We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share a spooky story that their family has passed down through the years. Here are just a few of the creepiest responses:
1. This creepy sighting:
"When I was little, my mom and I were in the kitchen and I saw this strange figure standing in the corner. I told her about it immediately, and as it turns out, every single one of my siblings had claimed to see a figure that looked the same when they were around the same age."
2. This Elvis fan:
"This one's courtesy of my aunt: My father and my two aunts lived in a house that was, supposedly, haunted. One night, my aunt was having a sleepover with her friends, and one of them brought a Ouija board. They ended up communicating with a spirit named Rosalie. They asked where she was and she said, 'On your lap.' Then the nightgown my aunt was wearing puffed downward onto her lap, as if someone was sitting on my aunt's lap. They started to freak out. Then the spirit wrote out, 'Put on channel 78, I like Elvis.' And of course, to my aunt and her friend's shock, one of Elvis’s shows was on that exact channel. She has not touched a Ouija board since."
3. This ghostly relative:
"While my mom was researching deep into our family history, we found out that we're distantly related to one of the most famous ghosts in Denmark, who's known as 'the white lady of Dragsholm Slot.' The legend goes that she was a nobleman's daughter who fell in love with a stableboy and got pregnant. For this, her father bricked her up inside the walls of the house, ALIVE, and now she haunts the property. Her full name was 'Celestine Mariann de Bayonne Gyldenstierne.' I think that's pretty wild."
4. This self-surgery:
"According to family stories, my late grandmother’s second husband had a very deep, raspy voice. He had tonsillitis but didn't have enough money to get his tonsils removed. He let them become more and more infected until, one day, he put a funnel in his mouth and poured in baking soda. The story claims that it made him cough so much that he coughed up his tonsils, and it left him with that now-famously gravelly voice."
5. This seance table:
"When my grandmother was a child, she witnessed a villagewide seance for a little girl who had just tragically died. My great-grandmother didn't believe in this sort of thing, so she took the table used in the seance home and placed it by a window. Within an hour, it burst into flames and set her drapes on fire. The fire was put out, and needless to say, the remnants of the table were disposed of."
6. This close call:
"This story is from my maternal grandparent's wedding, and my mom loves telling it: It took place at the local dance hall, where there was another event also happening simultaneously. There was some sort of argument that my grandfather had to break up, and he politely asked the gentleman involved to leave, since he wasn't on their guest list anyway. The man left without a fuss, but not without taking some of the flowers off the newlyweds' decorated car.
"They didn't find out until days later, but the papers reported that this guy had been running from the law for the murder of his father, stepmother, and five half-siblings. He ended up being the last-ever person to be hanged in Alberta, Canada."
7. This criminal discovery:
"Most of my family doesn’t know this story, but since my mom is in charge of genealogical records, I’ve heard it from her MANY times. Basically, my great-great-great-grandma had a daughter, and she found out her daughter was being mistreated by her husband. So they did what any logical Canadians would do: They both took axes and hacked him to death. I’m talking dismemberment-level hacking here. They were then tried and hanged for murder, but this still makes them my most interesting relatives."
8. This grave realization:
"My grandpa's family lived in Plainfield, Wisconsin, in the early 1900s until the 1970s. This is also where infamous grave robber Ed Gein lived, and according to my grandpa, the bodies of some of our relatives were actually dug up by Ed himself. The police never made a public release of the names of those he dug up, but if you had family buried in the cemetery, you could go to the police with your family members and confirm whether or not they were dug up by Ed."
9. This spooky prediction:
"When I was a toddler, I never went to bed without being read a story. One night I was in bed getting ready for sleep, and my mom came in to read me a book she had JUST purchased. I insisted that my aunt (her sister) had already read it to me. My mom told me that it was impossible, since my aunt lived in New York and we were in Washington, DC, at the time. Then...the phone rang. It was my grandparents calling to let my mom know that my aunt had died."
10. This family curse:
"So basically, as far back on my mom's side as we can go, the women have had supernatural experiences. To just name a few: My grandmother always said she felt 'a presence' with her. This woman had been in more near-death experiences than I can count, and always made it out. From car accidents to domestic abuse to aneurysms to three different kinds of cancer. She was never sure if that 'presence' protected her or cursed her.
"My mom also had a 'presence' that played tricks on her. When she had my oldest brother, she moved into a house that was turned into apartment building. She lived on the ground floor with access to the basement. She’d always catch the basement light on. It was a pull-string light, so she’d head down the stairs and click off the light. When she’d get back up the stairs, all of her dining room chairs would be moved around, with one always placed across the room, facing to look out of the front window."
11. This haunted house:
"My mom grew up in a small house with her parents and four brothers. Every night for YEARS, a car would pull up outside and men would come inside the house...but my mom was the only one who saw them. They’d look around, play a few notes on the piano, open drawers and cupboards, and leave. When my mom finally convinced my grandparents that this was happening, my grandpa walked through the house with a candle and prayed. The men never returned after that.
"Twenty years later, my parents, my brother, and I moved into the house next door. My brother was around 2 when, every night, he’d scream and say that there was 'a man looking in his window.' His window was way too high up for this to be possible, but his room faced directly into my mom’s childhood room across the yard."
12. This Ouija board tale:
"When my parents were dating as teens, they were hanging out at my mom's house with some friends while her dad was out. In the story, they admit that some drinking had been involved, which is when my mom decided to pull out the Ouija board. They sat at the kitchen table, taking turns asking questions, obviously not taking it too seriously, but still trying to scare each other. My dad asked, 'Is the devil real?' The planchette moved to 'Yes' and then my dad literally fell through the wicker chair that he was sitting in. It freaked them ALL out."
13. This strange sighting:
"My dad always tells the story of how — a year after my great-grandmother's death — my grandma died. After her funeral, my parents stayed at her house. In the middle of the night, my father suddenly woke up and saw a shadowy figure that looked like my late grandma walk across the room before disappearing into thin air."
14. And finally, this diving ghost:
"My mom always tells this story about one of the first houses she and my dad moved into: Whenever she would empty the dishwasher in the kitchen at night, she could see someone outside the window watching her, but when she would look in that direction — there was no one there.
"One afternoon, my parents had a few friends over, and they were headed out to get dinner. One of their friends complained about being cold, so my dad said that he could borrow a jacket; he just had to go upstairs to the bedroom. The guy went in alone to grab it. He was taking a little long, so my mom went in the house to check on him, and he came barreling down the stairs, white in the face. When my mom asked if he was OK, he said that after grabbing the jacket, he went out into the hallway and saw a man at the end of the hallway, dressed in old diving gear with a metal helmet and boots. My parents moved out shortly after that."
Does YOUR family have a weird story they love to tell every time you're all together? Share your story in the comments below, and don't forget to follow the BuzzFeed Community for a chance to be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed post or video!
