Family Hisotry - good, bad and ugly
These six history snippets from my family history are true - or so I've been told.
Murder most bloody.
- One of my ancestors killed his wife with an early version of the chain saw. Chain saws first appeared in 1785 but became more prominent in 1926. The earliest were hand driven like an old egg beater or drill. Later ones where powered by various means but were large and cumbersome. Which one this supposed killer used, I don't know.
How to get away with murder.
- My grandfather, the local justice of the peace, was once called to the scene of a murder where the husband reportedly killed his wife with a stick of fire wood and then threw the evidence into the wood stove.Whiskey Anyone?
- At another time, Granddad closed down a whiskey still and kept the equipment in the upper hall of his home waiting for the magistrate to come for a trial. My grandmother was not enamored of the resulting odor.- Halloween Pranks

Those five uncles later all served in the military during WW11.
- One family member was a bigamist... a war related event. Enough said.
Hi Mahrie, Intriguing ancestors!! I can imagine several storylines for future books.
ReplyDeleteHo Joanne - too true - stories could arise from our family's histories - but dare we write and publish them?
DeleteI don't have any murderers in my family, but my dad had an uncle who got in trouble during prohibition. He was caught with an abnormal amount of sugar, and thus it led to the discovery of his crime. Many Mennonite Brethren (our heritage and faith) are teetotalers, so its ironic that he would do this and serve time. Those are all the details I know. Your post makes me want to find out more.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Melodie. Prohibition was rife with bootleggers. The South Shore of Nova Scotia housed quite a few but it seems they did not have a monopoly on the job. Do find out more about your uncle if you can. All too soon the older generation is gone and we can no longer access those details. Let us know what you find out.
DeleteThe first line of this post would make a killer (no pun intended!) first line for a novel. LIke, seriously. I don't have any in my family (that I know of. I know chain saw murderers don't go around all willy nilly, announcing their transgressions to the world, lol) but this is the stuff that great mysteries are made of.
ReplyDeleteHi Quanie - Had not thought of that as the first line for a book-- but you are right. Since I write mystery - I need to give it some consideration.
DeleteWhen you have structured a decent procedure and you have command over what you are doing you can be certain that you get a solid weld.
ReplyDeleteget it