# Any of your realtives involved in important historical events **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2000, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606 "2000-09-01T04:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/41 "2000-09-01T23:44:12Z")
Well, there are all sorts of family rumors, but the verified ones are : related to President Taft, and my great aunt (or is it great-great?) & my great grandmother were the 1st 2 (white) women to cross the Usa by themselves, & even wrote a book about it. On my moms side, we were a noble family in a tiny backwater country called Ruthenia. Also something like 8000th in line for the Russian throne. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/42 "2000-09-01T23:51:56Z")
I am supposedly related to a signer of the Declaration of Independence. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s cool. My husband is related to P.T. Barnum, some sort of great-great-uncle or something like that. That big ol’ honkin’ Barnum nose is rampant in my husband’s family. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/43 "2000-09-02T00:41:32Z")
My father’s uncle, Captain Chaplain Kirkpatrick, was killed on the USS Arizona. Family lore says he went below decks three times to rescue survivors. He came up twice. After my father’s death, I found out he had been involved somehow in an early A-bomb test as a U.S. Army signalman. As a U.S. Naval officer, dad had a 50% stake in conceiving me. That’s an historic event that is especially important to _me_! Starting with STS-2, I was on the Space Shuttle Support Team (meteorology) at Edwards AFB. I left the base in 1985. Dad said that we were _very_ distantly related to Davy Crockett. (Related to a cousin or something.) My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, John Tillotson, was the first cousin of John Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury (c. 1692?). John Tillotson the Immigrant was not as upstanding as his cousin. He was sued for killing a neighbour’s horse, fined for not attending church, and admonished for chaining his wife to the bed. ---
**Author:** ![anomaly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@anomaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomaly)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/44 "2000-09-02T01:49:31Z")
My family was involved in the “great migration” to the US when the Austro-Hungarian Empire split up and dozens of duchies warred with their neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/45 "2000-09-02T02:56:10Z")
I can trace my family tree right back to the creation of the universe. Which is pretty cool, I reckon. ---
**Author:** ![honkytonkwillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@honkytonkwillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/honkytonkwillie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/46 "2000-09-02T08:55:44Z")
Lance Armstrong, the cyclist. He’s like a third cousin or something. ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/47 "2000-09-02T10:54:17Z")
Anyone know where I can find a list of past Air Force One pilots? Family lore is that my maternal grandmother’s brother-in-law flew it for Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/48 "2000-09-02T11:49:03Z")
My great uncle Howard Wagner was the first policeman to be killed in the line of duty in South Bend, IN. He was shot in the Dillinger bank robbery. Don’t know which specific bank, and I’m too lazy to do a search and find out. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/49 "2000-09-02T13:02:18Z")
Apparently, my Uncle Duke designed the NYC Bloomingdales. (Well, to some people that’s historic!) ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/50 "2000-09-02T13:30:36Z")
[family tradition says, and he really looked like my uncle]: Lt Gen Sir Thomas George Picton. Second in command at Waterloo. Rose from the ranks. Governor of (IIRC) Jamaica. Cashiered for torturing women. Returned to the army to be the first general killed in comabat whilst carrying an umbrella. If you meet my Welsh reltives, this all makes a lot of sense. picmr ---
**Author:** ![robinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@robinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinh)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/51 "2000-09-02T13:37:10Z")
I am a direct descendant of Franklin Pierce, our most famously alcoholic president. Whoo hoo. On a slight tangent, my paternal grandfather’s family had a geneology done that traced the family back to the Domesday (sp?) book. (Battle of Hastings, in 1066) The last person named in the books (which took up an entire shelf) is my grandfather’s older brother. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/52 "2000-09-02T14:02:30Z")
I don’t know of any thing specific, except that there is a civil war memorial in N. Georgia of a colonel with my last name- haven’t done any research into it though. Ah well…maybe someday ---
**Author:** ![Ad\_Noctum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@Ad\_Noctum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ad_Noctum)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/53 "2000-09-02T15:06:15Z")
does your great great great great great grandfather being William Clark from the Lewis and Clark expedition count for anything? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![UrbanShocker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/eb9ed0/32.png) [@UrbanShocker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanShocker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/54 "2000-09-02T15:53:40Z")
I have nobody famous in my family (we immigrated too recently) but my friend Greg Arnold is Benedict’s great(x4) grandson. Well, kinda, actually, my mom’s cousin was in Beach Blanket Bingo. But I usually don’t bring that one up. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Shadowfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfox)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/55 "2000-09-02T17:54:22Z")
I don’t think I’m related to anybody famous in history, but my grandfather was at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day. The ship he was stationed on was one of those that was sunk (I’m sorry, I don’t remember the name of it). Fortunately for him, he wasn’t on the ship at the time. He had gone into town with a couple of his buddies. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/56 "2000-09-02T19:10:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jcarbon \* > \*\*My uncle was the look out at Pearl Harbor. \*\* Wow, small world, isn’t it. My maternal Grandfather was the commanding officer of the signal corps unit that installed the air raid warning system at Pearl Harbor. (Spiffy super secret new thing, called RADAR!) By the way, it worked, But who is gonna wake up the commander of the port at that time of the day on a Sunday morning? Not your uncle, evidently! 😉 Tris Oh, and my other Grandfather invented the recording annemometer, if that counts as “Historic” ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Shadowfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfox)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/57 "2000-09-02T20:13:03Z")
I forgot about this one. My husband’s grandfather supposedly invented the cordless microphone. I’m not sure about this one, but he is pretty adamant about this being a fact. Okay, so it is not exactly an earth-shattering major event in history, but it is about as close as this family comes to glory. ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/58 "2000-09-02T23:33:54Z")
Farris- Goldstein doesn’t sound like a Scottish name at all but I can understand what it’s like to be a Campbell being that I am one meself. ---
**Author:** ![Sequela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sequela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequela)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/59 "2000-09-03T00:11:27Z")
I’m a seventh great grandaughter of William Henry Harrison, that obscure “President for 31 days” guy. Caught cold at his ignaugeration, I understand. More interestingly, to my chagrin, this also makes me (DISTANTLY) related to Pat Roberson and the Bush clan through our common ancestor. Yikes! On the other side my great uncle was one of the lawyers at the Neuremberg Nazi trial following WWII. ---
**Author:** ![ProudAmerican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@ProudAmerican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProudAmerican)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606/60 "2000-09-03T01:30:55Z")
My grandmother was nearly run over by Henry Ford whilst he was test driving one of his early automobiles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-of-your-realtives-involved-in-important-historical-events/31606.md?page=4)