# Anything/one interesting in your family tree? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 21, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416 "2010-07-21T02:16:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/81 "2010-07-22T16:29:20Z")
> [@SpinyNorma](#): > > No one famous but I have two ancestors who were killed by being hit by trains. While walking. Two separate incidents. > > My first thought was “Great. I’m descended from Wile E. Coyote.” You say that like it’s a bad thing. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/82 "2010-07-22T19:41:33Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > Yes.. that means they are all distant cousins of each other, too. Without disclosing anything of yourself, please show us how Barack Obama and George Bush are related! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/83 "2010-07-22T19:52:51Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Without disclosing anything of yourself, please show us how Barack Obama and George Bush are related! Usually these types of relationships find some person in common from the 16th or 17th century. When you go back that far, I’d venture that quite a few of us on this board are related, too. I think George Bush and John Kerry were also related thus. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/84 "2010-07-22T19:56:45Z")
[double post] ---
**Author:** ![canadiankorean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2bfe46/32.png) [@canadiankorean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/canadiankorean)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/85 "2010-07-22T20:15:29Z")
My great great great… great grandfather is King Sejong. He invented the Korean Alphabet. > **[Sejong the Great](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejong_the_Great)** > > Sejong (Korean: 세종; 15 May 1397 – 8 April 1450), widely known as Sejong the Great (세종대왕; 世宗大王; Sejong Daewang), was the fourth ruler of the Korean state Joseon and the inventor of the native Korean alphabet Hangul. Today, Sejong is regarded as one of the greatest leaders in Korean history. > Sejong was born Yi Do (이도) and initially titled Grand Prince Chungnyeong (충녕대군; 忠寧大君; Chungnyeong Daegun). He was the third son of King Taejong and Queen Wongyeong. In 1418, his father voluntarily abdicated ... King Sejong the Great profoundly impacted Korean history with his introduction of hangul, the native phonetic alphabet system for the Korean language.[9] Before the creation of Hangul, only members of the highest class were literate (hanja was typically used to write Korean by using adapted Chinese characters while Hanmun was sometimes used to write court documents in classical Chinese). One would have to learn the quite complex hanja characters in order to read and write Korean. Further, despite modifications to the Chinese characters, hanja could prove cumbersome when transcribing the Korean language due to considerable differences in grammar and sentence order.[10] King Sejong presided over the introduction of the 28 letter Korean alphabet, with the explicit goal being that Koreans from all classes would read and write. He also attempted to establish a cultural identity for his people through its unique script. First published in 1446, anyone could learn Hangul in a matter of days. Persons unfamiliar with Hangul can typically pronounce Korean script accurately after only a few hours study. He created the Hangul characters from scratch, and based each one on a simplified diagram of the patterns made by the mouth, tongue and teeth when making the sound related to the character. Words are built by writing the characters in a syllabic blocks. The blocks of letters are then strung together linearly. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/86 "2010-07-22T20:28:39Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Without disclosing anything of yourself, please show us how Barack Obama and George Bush are related! > [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Usually these types of relationships find some person in common from the 16th or 17th century. When you go back that far, I’d venture that quite a few of us on this board are related, too. I think George Bush and John Kerry were also related thus. [Yup. That’s about it.](http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/special/family_tree.html) They have common great-great–great–great–great–great–great–great–great–great-grandparents going back to 17th Cent. Mass. On that website, if you look across the bottom, you’ll see pictures of faces. Click on the face to reveal the ancestral link. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/87 "2010-07-22T20:34:29Z")
If you look at the 4th Great grandparents of Obama on the mother’s side, at my link above, you will find Jacob Dunham married to Catherine Goodnight. If you trace Catherine Goodnight back, you will find Christian Goodnight. My family tree can be traced back to one brother of Christian Goodnight. Of course, Christian and his brother have the same parents. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/88 "2010-07-22T21:37:28Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > **One of my ancestresses was hung for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.** > > I’ve got one revolutionary war vet ancestor, who fought at Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill, really) for the americans, two War of 1812 vet ancestors, and one Civil War ancestor. [Sorry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phips) about that … ☹ ---
**Author:** ![SpinyNorma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SpinyNorma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpinyNorma)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416/89 "2010-07-23T12:33:06Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > You say that like it’s a bad thing. :dubious: Sorry, Wile E., I didn’t mean to cast any aspersions on the fine Coyote clan. It’s just that I’m uncoordinated enough without having anvils dropping on my head. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-one-interesting-in-your-family-tree/547416.md?page=4)