What’s the coolest thing you can say about one of your ancestors?

My great, great grandfather was an arctic explorer named Horace Whorley. I still have a few journals of a 1931 expedition he made with some of his friends, and they made a number of discoveries while they were up there. He seemed like an incredible guy, and my grandfather always gets very emotional when he speaks about him or about conversations he’s had with people that knew him. One story I heard was that Horace made a name for himself as a sort of “doctor” among some Inuit groups, even though I don’t think he had any medical background. Anyway, apparently at the time it was an Inuit custom to allow a man that you respect to sleep with your wife. Except that the Inuit weren’t able to shower and hygiene was a second thought in an environment like that. It was considered an insult to refuse, so, yeah... A friend and I are strongly considering making a documentary about his life this summer, I hope it goes well. I’ve also been told that my family goes back to semi-(in?)famous pirate Richard Worley, but I haven’t been able to confirm that at all.

/r/AskReddit Thread