It’s mid-September and the weekend has brought us Randy Seaver’s newest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge:

1) Check out Top Five Surprises by D.M. DeBacker on the Gathering Leaves blog.

2)  What are your top five surprises you have found in your genealogy research and family history work? 

I’ll have to think a bit for five surprises, but I can think of the first two right off the top of my head.

1. Learning the story of my 3X great grandfather, Johannes Jensen, born out of wedlock in 1810, given up for adoption only to likely end up in the Copenhagen Orphanage when his adoptive father died, then joining the Danish Army for a successful military career as the company fiddler and drummer at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, which is where the Danish royal jewels are housed. Ruth Maness, RIP, at the FamilySearch library, was instrumental in helping me document Johannes’s life.
2. Reading the will of my Stoneham, Masschusetts ancestor, Peter Hay, who died in 1790. He was a wealthy man who actually divided his mansion home into areas and specified in his will who was allowed to use which doors, stairwells and rooms. The will was 14 pages long when transcribed and typed. A controlling man even from the grave!
3. Finding my Mayflower ancestor after 37 years of genealogy research – George Soule. The reason it took so long is because the line went through my pre-Loyalist families who left Rhode Island for Nova Scotia in the 1760s. As Canadian records became more readily available, I could piece the families together and document the line.
4. Related to #3, in terms of military history, discovering that I have a half dozen Patriots of the American Revolution (Joses Bucknam, Hubbard Haskell, William Hay, James Scripture, Samuel Scripture, and Samuel Tarbox), but also have a half dozen+ Loyalists (John Adams, James Astle, Benjamin Burt, Robert Carlisle, Philip Crouse, and Walter Stewart), who gave up all and moved to Canada at the close of the war. My take on this is that my ancestors were willing to stand up for their beliefs no matter the cost.
5. Although knowing that many Americans with extensive early colonial ancestors have some tie to royal roots, it was still fun learning that I am descended from William the Conqueror and the line includes King John of Magna Carta fame, and other royalty, all of which is documented in The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States Who Were Themselves Notable or Left Descendants Notable in American History. SECOND EDITION. In Three Volumes by Gary Boyd Roberts through my ancestress Katherine Marbury (c1610-1687), who married Richard Scott and settled in Rhode Island.

Those are five of my big surprises that have turned up during my decades of genealogy research.

Thanks to Randy and D.M. for this week’s fun challenge.