Let's play family legends - stories that you heard and always thought were true

[hedgehog]

but maybe got a little garbled along the way.

This isn't to mock Obama but to show that everyone has a family story that's a little off-kilter although true in essence.

I'll go first: back in first grade, I told everyone JFK was my cousin because that's what my Dad called him; "Cousin Jack".

Later, I assumed my Dad was referrring to our common ethnic heritage. Still later, I found out that we may be shirt tail cousins of some sort, and that there is a family story of Joseph P. Kennedy dropping by to see the family in Oil City back in the 30's.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

1. I want to play

My mother told me we were related to royalty. I bought it because she was, after all, my mom.

We are not related to royalty.

My mother was a fucking idiot and made it up.

But my belief was honest. BUT since I blabbed it all over the elementary school at the time I realized I had spread a stupid fable made up by a woman who wanted - no, CRAVED attention.

Thank GAWD I do not know anyone from elementary school...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. My grandmother told me that my uncle (ok ok GREAT uncle) fought in WWII

But when I got old enough, I did the math and further looked into it and he really fought in the Korean war.

[Bicoastal]

3. My Grandfather swore up and down that Walt Disney was Jewish.

Because he had a client who had worked in the old studio system, and supposedly they once came to Walt depressed after being harassed by some anti-semitic language. Disney supposedly looked at him sympathetically and said, "I know how you feel. I'm Jewish too, but don't tell anyone."

No way that can POSSIBLY be true, is there?

[grassfed]

9. Walt Disney was Irish

[Drunken Irishman]

21. Irish and German, his mother was German, so it's possible she was Jewish.

[grassfed]

29. She was German Catholic - Ohio farmer stock

according to a Disney animator neighbor from my childhood in L.A.

[tularetom]

4. That my uncle was the first paratrooper to land in Normandy on D-Day

and that he was the first injured soldier to return to the US after the invasion.

Still don't know if it's true but he did lose an eye in action on D-day and was sent back just days after June 6.

There was a companion rumor after "the Longest Day" was released that he was the guy who got hung up on the church steeple (I believe in Ste Mere Eglise) but he denies that to this day.

[tokenlib]

11. I believe, the guy hung up on the steeple lost both legs as a result of the injuries. n/t

[tularetom]

12. Yeah and he was in the 82nd Airborne

My uncle was in the 101st out of Fort Campbell

[yy4me]

5. My Italian grandmother's family was driven out of Italy by

some kind of government coup around the turn of the century. Supposedly the family had some kind of title and they lost land, title, everything to whatever group took control of the government. I'm not sure I really believed it but it made a great tale to tell my young friends.

[tularetom]

14. Hey my italian great grandfather was kicked out of Switzerland for

marrying a German woman and telling the Catholic church to stuff it. And the story is that his family were the ones who kicked him out.

[Bright Eyes]

6. It's a silly one.

I told my 3rd grade teacher I was related to Civil War hero, General Sherman. I was REALLY related to a guy named General Sheridan (I can't say I'm proud, he was an "Indian Fighter" after the Civil War.)

[EmilyAnne]

7. I actually thought that one of my great uncles was a Marlboro Man model in the 1940s.

It turns out that he was, indeed, on a single dinky bill board in downtown Sweetwater, TX with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. It was an ad for custom hats for a local shop.
Somehow, maybe because someone told me that he looked like the Marlboro Man when he was younger or maybe because he smoked himself silly until the day he died from lung cancer, emphysema and asbestosis, I came to believe that he was the Marlboro Man and I told people about it all the time. It was such a great story, too, in light of the way he died.
Then, one day, I mentioned it in front of my mother and she gave me the weirdest look. She had no idea where I would have heard something like that. Go figure.

Another one is that my grandfather was always called "Duke" after John Wayne. One day, when I was in my 20s, my great aunt muttered to me, "well, that's not actually true. That was his nickname with his first wife (not my grandmother). We called them "Duke and Duchess." Not only had I been lied to about the nickname's origin, but I had never heard that my grandfather had some whirlwind, Depression era marriage at the age of 16 to a much older woman! They even had a baby who died!

And then, of course, my parents were both virgins when they married.

[PassingFair]

8. My mother ALWAYS told the story of how she was made to eat her own vomit...

by her MOTHER!

Disgusting, right?

She always told us (5 kids), as we
CHOKED down our wax beans, that when
she threw up at the table, her mother
MADE HER EAT IT.

She is 73 now, and last week, as I was
retelling the old "mean grandma" story,
my mother DENIED THAT IT EVER HAPPENED.

She DENIED that she ever told the story.
I confimed with my siblings and with MY
CHILDREN (who have also grown up with
my mother living across the street), and
I am not crazy, she did tell this story
throughout our childhood.

Now I don't know WHAT to believe!

Parents today!!!

[Bucky]

10. I was told that Rea Valley in Missouri was named after the only pro-Union family member in the 1860s

Supposedly he left Arkansas with his family & slaves in 1861 so that he could stay part of the greatest country in the world. He was supposed to have relocated to a union state cause he opposed "The Secesh."

Years later I found out that there is no Rea Valley Missouri. There's a Rea Valley in Arkansas, but I have no idea if it's related to my people or if any of them actually supported the Union. For that matter, every other family story I heard claimed our people were always too poor to own slaves.

There's also a matter of nine years missing from my grandfather's service record from the merchant marine, but that's a different story.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

13. Ah, family legends...

My Grampa, a Sgt, fought in the Battle of the Bulge -- he attempted to cross three times, losing all but a few of his men in the attempts. He was told by a Capt. to cross again - Gramdpa immediately told him to go fuck himself, and maybe he should try to cross. He was busted on the spot to a Pvt., and he and his remaining men were folded into another unit and they crossed until they took the shore.

That is the story as I heard 1000 times growing up,

How much of it is 100% accurate I may never know but, for now, that's the story and I'm sticking to it. :)

[Liberal Gramma]

15. That great-grandfathers fought on opposite sides of the Civil War

Didn't happen, according to actual records.

[hedgehog]

16. Can you imagine the chagrin in years to come, when Chelsea

Clinton's grandchild comes home from school one day after finding out that Great-Grandma didn't really dodge sniper fire?

[Liberal Gramma]

18. lol

[JackintheGreen]

17. I have several

There's a small town in central IL called Rapapee that's supposedly named after my grandmother's grandfather, but the map-makers got the name wrong. Her family name is Rapalee.

In the 11th century my family were the court musicians to a minor king in the region of Sligo, Ireland.

The original Gaelic of my name, Mulvany, meant 'devotee of wine' (Maol'fiona, or some such).

And finally, I found a family tree in my bottom drawer once that suggested we were descendants of both Lawrence of Arabia and Richard the Lion-Hearted. Man! How lucky can one boy be?

[DevonRex]

19. That we were related to a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Unfortunately that particular signer had no kids. And further research indicated that we weren't related to any branch of his family.

[galledgoblin]

20. hi mom, you can answer this one for me

I know now great-uncle Jim was at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack, but for the longest time I thought it was Walter who was there. where did he serve?

[hedgehog]

25. Uncle Walter served in North Africa and Italy. He was ground crew

for the Air Force (according to your father, but if you ever run for office, you better specify Army AIr Corps!)

You could tell people that he inspired Catch-22.......

[noel711]

22. This is not what I heard, but what I told...

Back in my classroom days, I told my students that I was at Woodstock...

I got the rep as the coooooool teacher...the Woodstock teacher...

Well... I was, but it was the year after.

I'm sure my legend continued..

[Drunken Irishman]

23. That my great-great grandfather left Ireland because he was with the IRA.

Which sounds cool, until you realize this part of the family emigrated over from Ireland in the late 1800s, before the IRA had formed.

[hedgehog]

27. He probably was involved with a predecessor group or even

a land reform group. The essence is there even if the details are garbled, which is what happened to Obama.

[hedgehog]

28. He probably was involved with a predecessor group or even

a land reform group. The essence is there even if the details are garbled, which is what happened to Obama.

[blogslut]

24. My father's middle name was Elbert

His father's middle name was Elbert. My brother's middle name is Elbert. His son's middle name is Elbert.

My parents and grandparents are long gone and to this day, I have no idea who the hell Elbert was.

[Mz Pip]

26. I always thought my

grandfather died in a coal mining accident. He was 41 at the time. Turns out he was playing cards in a bar and got drunk, fell off the chai and hit his head and died.

This happened decades before I was even born, but I had this image of this recent immigrant working in appalling conditions to support his family. Oh well.