I've noticed this old thread's been revived a couple of times. I didn't post in this one before because I didn't know anything. But lately, my sister's been hunting records. It seems on Daddy's side, his father's mother's line traces back to Jamestown, VA, 1607... one of the original settlers. More recently, there was a governor of Maryland and a link to George Washington which would make us distant cousins. Further back and we're traced to Yorkshire and Saxony, England, and then back through Prussia... seems one ancestor was a Teutonic Knight. (FWIW, my sister compares the TK's to the KKK. At that time, they were spreading Christianity by force. I've spent how many years eschewing swords and find out I'm descended partly from someone who fought with swords for a living.) Sister said there's record of one being buried in some cemetery in Prussia and there's record all the way back to the 1100's in Acre, Palestine. The only records I've seen on that side of the family said they'd moved to Texas and then moved back to Alabama... time period was 1820's and 1830's.
Famous shooters... none that I know of. However, I do know my Grandpa could shoot quite well. And Daddy said Grandpa had the steadiest hands of anyone he ever saw. Grandpa inspired me to try to shoot better.
My sister said a good many of our relatives fought for the South. A good many of them died as POW's.
Mom's father has never really been a shooter, but he's the one that got me good and curious about the M1 Garand... he used one in the Pacific during WW2... U.S. Army, 43rd ID in New Guinea and the Philippines. They went in ahead of MacArthur. Granddaddy said he didn't have any use for MacArthur too... they did all the work getting in there and backing the Japs out and then MacArthur wades for the cameras in and says "I have returned" and takes all the credit.