My great-great uncle Frank beat an alligator to death with a stick

I confirmed a couple months ago something that my mother had always suspected - John Wayne was my grandfather’s first-cousin.

My cousin Jeff used to play for the Raiders, but I’ve never met him. 

SWMBO is somehow related to Harry S. Truman. 

Notable ancestors for me are John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Boone. I also had a several greats grandfather that ran Murray's Ferry where what is now US Hwy 52 crosses the Santee River, and another several greats grandfather that was a doctor for the Confederacy during the Civil War. 

My grandmother was a "Daughter of the Mayflower" and took great pride in that fact all her life.  Apparently she was a bit snooty about this fact to her first husband (my grandfather) as he was just a poor bog kid.

This rankled my uncle and starting nearly 30 years ago he's been doing full blown genealogy research finding that grandpa was actually descended from five of the original Mayflower settlers (take that grandma!).  But also that we are related to shopkeepers, explorers, fishermen and carpenters, at least three presidents, war heros and  at least on draft dodger.  The full accounting apparently runs to 250 gigs of data.

Story that I've heard that has enough to go on to think "well, that could be", but I am not comfortable saying is true:

On my dads side, our [Polish] ancestors were Prussian "nobility". At some point, they came to the US--this was pre WWI, and unfortunately I don't know the story behind it. I do know that at one point when my grandpa was around 10 (so early 1930's), whatever the Polish government was at the time contacted them and basically asked them if they wanted to buy their title back and come live over there and be "nobility" again. Obviously, they said no (actually, I don't think they replied at all). That would be a fun one to get into. 

On my moms side, they've definitively traced back ancestors to the Mayflower and to Lord Baltimore's Catholics. No big surprise there, most Catholics who came to Kentucky back then were part of the Baltimore party, and most English families who've been in the US for forever can trace something back to the Mayflower. 

One cool story that we have though, that actually is documented in a newspaper or local history book somewhere (and I may have the number of "greats" off by 1): My great-great-great-great Grandpa killed my great-great-great Grandpa.

My 3rd Great Grandpa was a scoundral, drunkard, etc. He left his wife and his 3 daughters. His wife went to live with her parents with the kids. Well, a few weeks or months later, he comes back and starts demanding his oldest daughter--wants to take her to live with him. His father-in-law, My 4th Great Grandpa, stood on his porch holding his shotgun. He told his SIL "Go away". He did not, demanded his daughter. "If you take one step closer, I will shoot you". 3rd GG takes a step closer. 4th GG held his word, and shot him. 

This being rural Kentucky in the 1800's, the neighbors got around and had a quick "shade tree hearing" and found 4th GG innocent on the grounds of neighborhood improvement. 

Allegedly related to both William the Conqueror, and Captain Henry Morgan.

Generally, though, Pop's side is mostly preachers and missionaries, whilst Mom's side is mostly drunkards, highway men, and robbers.

I had a male relation on my mother's side that rode with the 5th Indiana Calvary on Sherman's march. He was captured at the battle of Atlanta and shipped to Andersonville Prison in south Georgia. My Dad's family is from south Georgia and supposedly one of my male relations on that side served as a guard at the prison, but was too young to actually be IN the CSA.  We've documented the prisoner but the guard is much harder to authenticate.

No here's the interesting part. The prison was a hell hole. A stockade in an open Georgia field with one creek that ran through for sanitation and water. No shelter, rampant disease, and blood thirsty administration. Any prisoner who got within 3' of the wall was shot. The administrators were publicly tried and hung after the war. In August of 1864 conditions were at their worst and the prisoners gathered and prayed for a miracle. A thunderstorm came up and a freshwater spring broke from the ground under one of the walls, causing it to collapse for some distance. A handful of the prisoners took off running, my Indiana male relation included. Only a few made good on the escape, my forebear being one of them. He managed to evade capture and rejoin his own cavalry unit in Savannah. He eventually survived the war and made it home to Indiana. The remains of his saddle was still hanging in the barn on the farm where my mother grew up, and we have several things from the war that belonged to him.  About 100 years later my dad was shipped off to business school in Ohio where he met my mother. My mother has documented most of the story through geneological research long before it was all easy to find online.

Strange, small world.

One of my dad's cousins was friends with Andy Warhol. Andy gave him a painting of a hootus at some point in time that I believe it's still in an attic somewhere in New York. That side of the family was boring.

My mom's family is a little more interesting. Her mother's family came over from Italy in the 1910s and landed on New Jersey. They were named Gallo. Grandma's uncle began doing business in NY and NJ, while her father dropped the O and moved to Pittsburgh. I forget how the math works out, but Crazy Joey Gallo wound up being my mom's 2nd or 3rd cousin. 

My great uncle killed a bear with a .22 rifle while rabbit hunting.  Apparently he was rustling the brush trying to scare up rabbits and found something much larger . . . and angrier.  The funny thing is he and my great aunt lived in a BAD neighborhood, and had numerous antiques in the windows of their home, but no one ever messed with them.  It might have had something to do with the bearskin rug in the middle of the living room.

On my wife's side, apparently Winston Churchill is a distant relative.  KazooJr. calls him "Uncle Winston".