i can trace my family genealogy on my fathers side only to about the early 1800s. just a bunch of farmers on the Rhine. my great grandfather served in both WWI and WWII on the German side. lucky for him he was an electrician so they pulled him off the front right after the polish campaign and had him putting up power lines soon after. and survived the war also had an uncle in the U-286. he was a OMechMt. sunk 2 weeks before the war ended off Murmansk...
got lucky enough to get some pics of him from relatives in germany on his sub.
my grandfather was only 9 years old when the war ended so he didn't do much except watch a B-17 crash and see the local police running around looking for the crew and he also tells meabout how he and a friend got shot at by US soldiers while walking home from school after taking a shortcut tough a field (and this was a few days after VE day)
on my grandfathers mothers side i had one uncle on the east front who lost an arm and another in the afrikakorps who was attached to Rommel's HQ and knew him personal. both survived.
On my mothers fathers side of the family i can trace linage back to about the 1600's
turns out i'm family of the arch duke of Osuna in Spain. somehow he got kicked-out of spain on accounts of adultery
and ended up in mexico. One of the key defenders of Mexico during the french intervention was my Great-great grandfather
on my mothers mother i am somehow related to a cherokee princesses