People Are Sharing Their Wildest Pieces Of Family Lore, And It Is Sooooooo Interesting
All families have secrets, quirks, and surprising connections. So, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us their wildest piece of family lore. Here's what people revealed:
Warning: This post includes mentions of suicide, abuse, and sexual assault.
1."My grandma was engaged five times before my grandpa. My grandpa's name is Steve, and my dad said that her other fiancés were named Steve, Stephen, Steven, Steve, and Steve."
2."My grandma set the neighbor's field on fire because of an argument over chickens. Way back when she was alive, my maw-maw was a real firecracker. She was a loving and giving person until you made her mad. She had been fighting with the neighbor for some time, and things finally came to a head when he threatened to shoot some of her chickens because they had wandered into his yard, even though they were fenced in. Anyone who has chickens knows they are incredible escape artists when they want to be. Long story short, they got into a verbal argument, words were said, and she finally had enough, so she set his field on fire."
"When the cops came, they asked her if she did it, and she said, 'Whoops, must have been a cigarette butt.' The cops knew she did it but couldn't prove it, and they also loved my family, so nothing ever happened. That neighbor never messed with her again."
3."My mom and her sister married my dad and his brother. Yep! I have double cousins who share the same DNA with me as my own siblings."
—Anonymous
4."My aunt's first husband was friends with Alice Cooper, and when he visited their apartment, he would pop up in the kitchen window with a snake around his neck and scare the hell out of her."
5."My 10th great-grandmother Ann Pudeator was hung as a witch in Salem in 1690. There’s an account on Wikipedia."
—Anonymous
6."The great-grandmothers of my family take the cake. 1. My father's mother and her sister were kids living in the Princeton neighborhood. One morning, as their mother was backing out of the driveway to take them to school, she was distracted and nearly ran over the neighbor. Who was the neighbor? None other than ALBERT EINSTEIN. As my paternal great-aunt told the story, he was fascinated by the garbage truck doing its usual rounds. He was following it on the sidewalk, watching the mechanism, completely oblivious to where he was standing. 2. Meanwhile, my mother's mother and her sister grew up in Chicago. Their mother (J) was a first-generation Irish American, and while none of us quite know (or quite want to know) what the connection was, Great Granny J indirectly had ties to the Irish mob."
"For example, she owned a driver's license despite never driving a car. But the story my maternal great-aunt tells is that one morning, as they were all seated at the breakfast table, J was reading a newspaper with a headline along the lines of, 'Police still unable to locate Irish mob boss.' J simply huffed and said aloud, 'Well, they never asked me,' and then snapped the paper closed and never mentioned it again."
7."I had a great-great-grandfather who was from Massachusetts. During the Civil War, he went down to South Carolina and enlisted in the Confederate army while they were paying enlistment bonuses in gold. He took the gold, returned home, and opened a general store. The store is still there but not still in the family."
8."As a 15-year-old, my great-grandmother ran away from home to get married to my grandfather, who was 22. SHE TOLD HER PARENTS SHE WAS GOING TO THE DENTIST AND GOT MARRIED AND RAN AWAY INSTEAD. Also, she has allegedly committed ARSON. My grandfather and his siblings used to play in this old house, and they would come home with splinters. She proceeded to douse the thing in accelerants and light it on fire."
—Anonymous
9."My mother's second husband adopted me, and I have no memory of my birth father. After an emergency surgery, when I was unable to provide a complete medical history, I decided to begin searching. My birth father was substantially older than my mother (also gone now) and passed away nearly 40 years ago. Thanks to a huge stroke of luck, I found my godmother, who was a first cousin to my father. Through her, I discovered that another cousin on that side was Emmy Sonnemann. She was married to Hermann Göring and was known as the first lady of the Third Reich. Hitler loved her; Eva Braun loathed her. So I'm distantly related to high-ranking nazis. I stopped looking after that. This apple fell as far from that tree as possible."
—Anonymous
10."My sister came home from a girls' trip to a note on the kitchen counter from her husband, who had left her. He confessed that after 20+ years together, he no longer loved her and wanted 'hot sex' in his life. He had gotten an apartment in the next town, and she shouldn't call him because he wouldn't answer. Turns out that while she was in the air flying home, he had called all their neighbors, mutual friends, her brother, and their sons to inform them he was leaving her. She was devastated but trying to hold it together. Less than a week later, he called, wanting to come by and pick up towels and some furniture for his new apartment."
"She let him so she could talk to him. He confessed that he moved in with his girlfriend and that he just hadn't been happy. After the emotional shake-up settled, she called our mom and confessed that she actually felt relief more than anything.
Apparently, he had stopped working and had become a bit of a doomsday prepper/MAGA nut. She thought it was her duty to support and stay with him. But now that he was gone, she felt free and could finally tell people what she'd been dealing with. While he believed he was a dedicated prepper and had built a pantry/supply bunker in the basement, she admitted that he had actually just been buying cat food. Wet cat food, often discounted due to expiration, in bulk. And living off it. Trying different recipes. She was disgusted by him but had disassociated from it and just kept plodding along.
When he tried to crawl back a week later, after the new girlfriend discovered the CAT FOOD, she thanked him for waking her up but recommended that he try the local animal shelter instead and slammed the door in his face. She is now dating a very nice man who eats people food."
—Anonymous
11."My maiden name is George. Our family lore is that our early Bostonian ancestors, who came over from England before the revolution, actually changed our last name to George to demonstrate their Loyalist ties. Could not have had a WORSE idea, guys. And now we're stuck with it."
—Anonymous
12."My great-grandfather murdered a man in a bar fight and escaped with his wife and kids across state lines to evade the law. Also, my second cousin was eaten by sharks. #TrueStory."
—Anonymous
13."After my mother died in 2005, I learned that in 1939, her brother was sent to Dachau after Hitler annexed Austria, and she got him released. Then, after her brother and father made it to the US, Hitler invaded Poland and started WWII, and then she and her mother fled through Russia, China, and Japan and took a ship to San Francisco (stopped in Hawaii), and then a train to NYC. None of this was ever told to me. After she died, I found postcards from Hawaii and San Francisco stashed away in her belongings. I wondered how she got them. She even visited me once in San Francisco and said she had never been there. Secrets."
14."My grandmother's cousin spent time in jail for blowing up abandoned porta-potties."
—Anonymous
15."Towards the end of her life, my grandmother confided in her daughter-in-law, my mom. She said that my dad, her youngest son of 13 children, wasn't her husband's. Turns out, she met her husband while working for his family as a home nurse for his dying mother. She was about 23, and he was in his early to mid-40s. They got married, but he was not kind. He was an abusive and hard man. She lived in squalor in rural east Tennessee. By the time she gave birth to my dad on the floor of her kitchen alone, he was nearly 65 years old. But she confessed that he wasn't the actual father. In reality, she had become close with her father-in-law, the man who had hired her to look after his wife. He was apparently the only member of the family who treated her kindly and tried to help her as best he could. He was in his late 80s when his son was born. My father was unknowingly raised and abused by his half-brother."
—Anonymous
16."My great-grandparents owned a ranch in Montana. In the late 1920s, my great-grandpa's brother (bad Uncle Joe) decided to steal horses...while riding his brother's horse. The other ranchers (who believed the thief to be my great-grandpa) killed him. Then, bad Uncle Joe sold the ranch out from under my great-grandmother while she had several young children (my grandpa was 4 at the time). Many years later, in the 1990s, my great-grandmother's son from her second marriage ended up being a caretaker and living on the same ranch my great-grandmother lost. Also, this is the same side of the family who was cousins of some sort with Butch Cassidy."
—Anonymous
17."My maternal great-grandmother was not only a Madame but also the first woman in Pennsylvania to get her driver's license."
—Anonymous
18."My grandma smoked weed with the Doobie Brothers."
19."Growing up, my big sister was my favorite person. She would fight for me and comfort me. She was better at parenting me than my parents, who always acted weirdly around me. My sister was 16 years older than me. She was like my mom. I'm sure you can see where this is going. I took a DNA test, and lo and behold, my parents were listed as grandparents, and my sister was listed as my mother. Turns out that when she was 16, my sister/mother was sexually assaulted, and she became pregnant with me. Rather than leave their daughter on her own carrying a baby she never wanted, my parents kept her and took me in as their own when I was born. They never told me. My grandparents treated assault, especially sexual assault, as something scandalous and secret, and my mom didn't want to tell me what actually happened."
"My mom died by suicide when I was 11 before I knew she was my mom. I confronted my parents about it, and they refused to apologize. I appreciate their choice to save me and my mom, but they also lied to me for my whole childhood and left me to find out from a DNA test. I wish I could talk to my mom about it. I now know why she was struggling so much."
—Anonymous
20."I have a great-grandfather who married and had kids with two women who were sisters. They all lived in one house. One of the sisters was rumored to be a witch, too. We're in Tennessee. I can't believe this wasn't a bigger scandal."
21."A long time ago, my uncle started dating this girl, and they dated for about two years. They eventually broke up. She moved to NYC for a bit, but I'm pretty sure they would still hook up whenever she came to town. Fast forward a few years later, we discovered she had been dating her ex's younger brother, my other uncle, for 18 months. They're now happily married with two kids, and she's my favorite aunt, lol."
—Anonymous
22.And: "My maternal grandmother and one of her six siblings were the product of an affair she had with a neighbor's ranch hand. Turns out that all the genealogy work I and many of my cousins did was wrong! We thought we were related to one of Oregon's most affluent and prominent families and several historical figures. Not so!"
—Anonymous
What's your wildest piece of family lore? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Dial 988 in the United States to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The 988 Lifeline is available 24/7/365. Your conversations are free and confidential. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 (HOPE), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
