Metal Pig I think it is very interesting to read about your ancestor as you can learn a lot you had no idea.
My Mothers side is a pretty event full as well. For example, my Mothers maidian name of Kincheloe. The real first man in space was Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr. a test pilot killed while testing a F-104A. In the mid-1950s, Kincheloe joined the Bell X-2 program and on September 7, 1956,[6] flew at more than 2,000 mph (3,220 km/h) and to a height of 126,200 feet (38,470 m)[2][6] (some sources list 126,500),[3] the first flight ever above 100,000 feet (30,480 m). For this he was nicknamed "America's No. 1 Spaceman." He was awarded the Mackay Trophy for 1956 for the flight.[7]
*On September 25, 1959, Kincheloe Air Force Base in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was renamed in his honor;[13] formerly Kinross AFB, it closed in 1977.
*A monument stands approximately 1½ miles (2½ km) east of his hometown of Cassopolis, Michigan; an angular stone slab twelve feet (3.7 m) in height, it bears a silver model of the X-2 pointed skyward.[14][15] (41.915°N 85.973°W)
*Kincheloe Elementary School, part of the nearby Dowagiac Union School District, is named in his honor.[16]
*The television program Hogan's Heroes included a character named Staff Sergeant James Kinchloe, played by Ivan Dixon.
*In 1992, he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.[17]
*In 2011, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.[18][19]
The Society of Experimental Test Pilots Iven C. Kincheloe Award is named in his honor.[20]
*The Purdue University Arnold Air Society squadron is named in his honor.
The X-2 program was halted three weeks later, after a fatal crash resulted in the death of Mel Apt in a flight in which Apt became the first person to exceed Mach 3.[8] Kincheloe was later selected as one of the first three pilots in the next rocket-powered aircraft program, the X-15,[9] and would have been part of the Man in Space Soonest project.
I discovered that the husband of a German cousin of mine (in Germany) put together a whole web page dedicated to our family tree over there it goes back to the late 1700's and shows many of the families that married into my father's surname. My dad came here from Nuremberg area in 1960, alone, a fledgling baker at the age of 20...whose first mode.of transportation to work was a motorboat on the Hudson River before he even had a license to drive a car. He was drafted in '65 before even obtaining his citizenship and joined the Airborne.
I've done further research on my surname, and it appears my fathers ancestors came to the rural towns north of Nuremberg from further east, possibly from the mountains along the Czech-German border, not far from what is known as the Sudetanland. There are graves near there with variations of my name going back 500 years.
I hate to say it, but my mother's side is actually more interesting than my father's! He father's family was the last of a clan to move from the tiny Isle of Man to Rhode island and later further inland. Through that conduit I have Irish, Norse, Scottish, and various other Norse-Celtic influences. My great-great-great grandmother from there was born in India! It stands to reason that she was the daughter of a British military, government, or business person working in India during the British occupation. Oddly, I've always had a deep interest in eastern religions and philosophies.
There was one young fellow with my mother's very uncommon maiden name who, like my father, came here alone as a very young man to work as a joiner. He made it to Wisconsin or Michigan on the steamship American in 1867 and there is no further record of him. What's amazing about that is that he was born in Bremen, Germany not the Isle of Man, and his first name was Gustav! My uncle surmised that Gustav was the son of a British sailor and a German woman. Those British military men sure got around even long ago!
My mother's mother's family is a different story. They were Polish with some French mixed in. My Polish(German educated) great grandfather was an ambitious businessman who also got around alot and was no family man. He was in the import-export business, and traded many things...although Coffee and wild animals for pets are the only ones verified. He eventually left the family to pursue his dreams, and was eventually invited to join a coffee dynasty somewhere in South America. Apparently he didnt take up the offer, and ended up retiring as a coffee buyer for A&P supermarkets. Oddly, I ended up marrying a Peruvian girl myself, and we go down there.almost every year.
Sometimes it really seems we inherit not just genes, but also the Karma and Dharma of our ancestors. Oops, LoL! There's the India connection in me right there! And moreover, my dad was a baker and I'm a butcher! And I never really met him until I was 32. I hope my son doesnt become a candlestick maker to seal the fate! And here's the real kicker: When I met him, my father and I had just independently got done reading the same book about Oetzi, the 5000 yr old German mummy found frozen in the Alps . We were both fascinated by that. It almost makes me think we are actually related to that guy quite directly.