Edmund Seib was born in 1896 on the second farm that his grandfather established after coming to the U.S. from Germany in 1861. He enlisted to serve in WWI and was in Florida waiting to be shipped off to Europe when the war ended. He never left the states. He became a cloth-cutter for Chrysler and eventually worked his way into management while still working the farm. He married Clara Dewes (b. 1897) and they had eight children; the seventh (interestingly enough the only one born in a hospital) of which died at only a few weeks old. My grandfather died on Pearl Harbor Day, 1974: almost three and a half years before I was born. Grandma died in 1991.
Donald English was born in 1904 in a small town in Southern Illinois. His father left his family and moved to Grand Island, Nebraska, leaving his wife Sarah to raise three girls and a baby boy. After eighth grade my grandfather went to work odd jobs in the Whiting/Hammond/East Chicago area. After a few years he moved back home and met Eileen Clark (b. 1905), a young Catholic girl who was determined to enter the convent even against her own father's (a stout Irish railroad worker) wishes. Donald would send letters to Eileen while she was at school, but would include secret messages written in lemon juice. My grandpa eventually got the drift that she wasn't interested and besides, he was Presbyterian. He started working for a man named Ollie DeLiel in Vincennes, IN in his department store and took what he learned there and became a manager for J.C. Penney. Ollie also sponsored my grandpa when he decided to become Catholic. Meanwhile, Eileen had decided to forego her journey to become a nun and the two met again not long after. This time around she was very much interested and they got married and had five children. The third, Mary Catherine, died at the age of six: one year before my mother was born. The family moved all over the Midwest as my grandpa was put in charge of different stores: Minneapolis; South Dakota; Kansas City; and Union, MO. In addition to being a homemaker, my Grandma English served as, of all things, a substitute English teacher. He retired from J.C. Penney and moved back to Vincennes to start his own children's clothing store. It was while they were in Vincennes that my mom met my dad at a workshop for CCD teachers. My grandmother died on the Feast of St. Joseph, 1978: 33 days before I was born. My grandpa died in 1989.
My Great(x12) Grandmother (through the Udny/Uldneys) Matilda Corgon was the bastard daughter of a Bishop.
My Great(x20) Grandfather (through the Gray-Beauforts) was Edward I, 24th King of England and Hammer of the Scots.
In a strange twist of fate, my Great(x21) Grandfather (through the Bruces) was Robert Bruce I, 31st King of Scotland.
My Great(x39) Grandfather (through the Gordons) was some dude known as Eochaid IV the Venomous of Argyll.
My Great(x40) Grandfather (through the Clares) was Sveide: also known as Sveide the Viking. He was a Norse King born about 760.