I started writing this and cause I had alot of time on my hands I decided to keep going.. u don't need to read it unless ur that interested as to the background of semio o goers..
I have a family tree that goes back to 700AD when the first Baron Agilulf or something from my family lived.. had 7 children and 1 lived.. lol
There tree goes on and on, one family member at least went to the crusades and when he came back the family wouldn't let him in until he told them that there was a sword he had stashed in the attic. (they didn't recognise him cause the crusades took yrs).. anyway famous ancestors eh?
Well my family is named after the town of Egloffstein which they used to rule from castle Egloffstein which is still in part of the familys possession.. their having an exhibition recently too.My family is one of Germany's oldest recorded families having recieved special privledes from Frederick the great in the 1700's and were promoted to count status from barons.
My family has had a long military history we've had ancestors in the army from generals in Prussia to basic infantry etc..
For American history one of my ancestors was responsible fore early topograpthy of the grand canyon:
The Ives expedition produced one of the most important early maps of the Grand Canyon . Using shading instead of the traditional hachure marks to indicate differing elevations of the terrain, the topographer F.W. von Egloffstein created an engraved map that is a work of art.
some dude .... declared Egloffstein's map to be "one of the most important detailed maps drawn before the Civil War
I just looked some of this shit up on the web.. theres a ton of references to Von Egloffstein family history including I found out that during a 1700's war one of my many ancestors got his stomahce shot through by a grenade haha..
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/nphtml/gchome.html
Also during the civil war I think one of my ancestors led a German immagrants contingent of I don't know how many men for the yankees.
1456-79 Princess-Abbess Kunigunde von Egloffstein of Oberm?nster in Regensburg (Germany) (we had family in Regensburg, Kunreuth, Egloffstein and a number of otherplaces.)
The Head of the territory had been a Princess of the Realm since 1315.
one of my ancestors opened a university in Germany in the 1400's
There are so many other stories, apparently we have some letters of an ancestor describing Napoleon's conversation with the royalty during germany/prussias occupation. Apparently he was quite the gentleman ;)
Baiscally my family has always been in a position of power which has allowed them more oppotunities to do notable shit cause they had the time and money to do so.
Another one of my ancestors was Julie Von Egloffstein who's artworks are on display in a museum .. she was in love with Goethe and both of them corresponded quite frequently.
As for my grand parents.. My grandmother told hitler off at a cafe once (he was briefly in for coffe with some of his staff, this was just after he had a bit of power) He said to my grandmother cause she was smoking "A German Woman doesn't smoke" And she hit the table and said "But I do"
My grandad was a major on the Waffen SS and u can guess his reaction when my grandmother used to play the BBC out loud lol..
He was part of the guard that stood near hitler at one of his speeches in nuremberg.
He was later sent to the Russian front and captured in Checoslovakia.. he only survived cause he could speak perfect Russian and could prepare an answer before the translator spoke to him in German. Because he was SS and aristocracy u can imagine how much the Russians would have wanted to kill him and one of the people from his village gave him away but he managed to prepare himself for their questions many times. He served 6 yrs in Russian captivity and came back about 40 something kilos .. heh..
So yer thats just some of my family history... Im glad I didn't stay in Germany though cause the family today is pretty up themselves.. I find it hard to live up to all the family history..