Ancestry, any one else interested?

FireFighterZero

Captain Zero!
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So about three years ago I started researching my family roots. I dont have a clue about my biological parents, but I have had good success with my adoptive parents.

Most interesting is the Conrad side. It looks like they came over in the early 1700's. Eventually they settled in southern Indiana in Laconia, which is in Boone township, Harrison County.

I am planning a trip to Laconia and Corydon to see the land they lived on. They were farmers as well.

An interesting story is the tale of the Conrad Brothers and the Whitecaps. The Whitecaps were a band of vigilantes that operated in southern Harrison County for years and years. They doled out justice where they saw fit, even if a jury acquitted the accused. They liked to tie folks to trees and whip them, or for the bad offenses they would lynch them.

The Conrad brothers carried their dead father back from a field on their farm one day. They said they found him in that condition. They were arrested and tried. They jury found them innocent, but the local group of farmers that made up the white caps decided that justice had not been served.

The Whitecaps decided to lynch the boys. One day the Conrad boys found the family dogs had been poisoned, indicating an attack was imminent. They took turns sleeping outside to watch for the Whitecaps. One morning they came calling, about 60 strong. The brother outside fetched the brother inside and they gathered the pistols and shotguns they had ready.

When the Whitecaps beat the door down the Conrad boys opened fire. Three men were killed immediately, with shotgun blasts to the head. The Whitecaps scattered, regrouped and attacked again. Two more Whitecaps were killed. The attack faltered at this point and the men scattered.

No attempt was made to arrest the Conrad boys, with some seeing them as heroes for ending the reign of the Whitecaps. The family fled to Kentucky for shelter.
Later on the Brothers returned to gather belongings, only to find the cabin burnt down. That night it is believed that three more Whitecaps were killed.

The Conrad Brothers left for good after that, settling in Oklahoma where they farmed a quarter section of land.

Anyone got a story from the past?
 
Not me, but my girlfriend's family had Lizzy Borden marry into hers...... girlfriend is a bit psycho, but it's manageable, so far..... axes and chainsaws ARE locked up.
 
Only one of my ancesters are worth writing anything about. Most were a bunch of alcoholics and scoundrels. My Grandfather was a member of the Nazi parti so he had his furniture store burned to the ground after the war. After offering no resistance when invaded and pretty much collaboratuíng during the whole war, once it was ovet, the Danes got real busy punishing anybody who had been too close to the Germans.

The only one who ever amounted to anything, was a most unlikeable type, but he did make it to the South pole before anyone else.
 
He was a pretty harsh type. Not a friendly, easygoing fella, but a great planner, which is basically what made the trip possible.
There is an old saying about the polar explorers: For audacity and style, you want Scott. For planning and willpower you want Amundsen, and when everything goes to hell it is time to call for Shackleton. ( From memory, might not be correct)

I was hitchhiking through Alaska once, when I got picked up by a guy who bred sled dogs.
He was telling me that the dogs he had were direct descendants from the dogs Amundsen used for his South Pole trek.
So I told him his passenger was a direct descendant from Amundsen himself.
Man, did that ever make his day:)
 
Dang, Jim...I googled "whitecaps vs Conrads" and got the story from 1893 (Muskegon (MICH) Chronicle, August 9, 1893, p. 6. ):

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/IN-SOUTH-CENTRAL/2012-06/1338986106

A great read with a great quote from the old mother: "After the got out of the boat in Kentucky, Bill broke down and
cried, but the old woman told him not to be a baby."

Two men ran off 60 whitecaps!!!! Good stuff.
 
I can relate to Stigs story of the Nazis invasion of Denmark....then onto my Grandfathers home in Norway when the Nazis invaded there.
My Grandmothers town Andalsnes near the west coast of Norway was flattened by German bombers, but the Germans had a tougher time in the Hegra region where my Grandfather's farm was situated near the Hegra Fortress.

In 1940 a small army of 250 Norwegian soldiers and 1 woman nurse held off the Nazis for 25 days. Very fierce battle and when the Norwegians surrendered and became POWs, Hitler was so impressed with them that they were set free.

My Grandfather was farming in Canada at the time but his brothers and many relatives were a part of that army fortress group. Upon my visit to that area there is still a motar shell lodged in a wall on a building of my Grandfathers farm which was originally built in 1845.
Our descendents have farmed there since early Viking times on the shore of the Stjordalselva River.....highway to the North Sea and the North Atlantic.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hegra_Fortress
 
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Yeah, the Conrad's can be a sporty bunch Gary. My great grandmother got in a gunfight with bootleggers in her kitchen once. She used to show the bullet holes to my dad.

Jaysus Willard! A 4000 pound bomb? Cool story.
 
Here is a poem about Andalsnes, Willard.
Do you read Norwegian?

De brente våre gårder.
De drepte våre menn.
Lå våre hjerter hamre
det om og om igjen.



La våre hjerter hugge
med harde, vonde slag:
De brente våre gårder.
De gjorde det i dag.

De brente våre gårder.
De drepte våre menn.
Bak hver som gikk i døden.
Står tusener igjen.

Står tusen andre samlet
I steil og naken tross.
Å, døde kamerater,

De kuer aldri oss.

I have travelled, lived and worked for years in Norway and always admired them for the resistance they put up against the Germans.
Unlike my own people who rolled over on their backs when invaded, and played nice during the whole war.
 
Thanks for the poem and kind words Stig. Your great Grandma sounds awesome Jim.

Here's some pics of the live shell still embedded in the wall of my Grandfathers farm house. The shell was fired by the Norwegians from the Hegra Fortress as the farm was occupied by the Germans.
Other pic is the main gate of Hegra Fortress with my relatives [who were in their 90's] standing by the statue of the Norwegian commander Hans Reidar Holtermann.

Last pics are of some nearby rock petroglyphs carved by the local people some as old as 5000 years.
look at the attachment from similar petroglyths here in Canada.
Does the petroglyph pictures I took in Norway look similar to the ones in Canada?

The Vikings were rumored to have traded for copper with the natives in the Peterborough Canada area .
 
Dig deep, we'll probably find we're all cousins one way or another :)

On my husband's side is Hezekiah Frith...a Bermudian privateer, really a pirate with permission to prey up enemies of the Crown.
 
Well not compared to Stig that's for sure.
This is my maternal grandfather, served in the First World War on the front, he and all of that side of the family are horse owners and enthusiasts. After a while his ability and knowledge of horses came to light and he was pulled off the front to work with the heavy horses that were involved with logistics.
It probably saved his life and he went home to Ireland and founded a farming dynasty which survives today. Had 4 children (including my mother) and of course grandchildren etc. were it not for a twist of fate a hundred years ago would any of our extended family be here?
Nothing special in the great context of things, and it's a story that could be repeated a million times across the world but I often think about it.
 

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Every story is special because everyone is special. All unique. You are right...his knowledge and recognized ability as a horseman may have kept him alive...and the lives that are the direct result of his family-making are certainly special to all of y'all.

I love the picture...as a very young boy I remember seeing my Uncle Remur in his WW One battle garb, posing for his picture, same kind of frame. He was killed in France, I think...I'll have to look that one up again.

No progeny from that uncle...but we still remember him for his sacrifice.
 
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