STEPHEN V COLE
The Cole family comes from "Old King Cole" who was King in Colchester during the times when England consisted of several kingdoms. My ancestors from "the old country" include King John (by way of his official bastard John Fitsroy), eight of the 25 Magna Carta nobles, Empress Maude, King Stephen, Charlemagne, Rurik the Viking, and Wothan King of the Scythians.
Sometime around 1610 or so Colonel John Cole led a cavalry charge that really impressed King James, who made him the Sheriff of Enniskillen, the fort in Northern Ireland that separated the civilized Irish from the (in the English view) barbarian Irish. This came with a cavalry regiment to keep the peace. (The family was later elevated to Earl and there is a Cole who is the current Earl of Enniskillen who is a 15th cousin of mine.) Sheriff John had three sons. The rule at the time was the oldest son got the land, the spare son became an Army officer, and the third son became a priest or a drunkard. That son was James, and he wasn't particularly religious, although he did end up running a tavern decades later. James went to his dad and said something like "give me a bag of money and I will go to that new place called America and buy land and become a credit to the family." Dad said "deal" and James gathered his friends (the sons of the skilled craftsmen of the estate) and they all got married and James bought boat tickets, a big stack of lumber, and the metal parts of a sawmill. They landed in Plymouth. The Pilgrims and Puritans there were not happy to see these rowdy "Irish" show up and told them to leave. Until the wives of the community leaders noticed that James had said he had everything to set up a sawmill so that the families could build actual above-ground houses. (The Pilgrims had been living in holes in the ground covered with logs.) When your wife said "I think they should stay" I guess you allow it.
James fought in the Pequot War 1636-1638, when the Pequots tried to destroy all of the English colonies in New England. Well, shucks, his father was a soldier and acorns usually land near the tree.
The family continued from there (I still have relatives in Boston, very distant cousins). Ancestors of mine were in George Washington's army in the French & Indian War and the War of Independence. And ancestor of mine was one of the less than brilliant military engineers who built the fortifications at Bladensburg in the War of 1812. (Those fortifications did not stop the British when they marched on Washington DC.)
Jesse Cole lost a leg on the Union side in the Hornet's Nest at Shiloh in 1862. (All of my ancestors were Yankees. I have some distant cousins who settled in Tennessee and fought on the losing side.) Jesse, being a school teacher before the war, became an "invalid" and spent the war with an artificial leg as a soldier-clerk at a supply depot near his home in Illinois.
My father's uncle fought in World War I. My father was drafted in 1943 and minutes away from being assigned to the ill-fated 106th Infantry Division (most of his
high school class died in the Battle of the Bulge) was pulled from the group "because he had been a Boy Scout and knew morse code." They made him a radio operator and he spent the war in a tank brigade headquarters (Combat Command R, 14th Armored Division). So impressed was he with the professional officers he worked for that he took ROTC when the war was over and eventually retired as a Colonel of Engineers with 30 years of service.
My mother's family comes from the Netherlands, where they were nobles (Graf) from the fortress town of Falcon Mountain. A junior son of that lineage also offered to get out of dad's hair in exchange for money and a boat ticket to Canada. One of his daughters was "burned as a witch" and the family moved to the US. My great-grandfather ran a paving company with his son (Grandad Hobart, namesake of the game Valkenburg Castle) and bricked the streets of several towns in Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally Amarillo Texas, where half of the historic streets of this city were laid by my Granddad and Great Granddad. My mother's other grandfather was a sergeant in the Rough Riders; the family still has his sword.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Friday, February 20, 2026 - 09:00 am: Edit

For what little it's worth, my distant cousin is the Duke of Gravina, Italy. That's the last remnant of the ancient Orsini nobility. Descended from the Julio-Claudian dynasty of Rome, it saw assorted senators, various princes, five Popes, countless cardinals, at least one Patrician of Rome, and the fellow who tried to assassinate Napoleon III.

An unrelated(?) line was among the Great Houses of the Romulan Star Empire, where it supported a well-known border confrontation with the United Federation of Planets two decades prior to the General War.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, February 20, 2026 - 12:01 pm: Edit

As for me. I come from Irish peasants. Who became French peasants. Who became Cajuns during the Reign of Terror.

I'm just another pesanto...

I married into royalty, though. My wife traces her lineage to Charlemagne the Great in the year 768.

By Burt Quaid (Burt) on Friday, February 20, 2026 - 07:49 pm: Edit

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 11:22 am: Edit

My mom is 100%VIrish. Her parents were kicked out of Ireland (as infants) because their parents were involved in the 1916 Easter Rising.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 05:48 pm: Edit

On my father's side, we've traced both of his parents having forefathers who fought in the American Revolution. Most notable of them was Reverend Joseph Thaxter, who served as a Chaplain at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Less famous, but still a source of pride within my family, Reverend Thaxter's great granddaughter, my great-great grandmother, Doctor Sophronia Nichols, was the first woman granted a doctor's license west of the Mississippi River.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, February 23, 2026 - 07:48 am: Edit

My great great Grandfather Copeland was awarded the highest non combat award the French gave out in WW1 as a USN CEC officer. I have a pic of him with King George.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, February 28, 2026 - 07:09 am: Edit

Alas I will have to wait to see what my family tree is until the Death of my father.

Maternal Parent side - as far as I know nothing special, my Grandfather served in the Western Desert in WW2 and I think a Great Uncle was in the RAF. My mother did have various Uncles and Aunts/Cousins - but we only really stayed in contact with one of them.

Paternal Parent side - my father is a 'War Baby' - - as far as I can tell my blood Paternal Grandfather was a US/Italian Soldier who came over in 1942 with the US Army.... and we don't know what happened to him.

My 'first' Step Grandfather (where we took the surname Howard) isn't releated to the Famous Howards of Norfolk - married my Grandmother durign the War and I beleive my Father thought he was his Blood Father (it is fair to say, there was alot of unmarried mothers with Children and they was frowned upon by their neighbours - so it wouldn't have been talked about). They did own several barber shops, but as he died in the 1950's/early 1960's, I have zero details on him.

My 'second' Step Grandfather married my Grandmother in the 1960's - and he was treated as a normal Grandfather by us Granddchildren - I didn't know the complexities that happened in the past.

My Paternal Grandmother from what I know was from the larger family names in the Bolton area of Lancashire - but other than Dad occasionally saying about Cousins - we know very little. When she died, my Brother and Father did find some further information, but needless to say, we didn't ask any questions about my Fathers Parentage at that time.

(Other than my Dad mentioing about a Second Cousin or something living in the same area we live in, the rest of the 'family' remain in the Manchester Area - and we was never close, other than the 1 Aunt of my Mothers we stayed in Contact with)

A former Brother in Law did try and do a Family Tree and had some success, so there is data to find - but as lets say, his marriage ended to my sister under legal issues.

On my wife's side - my Father in Law was adopted - but that family can trace back to William the Conquerer as they were Norman in origin. Her Mothers Side in the largest families in the particualr area = and 'Cox' is on alot of Memorial Stones in the Churchyard. One of her Uncles did serve in the RAF - and his plane (a B24) has its remains still on a hill side in Bari, Italy.

Her Paternal Grandfather was involved in the Design of Concorde - so other than Willaim the Conqeuer, thats probably the limit of our families 'famous history'.

By John L Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Sunday, March 01, 2026 - 12:55 pm: Edit

The Stiff family (my branch of it) originated in Wales. Way back in time when there was not a written language, there was a chieftain name Stiff that won a fierce battle defending a town in Wales. Hence the term "stiff resistance". There are a lot of Stiff decedents in Wales and England these days.

I can say that brothers John and Jim Stiff emigrated to Virgina from England around the 1600's. They are buried in the Stiff family graveyard near Bedford Virginia. I have seen it!

My line is from the Bedford Stiff's. Steve Cole has told me that there are Stiff's in Texas. I do not know their history or whether they split off from the Bedford Stiffs or are another branch of the Stiffs.

My grandfather, McHenry Stiff Jr was the last child born to Big Papa Stiff (this is what he was known as). I have met Christine Stiff (second to last child) and my grandfather's sister. Grandpa married Annie Baugh (of German ancestry).

My father, McHenry Lewes Stiff III, was the only child of my grandparents. My mother, Anne Langbein (also of German ancestry) gave birth to me (John), my brother Jim and sister Alice.

The greater Stiff family (including a lot of non-Stiffs via marriage) had an annual picnic for many years. As I got older, the population of attendees were declining. In 2000, they decided to cancel the annual picnic. We were down to 20 to 30 attendees.

As my parents have passed, I am the oldest Stiff of this line of Stiffs. My sister married a Lloyd (there are a lot of Lloyds in the world) and have two daughters (Deirdre and Grace). My brother married a Colligan (they are of Irish descent) and have two sons (James and Kevin).

Alas I never married. I am the nerd of the family and very shy.