Family History Month Giveaway Winner

The month of October was Family History Month. In honor of the month-long celebration of family history, we offered the Geni community the chance to win a free 1-year Geni Pro subscription. Participants simply had to send us their answer to the question, “What’s the most surprising or interesting discovery you’ve made in your family tree?” A lucky winner was chosen at random from the many eligible entries submitted through comments on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and email.

We’re happy to congratulate John Stevens for winning a free 1-year subscription of Geni Pro!

John submitted his entry through Facebook. Read about his most interesting discovery below:

“That my 5th great grandfather was hung for high treason..and his head decorated Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, [Ontario]. This was the Ancaster Heights Bloody Assize of 1814. He had previously been a Loyalist in Butlers Rangers during the American Revolution in the Indian Affairs department and was Commissary to Joseph Brant. His name was Arent Steven’s…known as Aaron..which was the root of the problem as he’d petitioned for more land and they didn’t give it because of name confusion. By the war of 1812 he was still pissed and had sent a letter from Buttker himself supporting his claim. His father and brother were killed in service..he felt entitled to their land. The British said the matter is closed. He had 13 children including my 4rth gg with Mary Chrysler..daughter of Lt. Colonel Adam Chrysler. He enlisted in the Lincoln militia at the start of the war but went for the money and got caught. At the trial he was the only traitor to confess. They had witnesses who had seen him fighting against the British. Lands were confiscated. Brutal death. Quite the skeleton in our family closet.”

We received many entries with some very interesting surprises. We thought we’d share a few more of them here:

“My husband knew almost nothing about his family so it took a lot of investigation to find his mothers family was one of the founding families of New Haven Ct, he is related to Churchill, and he is English not Irish.”

-LouAnne L.

“I found my dads birth mother!!! It was a huge secret for 75 years and I found out who she was!!!”

–Luvdabeach33

“My father’s paternal line was some of the founding fathers of Quebec and I have around 15 files du roi and files du marriers in that line.”

-Tracy B.

“I’m surprised that so many of my ancestors trace back to Colonial America and that I have more than a few Revolutionary ancestors. One of the more interesting discoveries includes a couple of rather notorious moonshiners from the mountains of north Georgia.”

-Teresa M.

“@geni MY MOST interesting discovery is where I crazily found out how closely related my dad and my mom actually were #nojoke AND my stepdad to my mom #crazyhuh”

-Kieran S.

“I found that my grandfather was married to his first cousin before the Holocaust.”

-Isaac G.

“My neurosurgeon is my 9th cousin ;)”

-MomraT

Congratulations again to John! We hope you enjoy your Pro subscription.