When researching your ancestors, go further than just the facts of marriages, births, deaths, and really dig deep, until you find out just who these people were. You might unearth some shocking stories and it’s those stories that make genealogy thrilling. Like this story about the Bush family.

This story has been circulating for a few years now, ever since UK newspaper the Guardian published the shocking report, “How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power” The report revealed rumors of links between the Bush family and Nazi war criminals. The article is long and detailed and gives proof of George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush and his maternal great grandfather George Herbert Walker were aiding and abetting Nazis.

Since the Guardian published this, there have been several people who’ve searched and found these rumors to be fact, one of whom is John Buchanan, investigative reporter who was granted permission to view classified and closed records that prove without a shadow of a doubt that the Bush family was running a money laundering operation for the 3rd Reich. You can see John Buchanan discuss the Bush/Nazi connection complete with clippings and images in an interview with Alex Jones.

Another reputable journalist, Russ Baker has researched this branch of the Bush family tree, and has written a book about it called Family of Secrets. Apparently in the book, in addition to discussing the Nazi connection, he provides conclusive evidence that George H. Bush was involved in the Kennedy assassination.

This is no doubt an exciting chapter in the Bush Genealogy, which by the way is a who’s who of politics, Hollywood and royalty as you can see from this CBS report on the Bush Family Tree.

Looking back at family histories, and uncovering these exciting stories makes you wonder how much of you is you and how much is predetermined by the kind of people your ancestors were. If you look at great leaders and conversely, criminal masterminds, often there is a parallel between the actions of the ancestors and the actions of the living descendants. It’s interesting to see in this family how the apple didn’t fall far from the tree (or Bush). The war crimes great grand daddy and grand daddy were involved with during WWII are reminiscent of the wars fought under both Bush administrations.

What thrilling genealogical finds have you unearthed in your family research? And are there any similarities to any of your relatives living now?