Edward La Porte (b. 1840 d. 1915) - The Apple May Have Not Fallen Far From the Tree

Ah, those awkward few moments when you find out some nasty stuff about some of your ancestors when doing genealogy.

I came upon this recently when I was closing up some loose ends on my third Great Uncle, Edward La Porte - my 2nd Great Grandfather Moses La Porte's brother - both sons of Jules, who (I'm fairly convinced, but largely speculating) probably raped his neice and then fathered a few children with her after his wife died. But I digress.

I was trying to distinguish between two Edward La Portes, who were born roughly the same time period and both in Clinton County.  One, was the son of Nancy Beagle and Joseph La Porte.  That Edward is my 2nd Cousin 4x removed. The relationship isn't even through the La Porte line, but instead through the Masse lines.  But again, I digress.

The Edward who is my third Great Uncle shows in the 1880 census as a "prisoner," but doesn't say much else about him or about that. The prison in the census appears to be the Stearns County Jail near St. Cloud, Minnesota.  Thanks to Genealogybank.com, I found some explanation as to why he was there and frankly, sorta wish that I hadn't.

Perhaps even more bizarre and disturbing than this is something that appears later in the same newsaper:

WTF?  Some consolation - Edward is NOT a direct ancestor.