# Any Famous Relatives? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 16, 2001, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335 "2001-01-16T16:06:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/21 "2001-01-16T19:29:19Z")
That is pretty cool, **TheNerd**. I’m just going off of family lore, though. I don’t have any paperwork to back it up. I got me a coon-skin cap though. ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/22 "2001-01-16T19:37:34Z")
mr dressup told my friends and i that we were his surrogate children. that’s all i have. ---
**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/23 "2001-01-16T19:47:24Z")
It looks like we have something in common **Ashtar**. I’m Cecil Adams’ bastard love-child too! (by a different love) Unless he comes in here and denies it there is no way to prove I am not. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/24 "2001-01-16T19:47:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Olentzero \* > **Direct descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, two of the more famous passengers on the Mayflower.** Then you’re of course related to Henry Mills Alden, who was also, I believe, related to Aline Murray, who of course, as we all know, married Joyce Kilmer, who is my great-grandfather. What, you didn’t know that? Well, you do now. I’m also related to Fred B. Kilmer, who worked for Johnson & Johnson for a shit-long time and got some patents there, and to Billy Kilmer, ill-fated Redskins quarterback who is third on the all-time list for rushing TDs by a quarterback. And then there’s Val Kilmer - do I need to explain about him? And Penelope Stout, who did very little except to get almost killed by a Native American after she got to the US (what were the colonies, if that, back then). Then there’s my grandparents, who founded a school in Northern Virginia. However, they’re not that famous. My father’s mother (same as who founded the school)'s father, however, was (is?) Fred Frieseke, Impressionist painter. So that’s always a cool thing. Another one coming out of the woodwork is David Hillis, who works for NASA and has two patents so far, and his mother, who’s a columnist for the Miami Sun, if memory serves. ---
**Author:** ![boli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e99b99/32.png) [@boli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boli)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/25 "2001-01-16T21:26:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anake \* > I don’t have any recent celebrity relatives (I could, my mom is adopted), but one of my relatives is Erik the Red and Leif Erikson (they’re father and son). How odd, Anake. When I saw the thread title, I thought to myself, “oh, I could post about how I’m supposedly descended from Leif Erikson”. It’s our interesting little family story - who knows if it’s true or not. I guess when my great-great-whatever came to this country, he changed his name from Erikson to … well, something not even CLOSE to that, which is a convenient explanation for why “Erikson” shows up nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/26 "2001-01-16T21:49:40Z")
Famous people? Um… I don’t really know… Dad’s side is a lot of farmers and Mom’s is stuff that I don’t know though there are a lot of Lawyers, Psychiatrists and Teachers in her siblings and a couple of Priests a little farther up. One of my Great Uncles (Great Great? I dunno) could have gone to the olympics is he had practiced and stuff but he became a priest instead. The only sorta famous person that would work in my Grandfather the Honorable Hugh J. MacDonnell. He was a Supreme court judge in Nova Scotia before he retired. That’s all the ones I know of. ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/27 "2001-01-16T21:50:07Z")
\*\*sniff…(mutters under breath) **Peasants** William the Conquerer Charlemagne John Paul Jones Alfred the Great King Edward I Malcolm III of Scotland Hugh de Spencer - Earl of Winchester Most of the signers of the Magna Carta Robert Walton - landed with Wm.Penn - settled Philadelphia Of course, some idiot had to come along about 400 years ago and just fuck it up for the rest of us, so we are just ordinary folks now. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/28 "2001-01-16T22:06:02Z")
Well… my great-aunt used to be married to a Dallas Cowboy. my fourth cousin three times removed (or something like that) is NASCAR Winston Cup driver Dave Blaney. So… nope. ---
**Author:** ![rockstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockstar)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/29 "2001-01-16T22:17:42Z")
My great-great-uncle Sam Lambert was president (or something) of the NEA and number 13 on Nixon’s hate list (or something). Okay, so my grandmother told me this one time and I don’t really remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/30 "2001-01-16T22:20:58Z")
My great(x?) grandfather was Samuel Crowley, the first man killed in the Revolutionary War. His widow was granted a special commission by the House of Burgess (in Virginia). There is a monument to him on the banks of the Ohio River; I forget the exact place. ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2001, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/31 "2001-01-16T22:25:51Z")
Bat Masterson is my great uncle or something along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/32 "2001-01-17T05:53:43Z")
My maternal grandmother shared some lineage with Rose Kennedy. Tommy Bishop, former British rugby player and former captain/coach of the Cronulla Sharks (Australia), is my uncle. See info on his illustrious career [here](http://members.pnc.com.au/~buster/legends.htm). ---
**Author:** ![ramesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@ramesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramesh)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/33 "2001-01-17T06:04:09Z")
I hope _someone_ here knows vishwanath anand. He’s the World chess champion of one of the two federations (NOT PCA). Well, he’s my sister-in-law’s second cousin. He probably has hundreds of people riding the gravy train like me… ---
**Author:** ![Kricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/34 "2001-01-17T06:09:05Z")
Well, the Hatfields from the Hatfield and McCoy fued. Miles Standish, and it is my understanding that he was an ass. My husband is related to the Roosevelts. And I am possibly related to Matt LeBlanc of Friends. There is one more and he is a jewish comedian, but his name escapes me right now. I have no idea about my dad’s side of the family. All my grandmother will say it that there isn’t much to talk about so she’s not going to. I do know that the family name was changed, and that they were once land owners in Germany. Even a town there named after them. VonHarm Germany. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/35 "2001-01-17T06:53:13Z")
I have a fourth cousin x times removed who was captain of Germany’s _Prinz Eugen_ for a spell during WWII. I have one uncle who was a college president off and on for over twenty years. (He kept retiring and they kept bringing him back.) His brother was a chaplain at Stateville in Joliet for several decades. ---
**Author:** ![tisiphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tisiphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tisiphone)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/36 "2001-01-17T06:54:23Z")
One of my ancestors signed the [Point Elliot Treaty](http://www.tulalip.nsn.us/PointElliottTreaty.htm). Third mark, right under Chief Seattle. And allegedly (I haven’t seen the evidence myself), Robert the Bruce. According to family apocrypha (gotta love oral history 😉 ), General Cornwallis was exceedingly overfamiliar with the upstairs maid, which resulted in another direct ancestor. However, the ancestor that really ought to be a household name was the one who invented one of the first clothes washing machines. The Pettigo Washer was invented by my great-great grandpa. Who made his mint and retired/sold out before being sunk by Maytag and the rest. I categorically refuse to mention any branch with Senators and Presidents on it. Unless we throw in _infamous_ relatives. Tisiphone Tisiphone ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/37 "2001-01-17T08:38:13Z")
Red Skelton was a second cousin (something like that) to my paternal grandfather. They played together as kids at family reunions. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/38 "2001-01-17T08:58:21Z")
Does anyone know Texas or suffragist history? I’m the great nephew of Minnie Fisher Cunningham. Minnie Fish led the women’s suffrage movement in Texas and got Texas women the right to vote in primaries two years before the 19th amendment was passed (this was back during the Solid South, so the primary was effectively the election.) She then went to Washington and helped get the vote for all American women. In her later years (1944), she got mad that no one was willing to run against the incumbent, hard-line conservative governor and ran an issues campaign out of her own pocket. She wasn’t rich, she was just determined. Coke Stevenson never announced positions on issues, but she forced him to admit his opposition to the New Deal, and she came in second in the primary. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/39 "2001-01-17T09:18:47Z")
By the genealogical research my family has done, supposedly I’m the Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great(who remembers how many) grandson of Sir Isaac Newton. Woo. ---
**Author:** ![Anake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@Anake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anake)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335/40 "2001-01-17T13:13:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by boli \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Anake \* > > I don’t have any recent celebrity relatives (I could, my mom is adopted), but one of my relatives is Erik the Red and Leif Erikson (they’re father and son). > > How odd, Anake. When I saw the thread title, I thought to myself, “oh, I could post about how I’m supposedly descended from Leif Erikson”. It’s our interesting little family story - who knows if it’s true or not. I guess when my great-great-whatever came to this country, he changed his name from Erikson to … well, something not even CLOSE to that, which is a convenient explanation for why “Erikson” shows up nowhere. \*\* Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m sure there are tons of Norweigens (sp?) out there that are related in some way to Leif Erikson. He lived such a long time ago, plus he had a sister. I know at least two people who go to my school who claim to be related to the famous Vikings. –Anake [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-relatives/50335.md?page=3)