On my Dad's side, we were salt merchants going all the way back we managed to buy ourselves a cardinalship and a small barony outside of Munich. That had all evaporated by WWI. Our only big mark on history is that our family was one of the first to give succor to Martin Luther. However, we do have one sincere character in our ranks: my great-grandfather, Georg, is still considered the patron saint of drinking in Marburg, the oldest college town in Western Europe. His bust appears in the pubs.
On Mom's side, I'm related to the Plymouth Rock Wetbacks. We are also kin to the Shreves. The most notable of these was Henry Miller Shreve. Shreve built the first steamboat to go all the way up the Mississippi. He later invented the snagboat and cleared the Red River. Shreveport LA is named for him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Miller_ShreveKYHillChicks kin are also quite interesting. On one side, she's related to Tecumseh. On the other, Mary Ball, George Washington's mother. Her kin were at Kings Mountain. Her one relative was the one that was put in charge of the British prisoners.
The association between the Balls and the Shreves go all the way back to the court of Elizabeth I. Our marriage is not the first of its kind. We've also documented her Acadian side (the ones with ties to Tecumseh) being at New Madrid while Henry Miller Shreve was there plotting out the town's streets.
