Over 40 years of researching my family history, the top five most significant surprises has been learning…

• …that my maternal grandfather’s family owned slaves (Read more about this subject in A Bill of Sale)
• …that an ancestor on my father’s side was executed by beheading. (See My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – Part 1)
• …that an ancestor on my mother’s side was burned at the stake. (See Martyr for a Cause)
• …that my mother’s great-grandfather was a Civil War POW, and his brother (my mother’s great-granduncle) required a presidential pardon. (Read all about The Fate of Col. David J Dobbs (May 1865) and The Third Man)
• …that my father’s great-grandmother, a woman who died when she was in her twenties, was a descendent of the Emperor Charlemagne. He was her 30X great-grandfather. (Watch a brief video at Sacre Charlemagne)