The shame! Now it seems that my great-great grandfather diddled Alfred Russel Wallace out of sixpence back in 1867 - just when he was getting over being gazumped by Darwin in The Origin of Species.
I am very fond of them and their goofy ways. I also like the fact that, while none of them is famous, they have a knack of hanging around on the margins of history, just prominent enough for Google to sniff them out. (I actually have a memoir of this Thomas Butler written by his daughter, in which she's admiring of his scrupulousness about money. But she's silent on the Wallace incident.)
My ancestors have been nowhere near as interesting. Although family tradition, transmitted to me in somewhat garbled fashion, says that my grandmother did got herself and my grandfather sued for libel by the local chief of police, for unwise things she said in the council chamber. I must go and research this properly one day in the local paper. (My icon shows my grandmother - "Granny Mac" - in 1951, in her mayoral regalia. The case apparently did her political career no harm, although it did wreck my grandfather's insurance business.)
Ooh, nice icon! Sorry about your grandfather, though. I suppose "These things happen" ought to be the insurer's motto, but it's probably not so easy when things happen to you.
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Happy Birthday for tomorrow, before I forget! Have a great day!
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Thank you!
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