# are you related to anyone famous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358 "2006-06-12T00:42:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/101 "2006-06-13T18:47:23Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > A great-aunt of mine is married to a man descended from Francis Scott Key. That’s about it I think. Howdy, cousin. My dad is somehow related to Francis Scott Key, in a roundabout southern sort of fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/102 "2006-06-13T19:26:22Z")
This will only mean something to older Mets fans. My aunt’s father was the Shea Stadium [Sign Man](http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=65433&page=7) (about 1/3 of the way down, between the screaming Beatles fans and the Pope). He is a graphic artist and made signs that he held up in the stands at Shea for more than 15 years. He’s a really nice guy. Just saw him last Christmas. He quit his unofficial job as Sign Man after problems with the Mets’ front office, which didn’t like his signs when the team was playing badly. From a NY Newsday article (not available on-line) from 1993: > [@](#): > > If only Karl Ehrhardt hadn’t signed off. If only he still were the people’s representative at Shea Stadium, what a banner year this could have been for the most celebrated card-carrying critic-at-large in Mets’ history. > > Even now - to quote his old repertoire - he could be exhorting the majors’ most dangerous bullpen, “YOU GOTTA RELIEVE;” identifying the guy who made the most recent miscue, “SUPER STIFF;” and introducing any member of the '93 Mets, “MR. EXCITEMENT.” He could opine on the general ambience: “WHAT FOOLS WE MET FANS BE.” > > He had a million of 'em. Or at least 1,300, on dark green placards in white lettering. For 16 years, until a blowup with management in 1981, Ehrhardt was the Sign Man, holding the cue cards while the Mets were pursuing destiny. > > He used to carry about 60 at a time to his seat in box 72 E, behind the visiting dugout, then would hold them up at carefully chosen moments. As Ed Kranepool, a favorite target and later a friend, trudged to the batter’s box, up went the sign, “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.” The Sign Man was a Flushing fixture. ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/103 "2006-06-16T03:44:16Z")
> [@The Chao Goes Mu](#): > > Yeah! The “Outlaw Family Reunion” We could play “Pin the Bullet on the Back of the Innocent Woman!” We could play “Great Train Robbery!” We could fight about who gets to be Jesse, Frank, and Quantrill. This is gonna be fun. > > Where should we have it? Somewhere far aways from the sherif’ an his boys. I don’t have to really shoot anyone right? Some of Jesse James’ money is supposed to still be in a bank somewhere if I was told right but who knows ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/104 "2006-06-16T04:37:14Z")
My family tree includes Eddie Cicotte of Black Sox fame. I hate baseball and corruption so Eddie and I would not have had too much to talk about at any family reunions. Well, ok, if I had been born before he died that is. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/105 "2006-06-16T04:40:57Z")
> [@Hilarity N. Suze](#): > > –snip– > > But I suppose I can say that I got into Robin Wright’s pants. Damn I wish I could say that. My cousin is a colorist for DC and Marvel comics. Thus my very uncommon surname is in a couple of books every month. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/106 "2006-06-16T04:44:32Z")
Got a couple of country singers in my line. Keith Whitley’s father and my father were first cousins. I actually played with the Whitley youngn’s when I was a nipper. Ricky Skaggs and I are third cousins. When we lived back east I worked for a bit with his father. President Andrew Jackson is a relative. His mother’s brother is one of my many times removed grandfathers. I have a cousin in Ashland, KY who is gu-gillionaire coal miner/owner. Another cousin teaches at NCState and is the world’s leading expert on drainage. I know [Ed Begley’s](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000893/) sister. Once shook hands with Jimmy Carter. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/107 "2006-06-16T05:20:11Z")
Mom says we’re related to Alexander Hamilton. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358/108 "2006-06-16T12:26:15Z")
> [@mrald](#): > > Somewhere far aways from the sherif’ an his boys. > > I don’t have to really shoot anyone right? > > Some of Jesse James’ money is supposed to still be in a bank somewhere if I was told right but who knows No. No shooting, I would hope as decendents of that coward that we would have cleaned up the gene pool by now. 😉 (Although, a water balloon fight could be fun) I remember as a youth hearing that he had stashed some money in a cave in Wyoming, kind of deep into it where you had to swim through a tunnel and hold your breath for two minutes, pop out the other side and that he stashed it into a crevice in the cave wall. I spent the summer of '85 at the library doing research on it, and practicing holding my breath for two minutes (I did it!) and then planning to run away for a few weeks to go look for it. I saved allowance money for a bus ticket out there and to pay for a motel. The plan died on the vine when I found out that no motel would rent to a 12 year old. ☹ Meh, someone probably already got to the money anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-related-to-anyone-famous/360358.md?page=5)