A distant cousin on my father’s side was head of the FBI. Another cousin with the same last name was the leader of the free world. He did not get elected to a second term. And yet another cousin was instumental in providing housewives everywhere an easier way to clean.
Some really distant but direct ancestors were ordered by Pharoh to go off and start up this whole new country. There’s a little speculation on the veracity of that story, however.
I’m also distantly related to the Civil War Union Spy, Sarah Emma Edmonds.
I’ve just completed doing a fair amount of genealogical research on my family and my wife’s family. Found LOTS of lines going back to the early Colonial era and thence to England and Ireland. Disabused me of the notion that our lines were mostly Scottish…
Interesting folks:
My dad, enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the summer of 1941, was sent to Wheeler Field, the air station above Pearl Harbor, where he saw action on December 7th, 1941.
My wife’s multi great-grandfather, Geoffrey Chaucer.
Another of my wife’s multi great-grandfathers, who was sent to New Hampshire as a prisoner and served as an indentured servant after backing Bonnie Prince Charlie. He worked his way to freedom.
One of my multi great-grandmothers was “The Widow Jenkins” (page 421).
One of my great-great-grandfathers was Confederate Captain H.P. Oden, who was killed trying to retake the Railroad Redoubt at Vicksburg.
There are some interesting dead ends I’m tracking, but mainly because they’re dead ends.
My grandmother told me that my grandfather’s German ancestors got kicked out of Germany after they were caught poaching on the king’s land, and that’s how they started the journey that eventually brought them here. Always thought that was cool.
I am related somehow to William Dawes. He rode with Paul Revere.
That’s all I got.
My Great-Grandfather “Sternvogel” was a musician, and was playing in the band at the Temple of Music when McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
My g-grandmother claimed we were descended from Peregrine White, the first child born at Plymouth Colony. We never found out if that was true.
We did find out Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is back in the line somewhere.
Also, my g-grandfather appeared in the children’s book “One Morning in Maine.”
In the same county as the Killough Massacre in Wile E’s OP, my grandfather’s grandfather was a People’s Party representative to the Texas House of Representative. I’ve never verified this, but supposedly he holds the distinction of being the first member of the Texas legislature born in Mexico.
His father was a recent emmigrant from Wales who joined Zachary Taylor’s army in New Jersey and took part in Taylor’s foray into Monterrey. His pregnant wife accompanied him and gave birth there.
Here’s a short bio.
I’ve seen some other old news accounts of one of his election campaigns that indicated he was a less than impressive candidate, but the Populists benefitted from a backlash against the incumbent party (I can’t remember which party) and he won anyway.
My grandfather told the story of another great-grandfather of his or an uncle that supposedly took part in the battle of Buckshot Crossing on the Angelina River. This was one of the early mini-revolts that pre-dated the Texas Revolution. I’ve checked the dates on that story and busted that myth. Like I said in the other thread, my grandfather never let facts get in the way of a good story.
I am related , relatively closely I believe, to this person.
I’m relatively closely related to Mary, Queen of Scots. “Backing the wrong horse” is genetic with me.
According to a second cousin who was bitten by the geneology bug, we’re decended from Thomas, the brother of Daniel Axtell, regicide. He was captain of the guard that executed Charles I and was later executed himself. According to wiki, he went to his execution unrepentant, declaring that he died for the “Good Old Cause”.
He also outlived his older brother Thomas, who died of a disease contracted some time after moving to America.
On my dad’s side, our direct ancestor was captured by Barbary pirates, and saved when the British captured the ship. This happened in the 1730s - we know this because the family has a copy of the document that describes the incident, and authorises him to remain in Gibraltar. His signature was a wobbly ‘X’.
My mother claims that this chap is a close relation on her mother’s side, but we don’t know him personally.
It is pretty cool to say you’re related to a Nobel Laureate, though. 
My (indirect) namesake was the naval officer responsible for fueling Doolittle’s Raid.
George Washington is in my family, but I forget at the moment how precisely so, except that it is through the Ball family. The Battle of Ball’s Bluff was fought on family land.
Several family members were involved in the founding of several communities in Connecticut and New Jersey during the Colonial era.
I was all ready to ask if you were related to J. Edgar Hoover when I figured out that all three names in the first paragraph are Hoover. Wooshed I was! :smack:
My ex-husband is descended from John Adams on his biological father’s side, and Geronimo on his mother’s side. As far as I know there is no one famous in my family.
I’ve got lots of fascinating people in my geneaology, but the only one of “historical” note was my great grandfather’s brother, Bart Aabel. Known world-wide for being alphabetically first in the US army roster for WWI.
His nephew (my great uncle), Gene Aabel, would come in third or fourth (can’t remember) on the Army Air Corps roster in WWII, and thus failed to achieve the great annals of history as his illustrious father did.
My great-uncle was in the Polish cavalry at the beginning of World War II, and subsequently escaped from a German prison camp.
Other than that, nothing very exciting that I know of, although supposedly the inventor of Tabasco sauce was a distant cousin on the other side of the family. (I’m not sure I buy this.)
I’m directly descended from Erik the Red through his son Leif, on my mother’s side.
A great aunt spearheaded the suffragist movement in Texas and later ran for governor, beating everyone except Coke Stevenson (the guy LBJ later beat by 87 alleged votes.)
One uncle manned an antiaircraft battery at Pearl Harbor and may have shot down a Zero. Another uncle fought at Iwo Jima, in Korea and at least observed some fighting in Vietnam–the Marines should focus their recruiting efforts on youngest brothers.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was a cousin of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and they had the same name.