52 Ancestors Week 48: Troublemaker

Question

No prompt this week as Amy had some unforseen delays. However, allow me to make one. Ready?

From Chris Ferraiolo:

Lawbreakers. Ne'er do wells. No one's family tree is completely full of "goody two shoes". Do you even have "ye Olde Florida Man" in your tree? A troublemaker could even refer to someone you've had trouble researching! Share their stories and be creative!

Comments

I've known some of the best. Haven't broke down on one of them yet!

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You've known some Florida men, K? Huh...Okay.

Check this guy out: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2023/11/52-ancestors-week-48-troublemaker.html

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Last time I was there, they asked me to leave. They called me a troublemaker. Thought I was a Yankee.

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I wonder if I should've mentioned that "troublemaker" means something different in New England. Like...

"Look at these troublemakahs."

That's usually a positive thing.

Answer 1

I decided to populate my tree directly back through my maternal grandmothers. I got to my 4 x great-grandmother - Barrett-15811 - and discovered that she was admitted to a Lunatic Asylum in the mid-1800s in the UK, as a 'pauper lunatic'.  I've since come to realise that back then, if you were unable to financially support yourself and had nobody else to do it for you, you were admitted to one of these asylums. Whilst my ancestor wasn't technically a 'troublemaker', I guess they thought she would be if left to her own devices. Unfortunately, as was common at the time, she remained there for the last four years of her life and died at the asylum. The asylum itself was closed down in the mid-1900s, and the property was converted to luxury apartments.  I'd still love to visit one day as many of my ancestors, as well as my husbands ancestors came from the UK.

Answer 2

My granduncle Fred Stielow got into a bit of trouble. http://WikiTree.com/wiki/Stielow-24 enlisted in the Canadian Army at age 32 on April 4, 1919 after World War I was over and troops were being demobilized.  Fred was judged acceptable for general service.  How wrong they were.  Fred failed to show up for duty.  In civilian life they just fire you.  The military is different.  Fred was charged on April 11 with being an absentee under the Military Service Act.  He pleaded guilty and was fined $500, then officially discharged from the military on September 20, 1919 for Misconduct.

Comments

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing it!

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Thanks, Jim.  Fred probably didn't understand how hard serving in the military was.

Answer 3

My 9X great grandfather, Dr. Thomas Gerrard, definitely qualifies as a troublemaker.  One historian noted that he was probably involved in more lawsuits than anybody else in the colony.  I wrote about him here: https://annesgenealogyadventures.blogspot.com/2023/02/52-ancestors-2023-week-48-troublemaker.html

Answer 4

I went into the category "Crime" and there eventually into "Bootleggers and Moonshiners". There I found John Benjamin Carter. I was able to connect him to the grandfather of his wife, I only had to create his father-in-law.

Answer 5

My first cousins 9 times removed, Christopher Battiscombe (aft. 1655 - 1685) [[Battiscombe-70|Christopher Battiscombe (aft.1655-1685)]], was considered a Troublemaker by the authorities.

A member of a nonconformist (Puritan) family, he was an active opponent of the kingship of Charles II and James II, particularly James II's attempt to re-establish Catholicism in England.

During Monmouth's rebellion he was the Duke of Monmouth's chief agent in the Bridport area. After the failure of the rebellion, Christopher Battiscombe was arrested and tried during the Bloody Assizes, led by Judge Jeffreys. Jeffreys offered him a pardon if he would implicate others, but he refused. His fiancée, sister of the high sheriff, begged for his life, and Jeffreys replied that he could "spare part of him but if he knew what she wanted, it should be that part which she liked best."  He was hung, drawn and quartered at Lyme on Sept 12, 1685.

Answer 6

I'm not sure he would be happy described as an ancestor though my brother is older than me!

1. He decided to check out what was in the large hot metal drum that some workmen were using by the road, liquid tar and he put his hands in it.

2. He decided we, that is he and I should eat a bottle of aspirin resulting in both of us having our stomachs pumped.

3. He picked up a firecracker the day after Guy Fawkes and it blew up in his face, resulting in no eyebrows or eyelashes.

And, and, and I'm surprised he survived childhood, there are more stories, some of which might make people especially male members very squeamish, so I'll leave the list as it is.

Comments

Wow, M, this is a lot more serious troublemaking than the boys I grew up with.  Georgie down the street licked ice on a railing and got his tongue stuck there for an hour.  Georgie ate all the picked crab apples and suffered in the bathroom for two days.  But nothing compared to your "adventurous" brother.

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In addition, he and another boy decided to have a stone fight, throwing them at each other, the other boy ended up with a concussion and several stiches.

He and another boy, a different one from the stone fight story, decided to play motorcycle daredevils and created a wood plank bridge so they could jump over a bonfire on their bicycles never thinking that the wood would catch fire, the other boy ended up in hospital with burns.

He cracked his head open twice both incidents related to jumping on his bed.

And the squeamish story had to do with him standing on the end of the bath with one foot on either side of the taps. He was about 5. He slipped and the pointy part of a tap handle sliced his groin open resulting in my dad-who was a doctor-having to stitch the wound, and yes later in life he did father 3 children.

I about 4 years old was in the bath with him and have never seen so much blood!

Answer 7

My grandmother, [[Betz-1004|Ethel Minna Elizabeth (Betz) Scheeler (1912-2001)]], was a troublemaker in the best of ways. During the Depression, she would cut and style peoples' hair in her kitchen. Later,she had her own Beauty Salon in Aero Acres. At her funeral, one of the speakers said she owned the first woman-owned business in the county. I'm trying to find more information about the studio. My grandmother was 5 feet tall if she had styled up her hair. I remember sitiing in the salon and running the place like a military general. She was small in stature with a big personality, and she used her powers for good.

Answer 8

I believe my first cousin five times removed, Mark Galbraith, was the same Mark Galbraith described in an 1860 newspaper article who attempted to seduce 4 young women to go with him to Kansas from Blenheim, Ontario. One of the mothers of the girls discovered this before they had a chance to leave, triggering a small mob to beat, tar, and feather Mark, but not before he cut and stabbed several members of the mob with a bowie knife. The full article is on his profile.

He has also proven to be a troublemaker genealogically as I have been unable to find records of him after this event.

Answer 9

Cousin Chris, I have a great one for you! Actually two, and in the same family, at the same time!

Meet Royal Rosco Draper, my 1st cousin 3 x R!  He went to the slammer to serve 5 to 15 on a morals charge!

He died while serving his time in the Idaho penitentiary and is buried on the grounds.

But it gets WORSE!

Roscoe had a wife, who never got around to divorcing him!  He was a bad apple before he went to jail.  His wife was Lou Effie ''Johnson'' Draper.  On May 24, 1920, 18 years before Roscoe died, a dispute with her sister, over the sale of property they both owned, erupted.  Lou's sister, Emma Della Johnson, lured her to come for a visit and to sign the paperwork for the sale of the property!  

Lou arrived at her sister's home and an argument ensued over the property and Lou's wish to divorce Roscoe. Emma produced a gun and shot to Lou to death!  Emma then went and told her friends what she had done.  Before anyone could stop her, she turned the gun on herself, pulled the trigger and shot herself through the head!