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Does it matter more to you that you have such people in the family or would you rather carve out a reputation for yourself? I'd rather make my own little (or large...) story for my grandchildren to relate on the military forums of yonder years rather than to live in the shadow of what my great uncle did a hundred years ago.

Does it matter more to you that you have such people in the family or would you rather carve out a reputation for yourself?

Not sure what you mean there mate, I'm just interested in geneology and wanted to know if anyone had any interesting stories, other than that I'm not really bothered about reputations and all that.

Krupp,
You and your family kind of blend. Like in my family, we was all rebels, I've always been a Rebel of sorts and when I got older and started digging and asking, damned if I didn't find a whole mess of Rebs. Genetics, goals you get the idea.

Krupp wrote:Does it matter more to you that you have such people in the family or would you rather carve out a reputation for yourself?

Neither. I think it's healthy to know where you come from and what your roots are. A better man than I once said: "To know where you come from is to know where you are going". I think there's an element of truth in that. But do I get any personal gratification out of some vague and distant relative having been a lord mayor? Not at all. It wasn't like I could possibly benefit in any way from it. For me, it's juts a point of interest and something to pass on to my boys.

As for my uncle: That's closer to home, so I have a sense of pride about him.

The Billy the Kid thing I couldn't give a toss about. Even if there is a grain of truth there, by all accounts he was just some nasty, amoral little twerp with a gun.

My gran's great uncle (distant i know!) was Sgt Albert Mountain VC. He was in the West Yorkshire regiment and won the Victoria Cross in 1918. After he retired he was landlord of the pub just down the road from me.

My old man was dead chuffed when he found out one of our ancesters had been hung for stealing Sheep around Llandovery, Wales back in the 18th century.

He was the lucky one as another ancester was deported to OZ for doing the same thing!

Artist

Whitey, try again!

Whitey, I've had a good look around sites relating to Vicksburg, unfortunately there is no mention of a Col Seth Young, either in the individual unit citations or the list of unit commanders. The 1st Louisiana was Heavy Artillery.
http://www.nps.gov/vick/home.htm

Artist wrote: He was the lucky one as another ancester was deported to OZ for doing the same thing!

That'd be like sending a car theif to Dagenham. Cruel and unjust punishment indeed!

Krupp wrote:Does it matter more to you that you have such people in the family or would you rather carve out a reputation for yourself? I'd rather make my own little (or large...) story for my grandchildren to relate on the military forums of yonder years rather than to live in the shadow of what my great uncle did a hundred years ago.

I see that you have described yourself as a "prospective soldier"on your personal description.

Funny that, on the carving out of reputations I became a soldier without ever being a prospective one. I just went and did it.

Mine is a military/service family and I am immensley proud of the achievements of many of its members.

I can do both, be proud of what family members have done (Which has influenced my life and path in life) and also carve out my own reputation.

Perhaps I am just a MULTITASKING sort of guy !!!

I'm only young yet, and still trying to get a signature out of the parents so for now its "prospective soldier"....

I come from a military family myself, but I was just saying I'd rather go through my life telling people what I'm doing/did rather than what my grandad did during the war.

I'm quite proud of my military family. There's no one special there but my wifes father was killed at Arnhem, I did 22yrs in the Parachute Regiment, my son is in his 24th year [comes out next month] in the regiment, and now my nephew is serving with the Marines.
I wondered about that until my sister told me she dropped him on his head when he was wee. Case explained.

One of my ancestors, Leslie Edward Charles Denzey got the DSM on board HMS Sealion during WW2, another ancestor got the OBE for services in and around Dunkirk, and my cousin serving in 42 Commando RM, has got seven or eight medals on his uniform to date. Even if my ancestors who did military service received eight medals or none at all, I am proud of all of them.

Lord Frederick Sleigh Roberts is related to me -

Lord Roberts commanded the British forces in Afghanistan during Baden-Powell's service in 1881-1882. He was later to become the Commander-in-Chief in India (1885-1893), in the South African War (1899-1902) and, finally Commander-in-Chief of the British Army (1901-1904). For much of Baden-Powell's active military service, Lord Roberts was among the highest ranking and most respected officers of the British Army. He became known as "Kipling's General."

His life was jewelled and upheld by those ideals the poet himself sought to glorify - courage, faith and honour. But ... to Kipling's Tommy Atkins he was just "Bobs," a well-loved commander who had been with them since most of them were recruits, a shrewd tactician, yet careful of his men's lives and solicitous of their welfare. Nothing endears a leader to his men more than sparing them needless hardship, and for this reason his men would follow Bobs through all necessary perils, partly for their belief in him, and partly to see that no harm befell him.

Bobs served for a total of forty-one years in India, at a time when the Indian Army was both unfashionable and unadvantageous. In those years he rose from Horse Artillery subaltern to Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army. He served with distinction in the Indian Mutiny, winning the V.C. for repeated acts of heroism, but he will chiefly be remembered as the man who curbed the unruly spirit of the treacherous Afghans, wiping out the memory of British defeats and bringing peace to the North-West Frontier. His march from Kabul to Kandahar will long be cited as a remarkable feat of both strategy and administration.

Beset by Sir Garnet Wolesley's jealousy of all Indian officers, though the Indian Command was by far the most enlightened and experienced, Bobs still succeeded in rising, being first C-in-C Ireland, Bobs himself was an Irishman, and finally, the last C-in-C of the whole army before the post was abolished. Sent to reprieve the disasters of the early stages of the Boer War, his energy and decision saved the situation and caused the Boers never to take the field again as an organised army.

Characteristically, Bobs died while visiting his beloved soldiers on the Western Front in 1914, and thus passed into history a man of tact and understanding, dignity and firmness of purpose, courage and honour - Kipling's "Father Bobs."

From: W. H. Hannah, Bob's, Kipling's General. The Life of Field Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar, VC, 1972.

I'm not too familiar with my family's history, but apparently one of my ancestors was a general for Koryo dynasty in the late 14th century and when Choson dynasty came to be, he refused to cast off allegiance to Koryo dynasty and the family got reduced to commoner status through out Choson dynasty. (to 1910)

In 1930s, there was a dude who became sorta famous becoming an advocate for children's affairs and created Children's Day (I think that's 5 May) in South Korea.
Good holiday. It's like the second Christmas for kids.