property and taxes. Super intelligent but under appreciated. Then I found I was descended from him but my mentor on the Plantagenet group found a bad link. A couple years later I found a vetted line, have taken a few bad turns that way.
One of my favorite stories is my sister asked me to do her and her husband's. On his side, they were close relatives of the Prime Minister of Denmark. So I got a lot about him for them. Then I got to corresponding with his cousin and discovered my sister and I are 10th cousins of her husband. We had fun with that.
But I never found any Mayflower descent for us but the cousin said my sister's husband was through a female. His heritage was about 3rd or 4th gen Swedish. So I told my sister he was a Mayflower descendant. She hesitated and said, "Oh, well I guess I won't tell him right away or he will hold it over my head." I could just see that. It makes me chuckle to myself.
I've got a few Rev. war, but don't care about stuff like DAR. A lot in my research have tugged at my heart actually. I call them my little people. They lived tragic lives seemingly through no fault of their own.
I had one more ancestor I'm not proud of. My gr gr grandfather on my mom's side. Much has eluded me about them; they were the last to come to America in the 1850's. Can't find the ship. Can't find a lot of things. Did find their marriage in Manchester Cathedral, and my gr grandfather's obit I think it was said he was from Manchester. He was a brewer by trade with 5 sons.
I think a couple were alcoholics including my grandfather who died B4 I was born, they were huge, portly men. But what bothers me some is the one who came from England was arrested every year for the last five years of his life for selling liquor on Sunday. It makes me a little mad that he didn't care enough to respect our laws.
So that's a snapshop of it. English, Scots Irish, German. Possibly one Native American way back. A great great grandfather owned two slaves in KY but moved to IL so would have had to sell them, free them, or somehow lost them. He was a man of means because he paid a substitute for my gr grandfather to fight in the Civil War. I sent for his records and found he died of disease in Louisiana, buried in Baton Rouge National Cemetery. So I have to assume the earlier ones in that line (my mom's side) owned slaves in VA if they had the means.
Now that paid substitute thing brings me some proxy guilt. It was only speculated by my late mother in her notes but I proved it out. If my gr grandfather would have gone and died (he was married with about 3 children). The year the substitute died, they had a son six months later and named him the same name. I thought he died but remembered he never married but went gold mining in Alaska. My father met him there during the war.
Then my grandmother was born. I might not be here if. There's a lot of if's in the chains, isn't there?
No one on my dad's side was from the south, all New England to Illinois.
One more thing. I wonder if I got a double whammy from the Osgood's with the depression and anxiety. My gr grandmother Caroline's brother hung himself, and one of her daughters did the same thing, also a second cousin, young mother, gassed herself in the garage. Then my cherished son suddenly was diagnosed as bi-polar, refused any treatment, and killed himself. So something is definitely wrong with the genes somewhere. My dad and his father suffered from depression but were helped through it by their wives and my dad was really happy in his final years.