I’ve done a bit of digging around my family tree and have learned some things. Here’s five of my most fascinating ancestors*.
- Frances Fenton, who got her PhD in 1910 from the University of Chicago.
- Jean Tatlock, who allegedly had an affair with Robert Oppenheimer and was a total communist.
- John Fenton, who fought in the Revolutionary War.
- Fenton St. Clair Butterfield, who was married in 1863 but I cannot find any death or divorce records from that wife…but he married my great-great-grandmother in 1881…
- Hyman Gindich, who left Kiev during the Russian pogroms in 1906.
*Ancestors I did not know personally. Both of my grandmothers were pretty kickass.