Found out my great-grandfather was a psychopath.

[Idaho45guy]

Anyone else have a relative in the family tree above you that is truly awful?

Was talking to my mom about ideas for my next novel, and she said I should base it on my great-grandfather. My last novel was a murder mystery about a serial killer in Idaho. Why would I base the next one on my great-grandfather??

She explained to me about how he was infamous for being hot-tempered, violent, and cruel. His 2nd wife died under suspicious circumstances when she fell from his Model T Ford shortly after she revealed that she was pregnant. He hated children and didn't want any more, which is why he left my great-grandmother and married a younger woman who was supposedly barren.

But, surprisingly, she became pregnant and within a month, fell from the moving vehicle for an unknown reason at 35 mph and lingered a few days in a coma, then died.

My mom revealed all this to me, thinking it would inspire me to write my next novel.

No. It did not. It was awful to find out that I am descended from such an evil and selfish SOB. His son, my grandfather, was a notorious drunk and horse trainer who cheated on my grandmother multiple times. He died before I was born. My grandmother died when I was 4 years old, and physically abused my mother and was a cold and hardened woman.

My dad's side of the family is not much better. No murders that I'm aware of, but certainly dysfunctional with lots of emotional abuse.

Anyone else discover that their ancestors were just awful?

[BJK]

Just a tip, as long as you turned out OK, don't dwell on what others did. It doesn't reflect on you unless you allow it to. I would just profess to myself to never be like them.

[memtb]

Yes, several! But, a great, great, great uncle was especially despicable.....John Brown, of the Harper’s Ferry incident! memtb

[alfadan]

There have been many drunks in my ancestry; I might have 2 beers a year so it stops with me. You are a good man far removed from him so you're doing good.

[slim1836]

Yup, John Selman who shot and killed John Wesley Hardin.

Slim

[MUSTANG]

I suspect that there might be some less than "Upstanding" relatives in our families past. A few Black and White Photo's survive from the late 1890's to early 1900's with the "Family Clan" in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico on the front porch sporting their Rifles and Pistols prominently in the photo's. Of course; they could also be the posse. Rangers, or... Or perhaps they were on both sides of the "Law" at different times in their lives.

[Scrounge]

Yes, several! But, a great, great, great uncle was especially despicable.....John Brown, of the Harper’s Ferry incident! memtb

I think you'll find that depends on who you talked to about him. Those were some particularly tough times. My great grandma's family was run out of Vienna, MO, by other members of the family because they were abolitionists. They were told to leave or die. this was also in the 1850's, when your great uncle was doing his thing. He was upset about pacifist abolitionists not getting anything done, despite many decades of work, and advocated violence to force the change. And he wasn't shy about applying it, either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)

Kind of like the line from Harry Potter: He did great things. Terrible things, but great things. He put his life on the line for what he believed. And he died for his beliefs. Not many people remember my several times great grandparents on either side. He's still remembered today, both positively and negatively.

Bill

[smithnframe]

Welcome to the family LOL!

[memtb]

And another.

Apparently, this one was a “wee bit light in the loafers”! It seems that this young man was in love with a girl about to be married in a large church wedding! I don’t know whether they had any relationship....or if it was “one sided”!

He entered the church during the ceremony, and opened fire on the wedding party. Several were killed or wounded.....including the shooter. He was severely injured, and was lying on his deathbed when his father got to him. Family history says, his father sat by his bedside, placed his pocket watch on the “chamber pot” table and then told his son, ”if you’re not dead by midnight.....I’ll kill you myself”! He didn’t have to kill his son. But, knowing of my ancestors....he would have followed-through with his promise! memtb

[sundog]

Not sure about being a psychopath, but certainly strange - - my paternal Grandmother's first cousins were the Collyer brothers.

I remember older members of the family speaking of them. My mother was at the funeral(s).

Many/most firemen know what a "Collyer House" is.

[Butzbach]

Does slave ownership count? (Asking for a friend . . .)

[memtb]

Does slave ownership count? (Asking for a friend . . .)

Oh.....we gonna go there too! memtb

[MaryB]

Grandpa on mom's side was hung as a horse thief in the Dakota Territory, great grandfather on mom's side died in the snake river after rusting some cattle and being chased by a posse...All mom ever said about them... Step grandpa on mom's side was killed in a bar brawl up in northern MN when he stole from another logger... I have cousins on that side of the family who are in prison for various things to do with drugs...

Mom always called them the outlaws for a reason... and we never had much contact with any of them. I remember dad breaking one of mom's brothers arms after he touched my oldest sister when she was 12... and tossing him through the door on the way out of the house! Dad was VERY protective of us for a reason. He knew mom's side of the family(and he refused to talk about them) up until the day he died. Not much known of the family history there, just the little my oldest sister got from great grandma Nelson and that was mostly the route and history of the family tree but no specific names. Just that mom's side of the family was Norwegian, Swedish, English, Irish, Scottish(Viking heritage with all of these) then French Canadian then they crossed the border into northern MN... heck I may be part illegal alien LOL back then a lot of fur traded back and forth and a lot of logging went back and forth across the border. And nobody went thru any customs or border patrol...

Dad's side of the family we have traced back to Germany, they immigrated in the 1850's and came to Chicago and were meat cutters before getting land via the Homestead act and clearing 160 acres of MN prairie to start the first dairy farm in a 4 county area. Pretty much all above board law abiding people ignoring grandpa's still down in the creek ravine... he never sold, just personal use...

[marlin39a]

The OP needs help.

[GregLaROCHE]

Everyone has skeletons in there closet. It just depends go far back in generations to find them.

[hoodat]

If you exist today, it's probably because some of your ancestors were tough and ruthless ********. And also likely that some were simply ********.

Times in the past were often tough, and folks didn't survive by being sweet and mild mannered. As human beings, we are all capable of wonderful and terrible things. The more distant that our society gets from God, the more terrible things will become.

It's easy to look around these days and spot many spineless, lazy, bums. Just imagine that these guys had ancestors who endured unimaginable hardships and hard work -- sickness, disease and death simply to produce a whiney, simpering, fool who will waste the opportunity given to him. jd

[hoodat]

Oops, I apologize for my above post. I didn't realize that the word describing illegitimate progeny was off limits. Anyway, I think you get the meaning. jd

[BNE]

If you look far enough and hard enough, you will find someone you hoped was not there!

[frkelly74]

I had a great great ancestor from Arkansas who got on the wrong side of the law somehow. It was serious. His wife smuggled a revolver with one bullet in it into the jailhouse for him to atone for his misdeeds and he used it. My great Grandfather was a railroad engineer going west out of Arkansas. He always had his rifle with him in the engine in incase there was game standing by the tracks that he could take home for dinner. On his last run he took too much time recovering his quarry and got behind schedule. By the time he got going again there was another train coming toward him from the other way and neither one could stop in time. He died in the crash. It was about 1905, I have his watch.

[rockrat]

Family didn't tell many stories. Makes me wonder what they didn't want us kids to know!! Only one I remember is that Grandad talked about his dad lived in Kentucky and had to leave town for some reason, when he was about 18. Grandad never said why as his dad never said why.