Question of the Week: Do you have any ghost stories in your family tree?

Question

Do you have any ghost stories in your family?

Tell us about them with an answer below! You could also answer on Facebook or use the question image to share your answer with friends and family on social media.

P.S. Click the My Connections button in the Ghosts category to see if you are related or connected to any of them. 

Answer 1

Not a ghost story but my grandfather John Joseph Dorn 1919-2009 was born with a caul on Halloween. A caul is when the baby's head is completely enclosed in a sac. There are many superstitions about this rare birth in different times and cultures. They would be more in touch with the afterlife is what I always heard. In ancient times the caul was saved and treated as an heirloom or talisman. My grandfathers was pressed onto a piece of paper and I have it today 104 years after his birth.

Comments

My niece was the same. So I read somewhere sailors of old would pay handsomely for the caul as the superstition was that a sailor with a caul would never drown.

Unless they had too much grog, :-)

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I had never heard the word “caul” before today. But my brother was born with much like that as described. I always knew he was different. He has a close connection to nature. Kids love him, and animals trust him.

Answer 2

nothing closer than this at 28 degrees..that I know of!  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Carr-3706

Comments

25 degrees for me.

Answer 3

Not a ghost in my family tree, but a ghost cat in my house.

Many years ago we adopted a 4 week old kitten, his mother was runover and killed when a car hit her the first time she went out for a walk after her kittens were born.

He was tiny, and bright orange.

We called him Pumpkin as we adopted him just before Hallowe'en.

He could be a very exasperating cat, I didn't want to say badly behaved cat, he never learned to wash himself as his mother wasn't around to teach him.

As a kitten he slept in the litter box, we used to stand him in the kitchen sink every day and turn the tap on to wash him and he liked it !

Though he was a very affectionate cat, until he leapt off your chest leaving many scratches.

He played fetch and the piano, he really liked walking along the key board, he loved to race around the house jumping on and off everything and at 26 pounds he wasn't quiet. He looked a lot like Garfield.

We found him in a kitchen cupboard one day eating crackers, we found him in the kitchen eating the cork board, he managed to get into a lower kitchen cupboard and ate the Saran wrap from meat packaging, that involved a $400 vet bill.

He died in 2000 and we often hear him or his ghost still running around the house, leaping off beds with a huge thump, and walking along the piano.

Comments

That's very interesting M. I hope Pumpkin is no longer leaving scratches on you.

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Are you anywhere in Missouri by chance? Pumpkin may have been a descendant of Paws, my ghost, in Lexington - about 30 miles east of Kansas City!

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No, not in Missouri, about 16 hours away in Ontario, Canada.

But as we know from Robert Heinlein's book ' The cat who walked through walls' cats do have some interesting superpowers.

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They do indeed. I've not encountered any who walk through walls, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised. Do report any that you encounter!!

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What a cool story!!! Sounds like Pumpkin isn’t ready to cross the rainbow bridge. I had a similar experience with our dog, Maggie. After she passed, my husband and I kept hearing what sounded like her distinctive scratching. Then for a couple nights, we heard scratching on the bedroom door. Our surviving dog heard it and went to the door, tail wagging. It dawned on me that it was Maggie. I opened the door and told Maggie to go to bed. In the morning I told Maggie to go to the light across the rainbow bridge. We never heard her again.

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Well, now, could Maggie have been reincarnated as a cat? We have a cat who arrived here as a kitten, from the alley, who said his name was Banjo. He scratches the door to the upstairs when he wants the human to come out and feed him or pet him or just talk to him. He also puts claw holes in the human when he wants attention. He's a tuxedo cat, black and white, and is quite fluffy, has Maine Coon heritage. Was Maggie black & white? She may be here, masquerading as a guy cat!! Greetings to Pumpkin from Banjo, Julio, and Maybellene!

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I'll go outside to where he is buried and tell him Hi from Banjo, Julio, and Maybellene!

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Your Banjo may very well be a reincarnated Maggie. He sounds like a sweet kitty!! Maggie was a while schnauzer/ Maltese. A very dear and loyal girl!

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If I had a piano, Banjo would certainly thunder across the keys in the middle of the night. My mother had a piano, and her cats, several - used to run across the keys and chase each other. One of them was an orange fellow, called Ronnie, short for Naranjo - Spanish for orange. Unfortunately for Banjo, we don't have a piano. He amuses himself by chasing Julio up and down the stairs - two thundering beasts with 8 legs between them!!

Answer 4

I wasn't aware of any "ghosts" in my tree until I connected through Wikitree.  My closest is Jonet Douglas (Douglas-803) is my 2nd cousin, 13 times removed.  Call me surprised!

Comments

I just checked, and I am her 13th great-grandniece!

Brenda

Answer 5

Babb-83 of Appledore Island of the Isles of Shoals is a reputed ghost. Philip is my 8th great-grandfather. 

The Ghost of Philip Babb

The claims were he roamed the Island and cove until after the bowling alley was removed. He was clothed in a bloody Butcher's apron.

How true this was, who knows? The story resurfaces each Halloween.

Answer 6

My Uncle, R. L. Johnson, wrote this story about a (suspected) ghost in our house.                                         Sunday Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know the the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James1: 2,3 i do hope Aunt V(irginia) is OK. i deeply regret everything. But when i came in i was more dead than alive, this you can’t believe, for years I didn’t believe but from 24 Nov. to 2 Dec, I had the worst experience of my life. When i would go to Alice, i stayed in the room southwest. I was bothered with noises, i kept the light on at night. I put mr. wyatt in that room for a test to see if he would be bothered. I am sure he was because he do not come in until after 2 A. M. So I will have to say a GHOST came through that room and walk all over the bldg. what bugs me is how he gets in the doors are locked, the windows secure, but he come in it is a big man around 250 lbs 6 ft tall he walks on the carpet it sounds like the bare floor. I kept the light on in the room where i was so he would not touch the door, but he would come close and go in the next room. When he left the big bedroom i would open the door to the room where i was the light drove him off. So i put the light on in the living room, i guess it made him angry. For 20 or 30 minutes he made the strangest noise i have ever heard. I am sure it was bothering Johnnie she had stopped sleeping in the bed rooms, and sleeping on the 2 seater of course when i was there she pretended watching T. V. Now that house is probably built over a grave, or it is money buried there, it is a deep mistry how he comes in the house with it sealed. I am trying to find that young physicists name in Florida when i do i will write her. Today that noise still bother me. I will today or any day give $50.00 to stay in that house on the dark of the moon from 12:00 to 2:00 A.M . $25.00 per hour i think is good pay. With wishing you both the very best of everything good day R. L. J.

Answer 7

I have what I believe is the ghost of my great aunt Elisa in my house. Not kidding. She was the sister of my grandfather and lived with his family in my house until her death in 1980. She raised my father as if he was her child because she never married nor had children. It all started after I found two years by accident inside an old wardrobe a prayer book called "Massime Eterne" that belonged to her and put it in my bedside table's drawer. Since then I started hearing bangs from the inside of my wardrobe, feeling the touch of a callused hand on my cheek before sleeping at night, hearing an elderly voice whispering my full name and even once saw the curtain  move gently with the windows closed and no wind outside. I recently made an experiment of communication through a tape recorder. I recorded a female voice speaking Veneto dialect and saying while sobbing that she was sad because missed fabio (my dad).when I had him listen to the recording he burst into tears and told me it was the voice of his late aunt. I've been trying to pray for her until now and going regularly to her grave in hope she will be able to find some peace.

Comments

Giada, this is a good ghost story, validated by the Veneto dialect and your father's reaction. Thank you for sharing it.

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Thanks for the kind words. Just to update about the situation, I had other signs yesterday, such as a sudden feeling of sadness and thirst every time I enter the room when she used to sleep and he sound of slow footsteps coming from the stairs that lead to the storage downstairs. I have just finished fixing my dad's 1965 radio and will try  having a seance of evp communication through it too by having my dad asking questions directly to her. I'm extremely curious and will investigate the phenomenon with every mean possible.

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I wish you luck, Giada, in helping the woman to find peace. Did she know you in life?

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No, she unfortunately died in 1980, 19 year before my birth but my father always talked to me about her with the greatest nostalgy.

Answer 8

Not sure if this counts or not, but we lived in what my mother believed was a haunted house.  I was about 3 or 4 years old at the time.  Not sure how old the house was at that time or any of the history.  But, my family rented it and we moved in.  There was one room "in the back" that my mother called creepy.  She wouldn't let us kids play in there at all.  She swore that she would hear things, noises and such at all times, day and night.  She finally talked my dad into finding another place to live.  I remember the house, mostly the exterior, but not the events.

Answer 9

Very true story:  When I was seventeen, many years ago, I had woke up one night from a horrible nightmare. Even after waking, I lay there on my back in the pitch black afraid to move because of the image of disembodied eyeballs floating in front of my face. I could hardly breathe, my throat as dry as sand. Suddenly I became aware of a soft yellow-white glow to my right side. I carefully turned my head towards it. There, in my room, was a man laying on a gurney. His face was turned towards me at first but he slowly moved to stare at the ceiling. He then crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes. I knew he was dead... instantly the room was black again. I threw the covers off and raced across the room to turn the light on. To calm myself I went to the kitchen for water. I noted the time was 1:15 am. I slept with the lights on for the rest of the night. The next morning I told my mother everything that happened. Later that morning my older married sister stopped by. Without waiting, so excited was I, I quickly told her the story. She stared at me with her mouth open. She then proceeded to tell us that her father-in-law died in the hospital last night at 1:15 in the morning.

Comments

Sam, thank you for sharing this story. You might be interested to know that stories like these are not as rare as one might imagine. A friend of mind had a dream that he was walking with his mother, whose body appeared to be much younger than current for the time. He never previously had a dream about his mother. When he woke up, his brother told him that their mother had passed away.

Another family member had a series of visitations from her grandmother right around the time of her grandmother's passing. Very vivid details were related, things that the younger family member are not likely to have known. These experiences are called ADC, or "After Death Communications." You can report these on web sites such as this one:

https://www.adcrf.org/

Personally, once I had a symbolic ADC from a cousin.

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Thank You for the web site. I have a lot of these true sightings.

Answer 10

Ghost stories have followed my family around for years. My great-uncle and aunt lived in a house out west that they swore up and down was haunted. I have living relatives who have ''seen'' things, for no apparent or logical reason. Heck, the house I live in now is a little suspicious.

Answer 11

I'm a distant descendant of Peleg Walker, the official ghost of Rhode Island, through my grandmother Alice Evelyn Brown (according to a handwritten family tree and notes made by my GGM Amy Walker Brown).  I'm busy working on a different branch these days but plan to follow the paper trail to this interesting ancestor in the future.  For internet searches on this ghost, search "Ramtail Factory ghost."

Answer 12

I grew up in Sweden, with parents believing in old traditions, folklore, nature beings and intuition. Of course, often never said out loud, just mentioned as an anecdote or story. I presume the witch hunt/alternative fear is still many times hunting people into present time. I prefer a science/alternative balance.

As a child, once when I walked downstairs because I felt scared of a so called ghost, sitting in my rocking chair in my room, my mum told me to describe her. I did and my mum just opened our photo album and asked if it was her. Yes, I said.

She just came to hold you company, talk with her, she probably has a lot to teach you, my mum said and continued in the kitchen.

I was still skeptical. But I grew up with that ancestors (or other nature beings) are around me. And if I ask them a question then an answer will most likely pop up in my mind. Or if I felt lost in the forest, they guided me home.

And nowadays, I am well educated to guide them home to the light or cleanse a place. Rather interesting because the so called ghost disappears then.

But equal much as we are ghosts for them, they are ghost for us. So I avoid the ghost title after one called me a ghost. A hilarious moment.

Comments

Mi, thank you for sharing this remarkable story. Maybe I should guide the "ghost" in our haunted house back home into the light. The spirit would have no reason to remain fixated on earth if it could let go of the haunted place and go on to the next stage of spiritual development. This is why the haunting disappeared.

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You are on the right track there, but I would recommend that you contact a specialist.

I sent you a message.

Good luck.

Answer 13

Yes. We have a haunted house in our family. A certain family member, who will remain nameless because the person is still living, inhabits a haunted house, the location of which shall remain secret.

(Three close family members died in that house, including the haunting spirit; maybe relevant, maybe not.)

The family member who haunts the house is a close deceased relative of mine, who also shall remain nameless. The living inhabitant of the house hung a framed photo on the wall, the photographer of which the deceased relative intensely disliked. The photographer is deceased as well.

The photo would not stay on the hook where it was hung. It would always "fall" off and it would be found on the floor. The hook had been used for other wall hangings with no incident. No wind was going through the room where the photo was hung. There was no logical reason for this to happen except for the known haunting. The living family member is convinced that the photo would not stay mounted because of the haunting situation.

The living relative also lives with a person whom the deceased relative does not like. This dislike has been manifested in other ghostly "behavior." Noises have been heard and other weird things have happened.

The living relatives of the deceased person haunting the house have reason to believe that the deceased person (ghost) is trying to get a message to one of the living relatives. However, we so far have not learned the content of that message. The person who told us this is Jeffrey Wands, a famous medium who tells people about their dead relatives.

http://www.jeffreywands.com/

Mr. Wands had a strongly negative reaction regarding this now ghostly relative's family, as though he had been aware of something awful or a series of awful events associated with this family. He did not elaborate on exactly what awful thing(s) they were but we have hints from other sources.

(BTW, the deceased people in this story all have WikiTree profiles but they will remain nameless anyway.) We are not making this up. All of these things happened.

The most frustrating thing about this whole story is that we never did learn the what the message was from the deceased relative, now haunting the house.

Answer 14

This is a yes and no answer.  I inherited a gift and I can see and talk to family members who have passed on. Usually,  it is to tell me something that is going to happen to their loved ones.  I've had a few conversations with some who have come and stayed a while.  Never, ever have they offered any clues to who my 5x ggf parents are.

The longest visit and most painful one I ever had was the first one, my Uncle Bobby. I was 8 years old and his service was closed casket and all the kids were not allowed to attend.The day he was buried I saw him in the front window at my Grandmother's house. He told me he was OK and then he just disappeared.

My mother comes and goes. She loves to announce herself with light going on and off, especially if I am attending a family event.

Comments

Thank you, Dottie, for sharing your stories. You can help with After Death Communications (ADC) research by reporting them to the ADCRF.

https://www.adcrf.org/

Answer 15

Very interesting question as the Ghost story detailed here is my very own experience!  I was 11 years old in 1952.  My family, mother, father, four children (I being the oldest) were spending  part of the summer with relatives on a farm in rural Cape Breton.   Being a city girl, I was fascinated by all aspects of farm life.  My parents agreed to my request to spend more time there so they returned home and here I was, with only an aunt and uncle  and all the animals for company.  Now I must say that I was fairly mature for my age, a relatively good student, and not given to flights of fancy.  As darkness descended, it was early to bed in the country.  My aunt and uncle's bedroom was on the main floor at the rear of the  house...mine was upstairs just to the right.  I will admit I felt somewhat uneasy being isolated and alone, however this feeling did not last very long before I heard what was the most terrifying sound imaginable....at  the base of the staircase I distinctly heard chains being dragged and then a thump of a footstep!  I froze in terror and as I waited, I heard more chains being dragged up the stairs and then another footstep.  It was coming closer to the room in which I laid.  At this point I grabbed the pillow and covered my head, praying that I would just die.  I have never experienced such terror as this 'thing' was almost at my doorway.  Then the unexplained...I was awake, sunshine was streaming through my bedroom window,  I was out of bed like a shot.   But what just happened?  I was not asleep...it was more of a feeling of coming around after a general anesthetic.  It felt only mere seconds ago that I put the pillow over my head....what happened!  Where were all the hours from dusk to dawn?   I was not physically harmed  in any way.  Racing to the kitchen, bordering on mania, and trying to explain to my aunt and uncle..... who seemed to be taking in the whole story with very little emotion.....asking them to call my dad to come take me home.....most of this was just a blur. I  will always remember that summer night on the farm in Cape Breton. There were occasions when I could have delved deeply into analysing this phenomena....I never did.    Perhaps I really don't want to know.

Answer 16

Way back in 1966 I was unfortunately badly injured in a road accident. Being in the Army at the time I ended up in the Army's Royal Herbert Hospital at Woolwich. Having just earlier in the day had my leg plated, I was in a lot of pain. During the night suddenly a Hospital Sister appeared at the foot of my bed. She asked if I was OK, I said no I can't sleep due to the pain. I'll get you something to help she said. Minutes later she returned with two yellow tablets which I took and went to sleep. The next morning on the Night Sister's round I asked would she please thank the other Sister for the pills as they helped. The Sister replied I was the only Sister on duty during the night, you must have imagined it. Barry in the next bed to me said he's telling the truth I saw the Sister as well give him the tablets. So if we both saw her who was she. There were tales of the hospital being haunted by a Sister who hung her self while on night duty. Is she still doing her nightly rounds, who knows. Checks of the medicine trolley confirmed that there were two tablets not accounted for.

Comments

Terry, wow! At least she was a very kind ghost.

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She, the Sister is said to only appear to people in tremendous pain. One of the nurses the next day took me for a walk in the grounds in a wheelchair and on re-entering the ward caught my broken leg, which on a support, and only bandaged, on the entrance wall, and I just about jumped high enough to get into the ward upstairs. People must have heard my yell 50 miles away. During my stay in the hospital that nurse could never do enough for me. Took me 9 months to recover as much as was possible from the accident.

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Ouch!! I'm sure you were in her prayers as well.

How interesting about this ghost appearing only when a person is in tremendous pain. There's no objective measure for pain, so people can be in the worst pain of their lives and overlooked-or even disparaged if the physical cause cannot be determined. It is important to have one's pain acknowledged and affirmed. Since there's a wide range in the ways people both sense and express pain, and men don't want look like a wuss/whinger among other men, a phantasmal referee for pain is intriguing.

Answer 17

My mother told me about her mother and aunt being haunted while rooming in a cabin near a mine in Montana during the depression. My grandmother was frightened when she saw a burning red face looking at her through a window. She later saw her sister being levitated on her bed as she tried to sleep.

Comments

Eric, I'm sitting here like ... O_O !

Answer 18

my Grandmother's maiden name was Bell and her family was from Tennessee. I heard the Bell Witch story from her but had no idea what she was talking about until I found the story in an old book. No known relation between her Bell family and the one concerned in the story but the story must have followed other families that left Tennessee

Answer 19

Not really much of a ghost story. But, it's still pretty cool & is about a ghost. In 2011, I think, me, my sister, & my grandma were at my great aunt Elaine's house. And her daughter, Renee, & my cousin, Valerie, & her husband & son Olin (who was probably around 4 then) came over. Olin wanted a picture of him & his parents. So Valerie gave her camera to Renee to take the picture. After she took it & was looking at it, she asked Valerie, "What's this on the screen?" And tried wiping whatever it was off. But it wouldn't come off. We all looked & saw something white & transparent over Olin & his dad. We couldn't figure out what it was. Until Elaine recognized it. She realized it was her husband–who went by the nickname Kippy. He had died in 2010 & it was his ghost we all were seeing in the picture.

Answer 20

My Aunt June (born 1913) and uncle lived in Chicago, with their three children born in the late 1930's, early 1940's, in a house built in the 1891's, 1831 N Albany. The kids always complained of a ghost in the house. Aunt June always brushed it off. The kids rushed downstairs one day screaming about the ghost's latest exploit. The kids told her the ghost was moving clothes across the rod in the closet. Aunt June told them it was just the breeze coming through the window. My cousins responded, No! The breeze doesn't move the clothes ONE ... HANGER ... AT ... A ...TIME!!!!