Are you related to anyone famous?greenspun.com : LUSENET : Xeney : One Thread |
Family legends are okay; we won't ask for proof. According to family legend, I'm related to John Adams and John Quincy Adams and Jefferson Davis on my mom's side. I'm also possibly related to John Locke (or at least to someone with the same name as his brother who lived in the same part of England in the same generation).On my dad's side, I'm related to Wayne Newton. Hell, that's better than George Bush.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Depends on the point of view. I am related to the most famous people in the world, my wife Heather and our five offspring.There is a whisper that on the bar sinster side I am related to an English king way back there. No doubt it was King Randy the 3rd.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
My dad is Glenn Ford.Not *the* glenn ford, but who's counting?
Oh, okay, you want some actual relationship kind of thing. Okay, well I am related to the housekeeper who found Marilyn Monroe dead in her room.
I am also related to the housekeeper who was working for Kellogg when he invented Corn Flakes.
Maybe I'm related to Alice on the Brady Bunch, too!!!
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Only by marriage. My husband is related to a handful of Canadian actors: Helen Shaver (The Colour of Money, The Craft), Lally Cadeau (Anne of Avonlea) and Michael McManus (Lexx). He's also related to a woman named Vanessa Shaver who is a budding, and very talented, actress and writer. So nobody really notable, like John Adams, but still fun!
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Well, I'm a distant cousin of Louis Cyr, who was a famous Canadian strong man around the turn of the 20th century. And I may be a distant cousin of the "Father of the Yellow Bus", Frank W. Cyr. There's also a legend that my mom's side of the family is related to Rudy Vallee.I think that's the closest to fame my family has. The nicest thing about my last name, though, is that anyone who has it is most likely related through blood or marriage. Unless they took it as a stage name (thinking of Lili St. Cyr).
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Ummm, family legend has it that Sandy Koufax is a cousin. He was the pitcher for the Dodgers when they were the "Brooklyn Dodgers" or "'Dem Bums". So much for my fifteen minutes of fame....
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
I'm not sure this counts, but my uncle, Collin Tilton, played with Van Morrison when the did _Moondance_ and a couple other CD's previously. He still plays in bads that sound very much like Van Morrison.That's my 15 minutes of fame.
Colleen
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Seems I'm a direct descendant of William Penn. Great-great-great...(you get the picture) granddaughter.There is also a rumor in our family that we are distantly related to Ulysses S. Grant but its never been confirmed.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
I am related to Winston Churchill on my mother's side. I actually have a bracelet which used to belong to his mother - a woman named Jennie Jerome.Also on my mother's side, and much to my horror given my pathological fear of clowns - I am a direct descendant of James A. Bailey of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus Bailey's.
On my dad's side I think there is probably a Declaration of Independence signer, but I don't know which one.
Unfortunately, I am not related to Jennifer Love-Hewitt, and therefore will have a bit more difficulty hunting her down and killing her for the travesty that was "The Audrey Hepburn Story".
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
I'm distantly related to former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. I'm not sure exactly how, though.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
I've got famous relatives in Ireland.My great- grand father is James Larkin. My grandfather is James Larkin Jr.
There is a statue of my ggf in Dublin.
Kinda cool.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
My husband is somehow related to Miles Standish, on his mother's side.I have no idea about myself... but one of my grandfathers was a VanDyke, so maybe I'm related to Dick VanDyke and don't know it.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
My mom used to date Leonard Cohen. I like to think I was their lovechild, but no go.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
I think we're one of about a zillion Americans that can claim we are related to Princess Diana, not that she ever ran around saying "Hey! I'm related to Kerri in Seattle! How cool is that?"There is family history claiming relation to William Penn, the Carnagie family and my gg grandfather was pals with Rockefeller and played a part in the "Teapot Dome Scandal".
But my husband! He's a cousin of the king himself, Elvis! 3rd or 4th cousin on Elvis' mother's side, he even looks like him.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Yep.Drew Barrymore is my fourth cousin on my dad's side. I'm not sure how exactly that works...but my grandpa told me that so it's got to be true.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
This is about who I'm not related to. During the sixties a woman wrote to everyone named D. Leitch in the Glasgow phone book looking for Donovan (Leitch, the singer). My grandad, Donald Leitch, got one of these letters and had to write back saying that he was sorry, we weren't related to Donovan at all.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
This is interesting-- about my friend Katie and her husband Tim. Their last name is Sherman. While they were in New Orleans, they found a portrait of General Sherman and he looks exactly like an older version of Tim. I mean, exactly! They are supposedly related, but it's very eerie to see the genetic evidence.Also interesting: when they were in Tennessee, there was a private road that they had to drive down, and the guy who owned it (a good old Southern boy, I guess) had said nobody named Sherman would be allowed on his road, and if he caught them, he'd shoot them.
Katie, bless her heart, almost traveled to Louisiana under an assumed name.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Samuel F.B. Morse & William the Conqueror
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
The only "famous" relative I know of for sure is Beverly Cleary (author of the Ramona childrens' book series). My aunt on my father's side did our family tree, and she's a 3rd or 4th cousin of mine.Oh, I forgot Colin Quinn. Related to me on my Mom's side, but I'd rather forget him.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
My father is very involved in geniology, and with the help of some cousins, has traced the family tree pretty far back. There is a family castle in England, and a Lord Jeffries that was so terrible in his persecution of the Irish that his name is still hated. Lord Byron is an ancestor. Abraham Lincoln was my Great-great-great-great- great 1st cousin. My father's cousin has a letter that was sent to some great- great relative of hers, and a lithograph of Abe and Mary that has only been printed in a book once. That book was by my father and his cousin for members of our family and has never been for sale to the general public. Historically, it is an unknown picture. Incidentally, Abe's grandfather was also named Abraham, and he was killed in a massacre led by an indian we believe was also an anscestor, Chief Little Turtle. (My father is in the process of researching that one.) He was a great warrior. Daniel Boone, All the Kennedy's, and there are a couple more Presidents also. I think George Bush is one. You wouldn't believe how many of our Presidents are related! There's also (and I can't remember his name) the guy that invented the phone book. He sold the rights for 1 mil., and invested well. When he died he left 15 million. Unfortunately, his near and dear were vultures, and they kept the money tied up for so long that there wasn't even the origional million left when they were done. The lawyers got most of it. LOL! Other than that, I have a cousin Mark that used to sing with Tennessee Ernie Ford, and he is married to the sister of the guy that started that whole "back- masking" of rock'n'roll crap. Yeeha. I'm so proud.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
Depends exactly what you mean by famous. A cousin of mine in Scotland once made an amusingly dramatic escape from a courthouse where he was about to be given a jail sentence and I'm told that his escape was reported on TV and in the papers. If that makes him remotely famous, then yes, I'm related to him (much as it pains me to admit it). Otherwise, as far as I'm aware, I'm not actually related to anyone famouswe don't even seem to have any family legends of that sortalthough I've known people who were, or who are/were indeed famous in their own right.
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
The closest thing I have to a famous relative is not that famous, but relatively (ha!) close. I have an aunt, one of my mother's sisters, who was an actual "employee" at the Chicken Ranch in LaGrange, Texas.If that name doesn't ring a bell, remember The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas? I'm very proud...
-- Anonymous, March 31, 2000
i'm sorta related to parker posey (on my dad's side), and my maternal grandmother's something or other was a russian czar, and another was a famous socialist, but i can't remember his name.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
Ahhh, nope not related to anyone famous but I did go to high school with Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Michael Anthony Hall and Ilan Mitchell Smith [<--- my first kiss - WOW! - I still think he is just grand.] I recently noticed on E!online that a childhood friend, Reza is dating Geena Davis and I have to say I think they make a fantastic match.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
Yeah, John Hancock, yes he of the BIG signature, is my uh, second cousin five times removed. Which makes me a shirt-tail relative of Louisa May Alcott.Some of my more immediate relatives have made it into history books, usually for having their ships sunk from under them in WWII, but they're not exactly famous.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
My great great great great (etc) uncle was the Civil War general John C. Fremont, who married Jessie Benton (she has a couple books about her; check Amazon), whose father was Thomas Benton, a painter for some president about a hundred fifty years ago. Although I'm not related by blood to any of these, as far as I know (I'm adopted), it's a kinda nice story to brag about once in awhile.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
My mother's mother's mother's mother's mother('s mother?) was the sister of the first big ol' rich Roosevelt robber baron, to the point that Elizabeth was disinherited for marrying my however-many greats grandfather Nicholas Featherly.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
As much as I'd hate to admit it after the horrible speech at the Academy Awards, Warren Beatty is somehow in my lineage.My brother-in-law is related (not by blood, he's adopted) to Thomas Kincaid, the artist. On a lighter note, his brother gets mistaken for Fred Durst of Limp Biskit all the time. He works in a bar and he's always got people coming up to him, "Hey man, are you Limp Biskit?" His response? "Yeah, dude, I'm the whole freakin' band." Funny thing is, he has no tattoos, and Fred Durst is covered with them.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
Dutch Shultz the gangster is a great-great uncle on my mother's side.
-- Anonymous, April 01, 2000
I'm not necessarily related to anyone, but my father guided Ray Charles to the airport... My grandfather also caddied for FredEstaire. Ooohhh, ahhh....
-- Anonymous, April 02, 2000
I'm not related to anyone famous that I know of, but as long as we're name dropping, one of my best friends in high school, Rene Marrou...now knows as Chris Marrou, is now a big deal news anchor in San Antonio. But we lost touch...oh well.
-- Anonymous, April 03, 2000
My great-great-great-great-uncle is Buffalo Bill Cody, through my grandmother's line. There's also supposed to be an great-great-aunt there who caused a bit of a stir socially when she left her husband for her chauffeur. K.'s cousin is Margaret Atwood.As a footnote, I went to school with the above-mentioned Mike McManus, Canadian actor. And I know he'd be mortified if he knew that the thing he was famous for was Lexx.
-- Anonymous, April 03, 2000
Well, the George Bush article was interesting, because that's the person I'm supposedly related to! My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Bush. Older relatives have told me many times that we are related to George Bush, and they seem to have a vague idea of the connection. Whether it's true or not I don't know, but if half the American population is related to him then I probably am. I'll admit that I don't feel so special any more after reading that article.And I'm definitely related to Stonewall Jackson by marriage. He was married to my second cousin three times removed, or something like that. I've visited her grave near Tompkinsville, Kentucky.
-- Anonymous, April 03, 2000
As a footnote, I went to school with the above-mentioned Mike McManus, Canadian actor. And I know he'd be mortified if he knew that the thing he was famous for was Lexx.yes, that's true, but my husband gets a lot of mileage with his sci-fi geek friends by telling them that his cousin is in Lexx : )
Hey, small world!
-- Anonymous, April 03, 2000
Beverly Cleary! Well, I'm impressed. I loved her books.On my father's side there was this guy named Prince Athern - Prince was his given name, just like the small musician from Minneapolis - and he supposedly designed the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. My dad wrote to some people in Boston who run some Old Ironsides historical organization and it turned out he had been some kind of a straw boss, not the master architect. Oh well.
I was fooling around on the Mormon's geneology site a while back and ttraced my lineage all the way back to all these Welsh kings and stuff, but later I found out their material is somewhat suspect.
-- Anonymous, April 03, 2000
A few years back my cousin did some research and lo & behold -- my great grandfather to some inane degree was King Richard the Lionhearted (of pilgrimmage and Robin Hood fame).
-- Anonymous, April 03, 2000
My great, great, great, etc. was governor of Chickasaw Nation, in Oklahoma, I believe. My granddad has a picture of him (his profile) and my dad looked just like him.
-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000
I'm not related to anybody famous, but I have a question for those people who can trace their families back to the country's beginnings:Those whose families were involved in the Civil War remember pretty clearly who was on the Northern side and who was for the Confederacy. But what about the Revolutionary War and the early years of the Republic, which were filled with violent partisan politics? Do your families have any collective memory of who was a Federalist and who a Republican/Liberal/Whig/whatever, and who was actually backing the British? Or has this kind of identification been blotted out by later events? How long does it take to forget?
-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000
Katrina - why don't you see what you can do about hooking me up with this brother-in-law's brother or whatever - the guy that looks like Fred Durst. Oh, man. Give him my e-mail address, please>/I>.
-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000