I Found Out My Great Grandfather Was a National Recording Artist

When I was a kid I was once very nonchalantly told I had a relative who was an accomplished jazz drummer. I just found out, he was accomplished alright. My great grandfather was a member of a renowned New Orleans Jazz band and recorded albums for Columbia Records, Victor Records, and Okeh Records and possibly more.

When I was 10 years old my older brother started teaching me how to play drums. I was immediately obsessed with them, and thankfully my parents were ok with all of the extra noise. One day my dad told me, in his thick New Orleans accent, "Ya know you've got a relative down the line who was a pretty well-known Jazz drummer". That was as far as the conversation went.

Over the past few days, my wife has been doing some ancestry digging and found the "relative down the line". He was my great grandfather, Jazz drummer George Triay of Anthony Parenti's Famous Melody Boys.

Anthony Parenti's Famous Melody Boys were a Jazz band from New Orleans in the 1920s. Judging by what I've been reading from Jazz enthusiasts of this era, Anthony Parenti's Famous Melody Boys' recordings are beloved and highly sought after.

Have you done any investigating into your ancestry and found out something like this?