My Nan was a Werewolf

My maternal grandmother claimed she was descended from rob roy the famous Scottish bandit. I think either my great or great great grandfather was a famous maker of knives.

Oh that is so wonderful and so tragic at the same time :( 

My gran's family actually hid someone during the German occupation. But sadly they got caught when a neighbour who was collaborating with the Nazi regime got suspicious and reported them. 

He lived in South America for 24 years when he was younger- he used to tell the most adventurous stories (probably with some embellishment)- he used to show me this scar and claim a snake had bitten him there- I believed him at the time but I'm not so sure now :) 

My (surrogate) grandad's nickname was 'Aalen Drach' which translated to english means 'Old Dragon' - but this was meant in a kind and positive way- He was a good family friend who was like my grandpa- I miss him a lot. His biological family sadly was rather cruel and mean (They even stole the little money he had when he was in hospital, claiming they needed that to pay for his funeral should he die and when he did die a few weeks later in hospital, he was cremated and they didn't even pay 50 euros to have a ceremony- it was so sad, no goodbye, no funeral, no plaque with his name, nothing). We were his family- He used to say 'you've got your family but you can choose your friends'. I liked him a lot- he was so easy to please, somewhat mischievous and a great granddad. My mum was the one who was there for him when he was in hospital. 

Luvvie blood.

Not a lot to report. My Grandmother was the first woman to become a manager at  a Woolworth store. Her maiden name was Wood. Her Aunt was Marie Lioyd, real name Tilly Wood. She was one of the biggest stars of the theatre in London.

My Nan was an air-raid watch woman during WWII stationed on the Lagonda car factory roof in Surrey!

This is less of an ancestry thing and more of a funny family story, but:

My maternal grandfather and one of his brothers used to ride around in a motorbike and sidecar together in the 1950s. The 'sidecar' was actually just a big crate, which I was told had previously been used to transport chickens to and from the nearest livestock market.

Both of my Paternal Great-Grandfathers were in the IRA; during the time around the Easter Rising, and Partition.

My family tree is unexciting. The only one of interest is my cousin, also on the spectrum but she is a little mentally unwell. She attempted to kill her brother and has been institutionalised since.

Other than her, not a lot of excitement in my family.

Thanks, Dawn. 

Nice headline btw, Steven.  That's grabbed my attention for 10 minutes of fun.  Thank you

Don't get me started or I'll info dump for hours.  Story I most enjoyed was finding a petty criminal in the Scrubs and digging all his prison records out of the archives at Kew, complete with Victorian mug shot... all in the days before any of this was online and it took some serious detective work. Then I got my paws on the original police statements with this Inspector recounting how he'd run around half of Yorkshire to catch the little toe rag.

Oh and then there was the murder!  If any one knows the Three horse Shoes in Enfield next to Danby court - he's in my tree.  There were pages and page in the times about that one.  

Then there was the artillery man who died on Guernsey; his only surviving child was my 3x g grand mother, Henrietta, and born not long before he passed - that one took a lot of detective work to crack.  Poor little Henrietta and mum were then apprehended under the poor law for wandering and begging and packed of to Yorkshire where they had never been in their lives to be dependant on the parish there being as that is where our artillery man came from.

Then there's a whole bunch of bruisers and likely lads in Cumberland who were in trouble with the law for being too handy with their fists, or else in the papers for winning wrestling matches.

Then there's our Charlotte who's obituary confuses her father with another of the same name and lauds him for some achievements her never did and some which he did do and links her supposedly to the Red Barn murders.  

And we are related to Jonathan Quiller Couch... distantly...

The list goes on, but you'd maybe all fall asleep.  Lol

Most of mine - the men anyway - were craftsmen: iron moulders, gunsmiths, stonemasons, potters, watchmakers and suchlike. My most interesting connection is a probable descent from one of the nephews of Colonel William Careless, a Royalist cavalry officer in the Civil Wars. He was most famous as the man who hid with Charles II in the Royal Oak, after the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester.

I should add that my family also produced a number of formidable matriarchs, They were certainly very astute, one of my gt gt grandfathers was a coal mine owner in the Black Country, he left all his property to his wife, despite having adult sons.

my dads dad was a freemason, firefighter, i think he was in the army one time possibly national service when he was younger maybe in that case im guessing, he owned a chippy too. forgot what age he died but i think he managed to get a retirement.

my mums dad worked his way up to a manager position in some warehouse, he died pretty much as soon as he had to retire in his 60s and didnt really get much of a retirement. seems kinda pointless if peoples goal is to work so they can retire doesnt it? lol

my dads mum died of cancer before i was born, my mums mum died of alzheimers and dementia. dunno what my dads mum did but my mums mum worked part time in a chippy when she worked to support her household but grandads wage was the main income for them.

ancestry past that? .. dunno, probably just regular worker class poor that all were tricked into thinking working hard would make them rich but yet not a single one of them ever were rich or created any generational dynastic wealth like how its actually supposed to be done.