Well since you guys are sharing some interesting stories, I'll share a couple of mine
Unfortunately my father's side of the family is not traced back so far, the blame can be placed squarely on some Nazi bombs dropped on London during the Blitz in the battle for Brittan. The family church was lost to the bombing, and so did the majority of the records for my family in the UK. Some of my now distant relatives still live in the same house that they lived in several hundred years ago, hard for this guy from Canada to imagine.
One of my relatives is a Victoria Cross recipient
Alfred Ablett
My Mother's side of the family has had a very interesting history. The story I've heard is that they were Germanic immigrants to what is now Canada, when the revolutionary war broke out between Britain and what became the USA, my distant relatives joined up with the King's army. I understand that there were four brothers, when they went to sign up, they did not speak much English, so when asked who there were, they thought they were being asked what they were, they stated "Loyalists" and the clerk in charge wrote their names down as "Loyst". After the war, they returned to Canada to get their reward, a chunk of land. One brother sold his chunk to his other brothers and headed for the US, where his family still live on. The other three farmed in Ontario, then one brother sold his lot and moved to the city (I'm not sure which city it was) and there he opened a saloon and house of ill repute. Eventually the city fathers got tired of the troubles from his house and, according to family history, was tarred and feathered and run out of town, not to be heard of again. The other two brothers decedents still farm land in Ontario. My mother did find out the original name of the family and has researched it back fairly far, 1400s, I think, not sure.
There you go, now you know a little more about me and my family!