Do you have any famous or infamous ancestors?

[EltonJohn]

I am doing my genealogy right now, and was curious if any of you have any famous and/or infamous ancestors.

On my father's side I am suppossedly related to the Earl of Clarendon somehow. I was also looking up the history of my great-grandmother family's coat-of-arms, and it is claimed that were are "Wodin-born" (i.e. one of my ancestors is the Norse god Odin LOL!!!)

On my mother's (she's adopted) side I just make up my own heritage Seriously though, I would like to now my mother's heritage one day.

How about you?

diane

 

[Nutsy]

Well I'm adopted too, but I'm proud to say that my adopted Mum has a very famous ancestor...........

I can't even think of his name right now, but he was a President of the United States way back when

And that's a true story too, just can't think of his name of the life of me but I do know that he had either a son or a grandson by the name of Lachlan. I remember that one as my DS is Lachlan.


Just remembered who he is.....

JOHN TYLER

 

[EltonJohn]

Originally posted by Nutsy


I can't even think of his name right now, but he was a President of the United States way back when

Speaking of American Presidents, do you know that the tele-evangelist Gordon Marion "Pat" Robertson (the 700 Club) is related to two of them-I believe it might be the Harrisons. I saw it on A&Es Biography, and the CBN website has interesting genealogical info on him.

diane

 

[catsrule]

A notorious Judge from Kentucky on my dad's side, he would be my Great Great or maybe even 3 Great's, not sure, Grandfather. Was famous for, if I may borrow the expression, 'Hanging 'Em High'.

 

[EltonJohn]

Originally posted by catsrule
A notorious Judge from Kentucky on my dad's side, he would be my Great Great or maybe even 3 Great's, not sure, Grandfather. Was famous for, if I may borrow the expression, 'Hanging 'Em High'.

Speaking of judges, do know that the author Nathaniel Hawthorne was a descendant of a judge of the Salem Witch Trials. I remember leaning this in high school English class. He was so embarrassed by what his grandfather(?) did that he changed his surname by adding the 'w'.

http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=15678

diane

 

[tkd lisa]

Dwight Eisenhower is a distant cousin. My grandmother was big into the geneology. I have lots of memories of "cemetary hopping" with the grandparents. Grandma wrote down names and birth/death dates of anyone with the same family names and looked them up in the library. It came in handy later in life, since I learned how to run a microfilm machine before I was 8!

 

[Kermit]

My grandfather's cousin, Sir Frederick Grant Banting, discovered insulin. He was knighted by the Queen (hence the Sir).

 

[MosMom]

Nobody in my own family, except that my great (or great great) grandfather was some stunt motorcycle rider and apparently a little off his rocker (common for that side of my family) . He retired when he hit a cow and nearly killed himself. My mom has the newspaper clipping in this big geneology book.

However, on Chris' side of the family, they are direct descendants of Sitting Bull. I actually wanted to ask my FIL more about this so I could find out about the exact relation. My FIL was adopted (but knew his father when he was younger) so I don't know if he means his adoptive father was or his birth father was. I'm interested to know if he meant by blood. I would love to find out what exactly he is to my kids so they would know.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I am related to Edgar Allen Poe on my dad's side.

 

[Dodie]

The title of your post ("famous or infamous") is kind of ironic and fitting for my ancestor. Through my mother's side, I am distantly related to Ulysses S. Grant.

 

[becka]

My DH's great-grandmothers maiden name is Disney and she was a cousin of Walt's.

I keep telling DH that we should ask about a family discount!

 

[Mskanga]

My DH's family are related to Walt Whitman way back when but I don't know exactly how.

 

[Cindy B]

ONe of my DH's distant relatives.. cousin maybe.. was a actor... I've heard two different stories.. one he was a silent movie star, and another TV.. he did westerns.. I think..

Hey, he's on IMDB...


http://us.imdb.com/Name?Bitzer,+G.W.

 

[Lars624]

Two of my uncles researched my father's family and found Pocahontas & Robert E. Lee.
Apparantly Pocahontas' daughter married a relative of ours.
My Paternal Grandmother was a McCoy.....if you read any of the stories about the feud you've read about her uncles.

 

[scarlett873]

my DH says that he is a descendant of sir walter raleigh...

i would like to do the genealogy thing myself to see if that's true and also learn more about my side of the family. from my mom's side, a great (numerous great) was an indian who rode along side buffalo bill. i guess he's pictured with buffalo bill...my dad has many "claims" of famous relatives, but i'm not sure if it's really true or not...he's a bit of a storyteller...

 

[Minnesota!]

On my mothers side, my great x a couple uncle was Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark, and then also Admiral Halsey (or Hull???), of Old Ironsides fame.

Nothing else

 

[RUDisney]

We are related to the Jargiello's who were the longest ruling dynasty of Poland. Yep, kings and queens in my background.... one of the reasons why we call our DD, Princess.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

My sister's ex-DH is second cousins with Keanu Reeves. He, obviously wasn't too close with him....but the mom's still keep in touch. Thought that was kinda cool.....not really an ancestor...now that I re-read the subject.

 

[Desiree]

We're related to two famous Bushes, George and George W. are our 2nd cousins twice removed. We keep waiting for our invitation to the White House but it never comes....

We're also related to Senator J. Bennett Johnston. This is all on my mom's side.

My dad's side, however, the only thing of significance that I've heard is that we've got a penetentuary named after us in England. LOL Pentonville. Anyone in England know about this place? I would love to find out more about it. Unfortunately my dad's side of the family is so screwed up. It would be so hard to do a Family Tree for his side. But I still would like to know about Pentonville Pen.

 

[TLinden16]

My dad's cousin was the Premier of Nova Scotia back in the 1940's. His name is Angus L. McDonald, and there is a bridge named after him in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a very well liked and respected political figure during his time. When my sister was in Nova Scotia for her honeymoon in the 1980's, she asked someone about him, and the man described him as "the greatest statesman since God."

Angus' brother William was a well respected and high ranking judge in Nova Scotia.

Karen