Family History

One great way for me to save information on my past is to type them here, where they can never be lost.

For those, almost all of you, who don't care, stop reading.

Anyway today was a family history day since my Uncle is in town. My father and he talk about old stories and that helps piece together family history.

One of the mysteries in my family comes from a surname that we weren't sure how it arrived.

My great grandfather was completely disinherited as an only surviving child (on what is now..not so much then..VERY valuable land on the Greenwich/Stamford border) because he married an Irish Catholic. With this disinheritance we really had no idea about his own family. The only thing we knew were the names of his parents. We didn't know where his parents were buried (We atleast have a clue for a town as of today) nor really know about my great grandpas aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Google and someone else's research really aided us. I was able to find the marriage in the family that explains a surname that showed up in our family and has now continued to be used in family names for five generations. I was also able to find out the name of my great grandfathers, grandpa or my great, great, great grandpa Floyd. He is the person who married into the surname we were wondering about.

Hopefully I will learn more in further research. I am pretty desperate to find out where my great great grandfather is buried because I believe that finding his burial place might give us a clue about his family that was cut off from the rest of my family when his Methodist son married a Catholic.

I can't imagine how big of a deal this must have been at the time. My great grandpa probably broke his parents hearts. He was the last person born in his family in the 1880s. His three older siblings all died young. His parents must have felt blessed to have had him survive, the only surviving child, and then just absolutely crushed when he married a Catholic. I bet if I find my great great grandpa's grave that he will be turning over in his grave, showing me his rear and giving me the finger at the thought of a Catholic with his last name tracking him down.

Speaking of this religious divide in my family, my dad's cousin married a man who was divorced. Because of this the church said that parishioners should avoid his dance studio in town. Imagine that happening in 2012?

I also found out that my great great grandpa's brother Chauncey worked in New York and was a jeweler...(That story conflicts with a record that showed him as a butcher, but he could have changed professions later in life) Apparently my grandpa or great grandpa (If I had to guess great grandpa) remembered seeing Chauncey at the train station to go into New York for his job.

One thing I did today was to drive with my father and uncle around town and see all of their old stomping grounds. You learn a lot from that and their stories. I saw the house my dad grew up in. My dad was able to tell such a great history of the city. He knew who lived in what house, and as a commercial realtor he also knows the history of all of the businesses in the city. He should write a book about our city. As someone who was born, raised and lived in the city his whole life he has an immense amount of information to pass on.

On this trip I also found out that there was at one time, hopefully there still is, a photo of my great grandpa (who I, nor my father met) in the Fire Station downtown. He was a fireman and they had random photos of old firefighters up.

We also went to the family plots at the cemetery. I learned that originally the plots were supposed to be for my great grandmothers family. However they didn't pay the cemetery their dues so my grandpa and grandma paid for it and we over took it.

My dad's Aunt was the town drunk. She was fine until she married the wrong guy. The guy she married was a drunk and turned her into one too. The guy she married was so drunk once that he fell into a snow bank and fell asleep drunk and then lost his foot because of it. My dad's aunt was also apparently famous for walking into bars drunk and then saying she was the sister of my grandpa who owned that business downtown. My grandpa apparently abhored that, and no wonder. He did apparently say he was very much thankful that she married and had a different last name than he did.

I've also heard that when she was drunk that she was really mean and that she would curse a lot. My uncle remembered learning many words from her. There is also a story that my grandma loaned $168 to my dad's aunt so that she could get her 1968 Chevy fixed. She was broke at the time I guess and couldn't believe it would cost that much money to fix her car. The story goes that my grandma was hoping she wouldn't pay her back because that way my dad's aunt would avoid coming back for more money. If she repaid than she could come back asking for more.

Another one of my dad's aunts moved out of town. My father only saw her once, at his father's funeral. Apparently his father (my grandpa) called her the smart one for moving out of town.

My grandpa died of a heart attack while on jury duty. He had a heart attack previously in his life and was hospitalized after that. He was told not to exercise by his doctors after that. Not exactly what would be recommended now. It's also no wonder he died of a heart attack because he returned to smoking two years after his hospital visit and he was famous for having rolls with lots and lots of butter later in his life. Growing up however, my grandfather was an Eagle Scout and in great shape. That just changed as he got older.

My grandpa also once pointed out a man on the street to either my dad or uncle. He said "You see that man over there. He has no teeth." When asked how he knew that my grandpa responded "I knocked them out." Apparently it was a friend of his who got boxing gloves as a gift and I guess my grandpa tried out the gloves to see if they worked, and they did. (I bet this story gets really embellished in coming generations...I may have unknowingly done some, but that's fairly accurate. He did apparently say he knocked them out)

My Uncle was able to give me the only two things I know about my great grandmother, my dad's paternal grandmother. Apparently she was known to be really tough. My Uncle's only VIVID memory of her is that one day she went "Hey Billy, come here. Come flush the toilet for me." What a wonderful memory.

Hopefully you leave better memories than that for people. My dad's paternal grandmother is also partly responsible for my name. I am named after my father. We have the same first name and same middle initial (but different middle names). My dad was named after his paternal grandmother's relative (I believe uncle). Our names differ on middle names. I was told my parents met a nice young man who they liked who had a name that began with T.

My dad's paternal grandmother also charged my father everytime he would use the phone at the house. I've heard the story go two ways...One way is that my dad's paternal grandmother (my grandpa's mother) came into my grandpas business and used the phone and my grandpa asked for the nickel to use the phone to get even with his mother who charged. The other way I heard the story is that my grandpas mother just gave him the five cents. When one of my grandpas workers saw this they gave him a hard time for charging his own mother to use the phone. He was just getting even.

My grandpa once (I've heard this story tons of times) punished one of his employees who locked himself out of the shop by making him climb through the window for a week. This sort of "memorable" punishment, which I laugh at, also inspired me this year to come up with a good way of making a freshman remember to get her shin guards. She left them at the field after her first practice. I didn't want this to be a habit so I brought them back with me to the dining hall and then put them on a plate by the desserts and told her to go get dessert.

My grandpa seems to be a bit of a clown or light hearted at times. Apparently if someone would call the house at the wrong time he would pick up and say "Tokyo Bridge Builder." At the time it was (and probably still is) obscenely expensive to call Tokyo. If someone thought they were calling Tokyo back when my grandpa was alive they hung up really quickly, or so the story goes. The other one he would use is "Sergeant O'Rourke - Main Desk." He would pretend to be a cop. Also effective at getting people to hang up.

When we got home my dad took out a knight stick that was a relative of ours. He was a New York city cop way, way back. He also apparently beat up three guys and threw them into a well. That's a family story that you treasure, and should.

On my dad's mother's side I found out that a relative was one of the first investors in Roton Point. It's a ridiculously expensive beach club. It would be nice if we still had connections to it. I think my father looked into getting a membership and judging by the price he mentioned, I am glad he didn't.