"Of her descendants, 700 have been in jail, 342 were confirmed drunkards, 127 women were immoral by their own confession and 27 were convicted of murder." (Image by Charles Bell.)

You can get a bad reputation if 700 of your descendants wind up in the clink, though it may be that Temperance enthusiast Mary Annable was simply a huge buzzkill given to telling tall tales. Either way, her story of a god-awful grandmother was recorded for posterity in the May 22, 1902 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Mrs. Mary J. Annable, president of the Kings County Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and superintendent of rescue work of the state union, was one of the speakers at the annual convention of the New York County Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, held yesterday afternoon in Manhattan. In the course of her remarks Mrs. Annable said that she had the record of a woman who died in Brooklyn in 1827, leaving 800 descendants. ‘That woman,’ she added, ‘kept a disreputable house and was a drunkard. Of her descendants, 700 have been in jail, 342 were confirmed drunkards, 127 women were immoral by their own confession and 27 were convicted of murder.’

To an Eagle reporter who this morning sought to obtain more details regarding this woman and her many descendants, Mrs. Annable said:

‘I based my statements upon data that I received from a doctor who is interested in criminology, particularly in its relation to heredity, and has done considerable investigating with regard to the subject. I do not feel at liberty to give the name of the investigator and there is nothing new about that statement, for it has appeared in print and I have quoted the figures in other addresses. I am under the impression that while the woman died in Brooklyn she was not a native, but came from some up state section. She was 51 years old at the time of her death and I am told that within the confines of Greater New York many of her descendants are now living, some of whom are very respectable. I do not know her name, only the initials. I made that statement at yesterday’s meeting to show what rescue work as carried on by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and other organizations means for women.'”