Would You Rather: When Researching your Family Tree...Discover your Ancestor was

LOL - the famous artist! Only because I love creativeness and nutty some times goes hand in hand with creativeness. The intelligent criminal wouldn't be too bad either but I'd rather had a nut instead of a criminal :)

My husband found that his family decended from a bunch of outlaws. He was quite proud of that fact. I just rolled my eyes. But, a notorious outlaw is quite clever and even though they made their living from taking what wasn't theirs, they for the most part were successful at it.

I think it might be more interesting to find out he was a criminal but very smart. Who knows what you could find that he did that they never connected him to. lol It might be fun

Hmmm...this was a tough one. Both of them would seem a little crazy to me! :) But, I think that I would have to choose, the Famous Artist Known to be Crazy! I think that would be fun too! And, aren't most very famous artists a crazy in there own way that that is what makes them such good artists because they can really express themselves in there projects. :) So, with that said, I would rather.....Discover my ancestor was a Famous Artist Known to be CRAZY!! LOL :D

Most of my relatives are the second one, which is why i have little to nothing to do with them, so i would pick the first (Partially because i fit that description too haha)

LOL--oh definitely a world renown famous artist who is crazy..and since I'm an artist myself..I'm not exactly wrapped to tight myself...--perhaps described as a tad eccentric??? Want to hear a funny story...Oh..goody goody goody, Pyewacket's gonna tell a story.. Okay..when I took costume design in college the professor said take a good look at how you are dressed now...it will be an indicator of how you will dress the rest of your life---well we're talking about the 70s here..still hippie land....Woodstock generation (oh my I'm dating myself)--well, like most people then I did dress rather hippish...anti-establishment..all that...well..in many ways I really HAVEN'T changed that much and I'm now 51...I don't care much for what's the latest fashion and dress to reflect my personality..uh..artistic?--No drab black clothing but COLORS...and I wear a lot of silver and turquoise jewelry-- well one day I'm in the supermarket...and the check-out gal is eying my over and then asks what profession are you in..and I say I'm a photographer and artist...she says..."Oh, that explains how you dress" The bottom line, because of the way I dress, I do stick out a tad..not intentionally cause actually I'm rather shy...and really don't want to attract attention, but I do... So oh, yes..would definitely want a looney artistic ancestor...LOL

I actually have to laugh a little bit over this discussion. My aunt did a LONG genealogical-complicated-i-think-she-had-too-much-time-on-her-hands thing, that actually turned out to be very interesting. In some strange complicated way through marriage and whatnot, i'm related to Jesse James. And then, come to find out, part of my family can be traced back to the Scottish MacLeods. I am of the clan MacLeod. And if you've ever watched Highlander you would understand why my wife is much more amused by this than I am. However, given the choice, I think i'd go with smart criminal. At least they'd put their smarts to some use!! Although crazy wouldn't be too bad, either.

It would not be any big deal for any ancestor to be any thing in particular. I am unique to this life and the information would be a topic for dinner and no big deal. Just neat to know about.

Famous artist. Since there are a lot of artists in my family, I wouldn't be surprised if this were true!

Outlaw who's highly intelligent lol. I mean I love artists, crazy people are definitely folks after my own heart heh..but a very smart outlaw, is kinda like a fantasy of something a part of me'd love to be.

Lol. I think i have both of them on my family tree, you should know me to agree with me. I think that i would be happy to know that there are an unusual talented a bit crazy people that belong to my family tree. People that were not affraid to do or to say what they truly believed in. I do appreciate artistic intelligent people and they usually are outlawed. Lol.

I think it would be kind of cool to find out they were a smart outlaw. It would be kind of exciting and neat to be able to tell people that your ancestor was an outlaw...like jesse james...lol

I would be delighted with both! If I could only pick the one, as long as the outlaw wasn't Hitler, I would go with highly intelligent outlaw. All I've got are some dull old French explorers, a Lord Chancellor with really nice ankles, and a couple of guys with castles. Dull as dishwater, I'm afraid!

I would be glad of either. I probably have both in the family tree anyway...LOL. I think any of the stories about our ancestors are cool. Some of the things I have found are absolutely wild! I like shaking the family tree to see what nuts fall out.

I hate craziness with anybody.Given a choice I very much like one of my ancestors to be intelligent whatever he might have been.

The criminal! I think it's very cool, i wouldn't feel so great knowing that there could be a crazy gene in the family pool! lol

I don't think I would cae either way .. if I didn't already know about this mysterious ancient relative he couldn't be that famous could he ... And if I had to choose I'd go for the intelligent relative every time .. creativity is all well and good but it's far more likely to get you somewhere if you have intelligence .. We do have a rather 'important' relative in our family .. we don't quite know what he did but around the time of King John an ancestor was granted leave to farm within the walls of King Johns castle .. something that only very privileged folks got to do ..

I would go with the crazy artist. Crazy artists don't hurt people. The outlaw probably murdered lots of innocent people. I'd rather not be related to that blood.

Both are good. Could they be the same person , Please , please?

I'd rather find out an ancestor was a crazy artist. I prefer the idea of being related to someone very creative than very smart. As for the "crazy" part -- being mentally unstable is something you can't always control. You're born that way or situations arise that break you down. Being an outlaw on the other hand...no one forced this person to commit crimes (I'm assuming ). Even if someone is terribly poor, there is always another alternative besides committing crimes--that is, if the crime was robbery. He/she may have been highly intelligent, but how smart are you really to become an outlaw? Besides, having an ancestor who was an artist leaves the possibility that I could find a painting or sculpture left by them and it'd be worth a lot!