Famous Relatives/Ancestors?
 

So an idear just popped in to my head =o Earlier today I was talking to my brother about various things, and we started talking about ancestors for some reason. I then got to pondering as to what folks around here are tied to, given the diverse background GFFers come from. looool maybe some folks on here are distantly related ='D In before Plarom-Skills family tie is proven.

I've got two famous relatives that come to mind. I'm related to Zachary Lee Taylor somewhere down the line (mother's side of the family). Some rumblings were passed down in the forms of word-of-mouth and even on paper about his character and personality. Bottom line is that he was quite an asshole, from what I can gather... >=(

Second one was one of the higher-ups behind the suitcase bombing against Hitler. Only one group of my father's blood relatives that left Germany -- my great grandfather and his parents (around 1892, when he was probably five or so years old). The rest of the family remained in Germany, since they were very patriotic Germans. Hitler didn't sit right with a number of folks, and my German relatives were among them. One of them was pretty adamantly against Hitler throughout his rise (Erich Hoepner). But the suitcase bombing attempt didn't go over well, and he was caught. My great grandfather, just a few years younger than Erich, supposedly had to view footage from the filming of the "meat hook hanging" for some reason (after Erich had been tortured). According to my grandpa, it bothered him until the day he died.

So hows about you folks? =O I don't wanna hear "o u no. im related to so-and-so." Give some details~

On my dad's side of the family, I'm related to John 'Calico Jack' Rackham. A semi-famous pirate that has a pretty interesting back story. Found this out because my grandpa on my dad's side loves the Rackham story. Becomes pirate, meets woman, settles down. Legal life is boring. Wife and Rackham steal a ship go back to being a pirate. Has a unisex crew. Terrorizes the Hispaniola and the Caribbean for years. Eventually captured because he and all his crew were so slopping drunk they couldn't defend themselves when boarded. Only two women on his crew had the stones to fight back. Hanged at Port Royal. Supposedly I look like him.

On my mom's side, I have a fairly famous ancestor. A dude by the name of Vlad Tepes. Don't think I really need to give a ton of background on the guy, you probably all know it. Distantly related through the Romanian side of the family. Found this out when my nice protestant grandmother was doing the whole bloodline search thing. Imagine how happy she was to find -that- little connection. Noooo, couldn't be related to a saint. Had to be related to Vlad the Impaler.

My third cousins are The Bellamy Brothers.

Wahoo, aren't I special?

Apparently my grandfather ran with Bonnie and Clyde during that mess.

Other than that its a pretty boring family I have.

On my mother's side, I'm related to Bob Hope. He's a distant cousin, numerous times removed but the connection is there. It's a thoroughly useless link, since it doesn't do me much good and I certainly can't bank upon Hope's success for my own fortunes. But if you study our faces in profile, the resemblance is startling. We possess many of the same physical traits, particularly in the mouth and jawline. This is also to where I attribute my sense of humor and quick wit. The rest of my family is somewhat stern, certainly not jovial. So if not from Hope, I don't know where.

Another famous relative is Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. He was my maternal grandfather's cousin. It was through Thomas that my family came into friendship with Robert Frost. Now, I wish I had the material goods to back up this next part - if I did, I'd be a rich man - but thanks to Thomas introducing my future grandmother to Robert Frost, the world famous poem "The Road Less Travelled" was written. My grandmother and Frost were very close and they almost had an affair. However, it wasn't to be and Frost knew this. He expressed his sorrows in poetry. For years, scholars have tried to divine Frost's personal meaning within "The Road Less Travelled" but it's all come down to conjecture. Yet I know: my grandmother was that road. There were several written correspondences between Frost and my grandmother but they've been lost to time or were perhaps intentionally destroyed. I do not know if any remain, which is a shame, as all the players have deceased and I think the time has come for the literary world to learn the truth. Alas, it will always be hearsay on my part. But it makes for a nice story.


I've another obscure but still notable relative: E. Everett. Everett was the lab assistant to J.J. Thompson, a Nobel winning physicist. The two of them conducted numerous experiments and eventually discovered the electron. They also made significant advances in electromagnetics, X-rays and the duo was credited with the invention of the cathode ray tube. E. Everett's primary role was as glass-blower, but he contributed a number of theories and skepticisms that fueled Thompson's ambition. Everett ultimately died of cancer. Go figure.

(In an amusing twist, nearly 90 years after Thompson and Everett discovered the electron, two of their descendants sat in the same high school chemistry class, learning about electrons. Neither I nor Kim knew our ancestors were connected until the teacher mentioned J.J. Thompson and Kim exclaimed that Thompson was her great-great-uncle. I'd known about Everett and Thompson for several years, and was dumbstruck. I told the class that I was directly descended from Thompson's partner and there was much shock over the coincidence. The teacher was beside himself and spoke of the matter for weeks. Kim and I both completed the class with C averages, proving that genetics aren't everything.)

My Great Grandmother was the oldest living woman in Nebraska at age 110. She late last year. There used to be a wikipedia article on another relative of mine who allegedly held the title of "Fastest Man Alive." Seeing as how I can't find it, the only thing I can say for certain is that I just know a really old woman who I unfortunately knew had seen better days before her old age just completely kept her bed ridden.

Somewhere back in the line, I'm related to the Stewarts of Scotland. As in royal family of Britain Stewarts, like King James and Queen Anne.

I'm also related to William Rufus Devane King, Vice President of Franklin Pierce.

King is easy, as my mom's maiden name is Devane and she's traced the source of his name to the same line. She's also traced her line back as far as the Stewarts, but I can't recall how.

I guess my family used to be feudal lords in Japan. Then on my Chinese side, my great great grandfather was a lord in some farmer province in China, we even have pictures of him and his brother on a pair of thrones. Not really famous, but it's interesting.

I'm related to Bonnie Prince Charlie, the last royal of Scotland, by marriage.

My Grandfather on my Dad's side worked on the Manhatten project and was the first non-American to set foot in the Pentagon's communications room. I could have the room wrong, I've only heard the story since his memoirs are still technically classified.

Although we're not related, my great great (great?) Grandfather was quite close with the creator of CokaCola and he was offered 50% of the company if he helped it get off the ground. He turned it down because "Sarsaparilla will never go out of style." Oh dear.

My brother is the BBC's Japan correspondant. He's not really famous as such but he's on the radio a lot, the Today programme on Radio 4 mainly and he's on the BBC tv news when there's something newsworthy happening in Japan.

My brother in law is one of the barristers who got Ken Livingstone off being sacked as Mayor of London for racism, on the basis that at the time he was at a social function and was not discharging his mayoral duties. Private Eye magazine now refer to it as the "Ken defence" and it's proving pretty popular for all kinds of employment tribunals.

As far as I know I don't have any famous ancestors but I've never really looked into it.

My grandfather was a sailor on the ship that carried the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. They didnt know until much later that that was the cargo.

Other than that, I'd have to do more research... I dont think I'm related to anyone else that exciting.

Wow... So he was on the USS Indianapolis? I'm sure that was a horrific experience for him. :-/

Somewhere along the lines I am related to John Marshall, who was Chief Justice of the United States (1801 until his death in 1835), and I guess through him somehow related to Thomas Jefferson, who was a distant cousin of his.