comment: >
  
  Probably not that far up for anyone whose parents/grandparents fought in the war...
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  My great great grandfather killed his wife with an axe and then hung himself. Didn’t hear about this story until my grandparents were moving out of their house, I found an old ass photograph of them and asked who’s that? >
  
  Holy fuck dude. At least they had kids first 😯 >
  
  As opposed to having kids after? >
  
  Now I'm laughing in the bus, people are looking, I should just show them your comment >
  
  I'm hoping you showed them the comment >
  
  I did my family tree and found a very distant cousin (not a direct ancestor) who was a serial killer. He’s the guy they wrote about in Devil in the White City. (Corrected to say distant cousin, not distinct.) >
  
  Almost enough to dox yourself.  Here's hoping your history is clean. >
  
  He said very distant cousin. So they could be one of hundreds of people. >
  
  Technically we are all distant cousins. The most recent individual common ancestor of almost all humans is probably only from 2000-4000 years ago (of course not in the sense that we branched out in the main since then, but that due to the exponentially increasing number of ancestors as we go back each generation to ~10^24 only 2000 years back, people moving around, and incidental mixing, the most recent person who ‘happens’ to be in the ancestry of almost all of us, including most of Africa, Europe, Asia and the New World today is almost certainly more recent than we’d naively expect). That’d be maybe 100-200 generations, making almost all of us at most 100-200th cousins - for just a particular pair of two random humans, the most recent common ancestor is very probably even more recent.
  The only people likely excluded are in those small long-isolated pockets like North Sentinel Island, and even then they may have been isolated recently enough not to be an exception. >
  
  Dont be fucking your 100th cousin >
  
  I don't, I stay within the first 3 to keep the bloodline pure but not too pure >
  
  Get him milk to drink! >
  
  Come in, Ryan and I just got out of the shower >
  
  Here in Germany, it's mostly even in the last 4 generations due to WW2. Almost everyone has some ancestor that fought back then. >
  
  We ugh, we just going to ignore the elephant in the room? >
  
  Of course they were all nazi bastards. Many Germans want to forget that they have Nazis in their family tree but denying won't change it. They were Nazis and they deserved to die. >
  
  Wasn’t there forced conscription in ww2? Innocent men who were forced to follow orders do not deserve to die >
  
  After World War 2, they made it so "following orders" isn't a valid excuse anymore. They always tell us in the US military to not follow any orders that are illegal, immoral, or unethical, even if a General is giving them to you. You can be tried if you carry out an illegal order >
  
  Iirc they had the choice to go into the fight or getting shot at the spot... Nice and important change of the legal matter but if your general gives you that choice I don't think you would start arguing about the legality of it >
  
  Strangely appropriate timing... my best friend has been researching my family tree and showed me yesterday my extensive tree. Turns out great-granny ended up in prison for neglecting and killing three babies. It explains a lot about granny's toxic nature. >
  
  Damn!! What the fuck >
  
  My grandfather was a parachute instructor for the 101st during WWII. He didn’t kill anyone himself, but taught hundreds of guys to do just that >
  
  My grandad was born in 1941, so he wasn't in the army for obvious reasons, but one of his brothers was in the army and fought in Italy, and another was in the RAF, apparently he was a gunner on a Lancaster bomber, need to find a way to confirm that one.
  Also said his dad was in WW I, seems very likely, but again, I've not been able to confirm that. >
  
  Killing an enemy during war is not murder. >
  
  War is literally nothing but state-sanctioned mass-murder. >
  
  Which by definition means it's not murder since murder is defined as "premeditated unlawful killing of a human being by another." >
  
  The Holocaust was lawful.  
  Are you suggesting that butchering millions of people doesn't qualify as mass-murder because the government says it's okay? >
  
  I think the lawfulness of the act is less important than the word "enemy". In a war, if you don't shoot the other guy, chances are he will shoot you. 
  The Jews weren't enemies. They weren't (for the most part) shooting anyone. It was genocide, and I personally like to think of it as an event separate from World War 2. It happened at the same time, but the poor people who died during those events don't qualify as "war induced casualties" in my book. They had nothing to do with the war. 
  The events are just talked about together because they happened at the same time and had the same root. >
  
  Don’t have to go that far back….my father was a murderer at 14. >
  
  Sorry, dude. That must be hard. >
  
  Nah he never did any time. It was an honor killing in a rural part of the mid east. I think it’s vile but he never faced any repercussions. >
  
  What is honor killing? >
  
  A Muslim practice where a male family member (usually the father) kills a female family member ( usually his daughter) for "dishonorable" conduct. Like dating, kissing someone or being raped.
  It's a pretty sick and disgusting practice. >
  
  It's not a Muslim practice, it's an ignorant practice that's much more cultural. Unfortunately it happens in places with poor education, it happens commonly across equatorial countries but also African and Chinese regions.
  That being said, there's no honor in killing, and I hope God punishes those who do 'honor killings'. >
  
  I feel like it’s a little more complicated than “God punishing those who do honor killings”. I’m pretty sure OP’s father didn’t just wake up one day and say “oh yeah, I want to spend my day killing relatives”. He was 14 and probably was pressured/ forced to do it (maybe like his elders before). I would argue that he could have been a different type of victim in this scenario. >
  
  My mother's side last name literally means "proficient at killing" after our ancestor killed a bunch of English people. 
  It was all the hype in 1400, not sure you'd get praise if you tried to copycat his success story. >
  
  A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Killian! >
  
  I bloody hope so. I am not doing all the work in the family name. >
  
  My grandpa was a helicopter pilot and gunner. He was in WWII, Korean War, and ultimately died in Vietnam. My grandma was a Nazi Regime survivor so I'm sure her side of the family, I would hope, fought back and killed some Nazis. >
  
  Well, a great-uncle of mine was collaborating with the Nazis in WW2...
  Near the end of the war, he was speeching in Antwerp in public about how glorious the SS was. A week later the city was liberated. 
  When he passed away early 1950s, people showed up at his funeral just to be sure it was him who was buried. >
  
  Was he buried in Germany or had he immigrated? My grandma was the only member of her family that immigrated. So wild to think that they went through that only a generation back >
  
  He was Belgian, and as far as I know he was buried in Belgium. Probably not anywhere near anyone else in the family. >
  
  Googled my own name and found I have the same name as a murderer and they lived about 40 miles away from where I live, they currently in jail. >
  
  So the wrong one went to jail? And you're out here free with us? >
  
  My grandfather murdered his mistress and their unborn child by blasting them with a shotgun. He died in prison 2 years ago, thankfully. >
  
  Oh, damn! You win 🏆 >
  
  My father was a ww2 vet. My grandfather a WW1 vet. I'm the first in three generations that hasn't killed anyone. >
  
  Well, get out there and continue the legacy Jesus! >
  
  I don't think Jesus was big on murder; he was a more forgiving fellow >
  
  As a German I can say that with a high likelihood it’s probably not a very distant ancestor.. >
  
  Glad my family left Germany before then.
  I still have a rocking chair from Germany when my (mother’s side) immigrated over >
  
  I don’t think it’s so distant for me. I’m confident my parents have done so. More reasons I pretend my parents are dead and remain estranged >
  
  Whaaaat >
  
  My father is a big drug dealer and my mom launders drug money. They have always been separated and are murders separately too. I say I’m confident because I don’t truly know, it’s based off of memories I have and stories I’ve been told. My mom almost went to prison in her late teens for home invasion. Her and a group of friends killed everyone in the home they invaded, children included. She never served time because they couldnt prove she was in the house but her friends got life in prison. She was forced to move states after. I believe my dads list is longer but the one that stands out is when I caught him and his friend burning their clothes in the back yard. The next day we moved to some nowhere town in a different state again. Wasn’t until I was older and started asking why we moved around a lot that I found out him and his friend had killed a group of guys that night. 
  What’s really sad is I dont think these were the only times. My mom especially.
  Edit: spelling >
  
  Weirdest story I’ve heard is that my grandpa’s cousin (who’s allegedly a murderer) escaped jail. And while escaping, he got in a fight with someone and got his stomach slashed open. He ran while carrying his insides on one hand. He was able to live after that. >
  
  My cousin just committed murder-suicide this year so yeah... We grew up very close too. :/ >
  
  That is rough. >
  
  Distant. Um haha. My mothers side of the trees family has several branches that have multiple members who've unalived people.  They are a combo of rednecks and ghetto. They have ther own file cabinet at the police station. Lol. >
  
  Username checks out. >
  
  LMAO... You don't have to go far down my family tree for that. Both my uncle and grandfather are murderers. >
  
  My grandmother worked at a post office and brought her gun to work and threatened the postmaster sometime in the 1960s as the story goes. >
  
  Is she the one that made “going postal” a thing ? >
  
  I doubt it, but my mom likes to think so. Apparently, she was certifiably insane and I've heard some pretty far-out stories about her doing other bizarre things. >
  
  Not to far in mine really. My grandfather killed the man who raped his daughter, my mom. >
  
  Justified homicide >
  
  My great grandfather killed the guy who was actually in love with my great grandmother, cause my great grandfather was like… betrothed medieval-style to her. >
  
  Not that distant of a relative,great gramps killed at least 7 people. For the longest time no one knew his motivations until they found a journal of his. They were all people who had wronged him one way or the other... >
  
  Yup. Me grandfather did.
  ​
  ​
  He killed a bunch of nazi's when they invaded the Netherlands. He was part of the resistance. >
  
  well, technically, every single murderer who ever lived is in everyone's family tree >
  
  Not necessarily in a living person's family tree though... >
  
  teechnicaaaly we are all one big family, all humans had one common ancestor about 200 thousand years ago, mitochondrial eva >
  
  With Vikings as ancestors there was a lot of rape and pillaging going on as well >
  
  Yeah, most of my family tree is British Isles but when I did Ancestry there was a significant amount of Scandinavian. We never had any family settlements in Scandinavia… >
  
  And rapist and all the crap you could imagine.
  We don’t choose our blood but we can choose our destiny and this is not my path. >
  
  From what I've been told, my late grandfather killed a german soldier to protect my grandmother during WWII so not that distant lol >
  
  One of my sisters is the family genealogist.  She found out a relation back around the time of the Civil War cut a guy's head off.  Family on both sides were hillbillies going back a couple hundred years.  Lots of hard asses in the back woods. >
  
  Not murdered but one of my brothers killed someone back in the early 80s. >
  
  I mean perfectly reasonable people can become murderers given circumstance >
  
  There are moments that make murderers of us all. All it takes is a good reason and a bad day. Everyone is a murderer, you just have to meet the right person. 
  Paraphrased from the TV series Inside man. >
  
  Is the series any good? >
  
  From what I've watched so far, definitely. >
  
  My grandma’s uncle was an executioner (John Ellis) and killed 203 people. >
  
  Poor guy died too soon. RIP >
  
  My  great grandfather tried poisoning my  great grandmother because she was got pregnant, divorce wasn’t an option and abortions weren’t either. And they couldn’t feed the 4 kids they already had. >
  
  Some not so distant... humans have a dark history, and a lot of it is not as far back as we pretend it is. >
  
  Ugh part of my family lineage helped kill an entire tribe of indigenous americans in the 1600s. I'd wager a good portion of my colonial ancestors have murdered. I denounce their actions. >
  
  Maybe not so distant.
  My great great grandfather shot a man in the face at a poker table. The way my family tells it is that her was caught cheating, but I'd be interested to hear how the other guy's family tells it. Too long ago, and way too rural for any records of the truth, but rumor has it that this was the event that cut the acreage of his ranch down to the size that my cousins farm today. Apparently, gramps got off for murder, and his jurors all got their own tracts if land. 
  I have no idea if any of this is true. It's the story that my great grandmother (his daughter) told me. I do know that he immigrated to the US wealthy, and land records show that his ranch was the size of a county, but there are no preserved records of any of it being sold off. >
  
  Maybe an unpopular opinion... I think the OP ment Murder, not justifiable killing in a World War. >
  
  Murder is any intentional homicide. Even if it’s justified it’s still murder. >
  
  Still I don't think that's what the OP ment >
  
  I'm German, my "great" grandfather participated in 6000 murders in the Holocaust >
  
  Yikes >
  
  Yea my great-grandfather, he shot and killed a man over a hand of poker >
  
  I know for a fact that my Grandpa killed two nazis with a tire iron. They were captured and the tire in the truck they had them in got a flat. They made my grandpa fix because he had a broken leg. So they gave him a tire iron to fix it. He whacked the Nazis with it. Then the drove in the opposite direction. One of the fun reasons I am alive. There are so many other times he easily could have died. You probably have some lucky ancestors due to all the war that happens >
  
  My grandfather killed two men that raped my aunt. Never was caught for it. >
  
  Considering the number of relatives you have increase exponentially as you go back… yes, there’s a good chance one of my 1 billion 28th great grandparents murdered someone (obviously a little less than this as some distant relatives may have married… I’m not aware of any siblings that got married, but that might explain a few things…) >
  
  Sadly my moms dad had to kill people. Such a sweet man. War is terrible. >
  
  This happened loooong time ago. Two brothers had a farm together and one of them was going to get married so the other brother have to move out. He did not like this and decided to murder his brother by shooting him. Not sure if he murdered his brothers future wife too. I don't have any information abt the punishment he got. >
  
  Being half norwegian and half english i like to think my family was probably killing each other during the dane invasions of england and im the product of sappy romeo and Juliet story >
  
  Well.. If we give birth to a new generation every 30 years, and we go back like 300 years.. That's about 2^10 = 1024 (ideally) of your ancestors were born around the year 1700. I guess many of them killed even own family members.
  Plus, better don't worry about some your ancestors reproduced within their own family, because they definitely did. Having 1024 ancestors being born around 1700 means, there were more than 1 million (2^20) born around 1400. Again, ideally. Most likely many of them have more than just one connection in the family tree to you. Then go back another 300 years to the year 1100 and use 2^30, that's more than a billion ancestors of you were born around 1100. That's actually a lot more than the world population was at that time.
  So yes, your ancestors were bloody killers. >
  
  Not so distant for me; my grandfather killed his wife(my grandmother), in front of their young children, then killed himself…. >
  
  We're pretty sure my 3 greats grandpa killed my 2 greats grandpa. He was tried and found not guilty, but from the court records and other information we found, were pretty sure he was guilty. 
  He had a young daughter, Annie, who ended up pregnant out of wedlock, presumably by the son of the man who had the next farm over (he was mid 20s, she was mid teens). We assume that he was the father because in the first census after baby was born, she was listed with his last name. The baby daddy turned up missing around the time she got pregnant, last seen riding past her farm. Her dad was seen about that time digging a hole in the middle of his field for no apparent reason. We're pretty sure a jury of men (this was around  1900) heard the evidence, thought that they would have done the same thing if someone knocked up their daughter, and declared him not guilty. >
  
  Not that I know of in my family but my best friend when I was 15 ended up killing off his family shortly after I moved. I don’t think they’re correlated at all but he wasn’t right to begin with so it was only a matter of time before he visited a jail >
  
  Did an ancestry years ago and found out that a very distant great uncle of mine murdered and mutilated a whole family for unknown reasons, most likely out of impulse back in the early 1900s. Come to find out most of my elderly family already knew about this but they’ve been trying to bury this so they keep it to themselves. But they say he was known to have severe anger issues and was a strange man. Crazy. >
  
  What the actual fuckkk dude… how’d you found out? I kept it vague. >
  
  I just DMed you. >
  
  My Great, Great Aunt hit her husband on the head with a cast iron pan in self defence. >
  
  Depending on how involved your ancestors were with settling the U.S., yup. And maybe worse. >
  
  “At least one”? We’re descendants of gatherers/hunters/cave men… I’d say most of our ancestors have murdered somebody. >
  
  Quite the contrary, at least some of my distant ancestors have been murdered because of the major wars in the last century >
  
  My grandfather was a drunk. When he was diagnosed with terminal cilicosis he, no surprise,  got drunk.  When he got home he was met by his wife and three of his daughters. He put two .32 caliber slugs in his wife, shot one daughter, skipped one, and shot the third. The one he skipped was my mother. She was 16. >
  
  I mean one from the early 20th century killed filippinos so this ain't surprising.