My Favorite Stories

Family history research turns up plenty of names and dates, but every now and then you find a story. Here are some of my favorites.

She Tracked her Husband

Ida and George Perkins shared a love of music and had two kids together, but by the time my great grandfather was four years old Ida grew suspicious when George said he was working late selling pianos. One evening she tracked him from work as he snuck onto a street car. She saw him get off at a well known merchant’s house and later spied him on the veranda, alone with the merchant’s daughter, after everyone else had gone to bed!

Look over there!

Shortly after emerging victorious in one of the battles of the western isles in 1590, Kenneth MacLean was confronted by my earliest known patrilineal ancestor, MacIlvernock Graham of Oib. After a heated exchange of words MacIlvernock said “Look at that beautiful ship under full sail coming down the Sound of Jura” and as soon as Kenneth turned around MacIlvernock plunged his dagger into Kenneth’s side. Today that spot is still known as Kenneth’s Tomb.

He Demanded His Own Lawyers Take His Place in Jail

My great-grandmother’s uncle John Henry Johnson built the Mt Olivet Church of Greenville, Alabama and gifted it to the Baptists. Then, declaring himself directed by God, he burned it to the ground, leaving a note signed “John Henry Johnson, I Are God.” When deputies came to arrest him he shot and killed one. He pled insanity at trial — but when his lawyer failed to have the doctor’s note declaring him insane properly signed, the judge postponed the proceedings, and Johnson erupted in the courtroom, demanding his lawyers take his place in jail.

Shootout in Monroeville

Three of my ancestors’ Shirley siblings each married into the Smith family of Monroeville, Alabama — a level of entanglement that would prove complicated. After David Smith shot and killed a Shirley brother, two other Shirley brothers, Isaac and Jesse, were convicted for killing a witness, on the testimony of their own sister — who, it turned out, may have been secretly having an affair with David Smith. Four years later, attorney O. O. Bayles exposed the affair at an appeal hearing. David confronted the lawyer in downtown Monroeville that afternoon and shot him dead. The Governor of Alabama pardoned Isaac and Jesse shortly afterward.

One of the Most Famous Sporting Men in the Country

Although you’d have a tough time finding references to him today, my 3rd great-grandfather Charlie Perkins was at one time one of the most famous boxers in the country. He and two other boxers toured the country with the most famous boxer in America in 1860, John C. Heenan. Charlie had a great sense of humor, loved practical jokes, and games of chance. He wagered a traveling companion $10 he could toss him over a creek but purposefully threw him into the creek instead, insisting it was worth the $10. Another time he wagered $1000 against the famous politician, boxer and mob boss John Morrissey that he knew the champion sleeper of America. When it came time to sign an agreement to the terms John Morrissey held out a pen and Charlie Perkins’s champion fell asleep before he reached the table. In response Morrissey said “That settles it, I pay forfeit.” For context that would be equivalent to about $37,000 today.

A Chicken and a Chaplain Jump out of a Plane

In the dead of night, just hours before D-Day’s first light, my granduncle Vernon A. Blowers piloted a plane of volunteer paratroopers known as Pathfinders. This wasn’t just any mission; it was Operation Overlord, the largest airborne invasion ever mounted, and Vernon was at its heart, piloting one of the aircraft that would drop the first Allied soldiers onto French soil. Only, it wasn’t just young soldiers who boarded my granduncle’s plane. One soldier brought along a chicken, perhaps to see how well it could fly. Another was a pastor who looked like he was old enough he could have truly been one of their fathers. Despite a few close calls, when he returned from the mission all the other planes were riddled with bullet holes but his had hardly a scratch. Someone said he must have been pretty lucky, to which someone else replied: “Luck had nothing to do with it — we dropped a minister after all, didn’t we?”

You Can Pay Me Back Later

When my 2nd great grandfather Thomas Previc emigrated from what is now Slovenia to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania he went to work in the mines like many other immigrants at the time. After nearly losing his leg in a mining accident he decided to hang up his helmet and opened up a store selling school supplies to the students that went to school on the street where he lived. Business went well, so he expanded into selling groceries. When times got rough and many families could not afford food to live off of Thomas just put it on their tab with no expectation of being paid back in a timely manner. He would not allow anyone in his community to go hungry. Well after things had turned around one former customer who had moved many states away drove over 1000 miles back just to repay his debts. Other customers’ children paid their parents’ debts, and one customer even paid theirs back over 30 years later!