# Do you have any cool ancestors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 11, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828 "2005-06-11T02:28:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/61 "2005-06-12T02:52:49Z")
Quite right, **Cicero** , my bad for not arranging the ships in that post correctly. I’ll not saddle our Down Undah Dopers w/ a ship named after a posh hotel. I’d like to be able to say fighting fascism in WWII was only the beginning of Grandpa’s heroic efforts in life, but sadly it seems to have been an isolated incident. Not many years later he tried to join the Klan and was deeply offended that they wouldn’t take him because he was only a first generation American. :smack: So he carried on their violent ways on his own as a Detroit cop in the 50’s and 60’s. There’s a good reason why my mom would never let my brother or I spend much time w/ our grandparents and for that I am thankful! ---
**Author:** ![LilyValy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LilyValy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyValy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/62 "2005-06-12T06:12:28Z")
My coolest ancestor would have to be… Ella Mae Place. She was the Chicago schoolteacher who left her husband and child to run away with the Sundance Kid. The elders in my family still refuse to talk about her. On the bright side, when my parents start bugging me about the guys I date, I can claim that an attraction to bad boys is genetic. ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/63 "2005-06-12T08:55:14Z")
On Dad’s side of the family, I’m apparently related to Jesse James (who I think had no offspring of his own, so they must be Frank’s). I don’t know if that’s cool or not… ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/64 "2005-06-12T16:29:43Z")
> [@MerryMagdalen](#): > > On Dad’s side of the family, I’m apparently related to Jesse James (who I think had no offspring of his own, so they must be Frank’s). You must not be familiar with [this song,](http://www.pogues.com/Releases/Lyrics/LPs/RumSodomy/Jesse.html) which mentions that Jesse had three children. The exact number and identities of his descendants lie shrouded in mystery, as Jesse is reputed to have faked his death, and several claimants (all but one of which must necessarily be bogus) to the mantle of “the real Jesse James” surfaced during the years that followed Jesse’s reported demise. The exact details of [Etta Place’s life](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/danne/etta.htm) are also disputed. ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/65 "2005-06-12T17:52:21Z")
Samuel FB Morse. Don’t know how. ---
**Author:** ![Catfood\_Purrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Catfood\_Purrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catfood_Purrito)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/66 "2005-06-12T19:17:42Z")
[Charles Jennison](http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/cgiwrap/imlskto/index.php?SCREEN=bio_sketches/jennison_charles), abolitionist who raided and plundered pro-slavery settlements along the Missouri/Kansas border. Later commissioned captain of the Seventh Kansas Calvary Regiment, later known as “Jennison’s Jayhawkers.” ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/67 "2005-06-12T19:35:35Z")
Both sets of great-grandparents on my mom’s side were bootleggers - they did it to support their famlies during the Depression. My great-grandmother in particular sounds pretty cool - she was widowed with 5 girls when my grandmother was an infant during the 1918 flu epidemic, and never spoke English very well, so she made and sold fine Kosher fruit liqueurs to support her daughters. I wish I still had her recipes. ---
**Author:** ![Catfood\_Purrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Catfood\_Purrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catfood_Purrito)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/68 "2005-06-12T19:52:30Z")
> [@Mishell](#): > > [Charles Jennison](http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/cgiwrap/imlskto/index.php?SCREEN=bio_sketches/jennison_charles), abolitionist who raided and plundered pro-slavery settlements along the Missouri/Kansas border. Later commissioned captain of the Seventh Kansas Calvary Regiment, later known as “Jennison’s Jayhawkers.” Oh yeah, and I wanted to say that, he looks so much like my dad, it’s creepy. Give him a bushier beard and glasses, and they could be twins. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/69 "2005-06-12T20:02:32Z")
> [@Eva Luna](#): > > Both sets of great-grandparents on my mom’s side were bootleggers - they did it to support their famlies during the Depression. My great-grandmother in particular sounds pretty cool - she was widowed with 5 girls when my grandmother was an infant during the 1918 flu epidemic, and never spoke English very well, so she made and sold fine Kosher fruit liqueurs to support her daughters. I wish I still had her recipes. I have just one question: to be Kosher don’t the food production facilities have to be regularly inspected by a rabbi? And if so - how does one find a rabbi to help one make and run Kosher bootlegged liquer? Especially in a day and age when anti-semitism was still very much out in the open. 😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/70 "2005-06-12T20:18:01Z")
I’m a bit surprised no one has yet mentioned two of my ancesters, the Rev. Stephen Bachiler (Batchelder, whatever), since his living descendants in America must now number in the millions. He came over about 1635 at age 74, making him one of the earliest-born American colonists. He was such an ornery cuss that he was usually on the bad side of his fellow Puritan ministers (especially Winthrop). He started the parishes (and I suppose towns) of Lynn and Sandwich, Mass. and Hampton, N.H., but soon got into trouble with church officials each time. At one point he was accused of “soliciting the virtue” of some parishoner’s wife, but since he was well into his eighties at the time, one wonders. Especially since his then new bride (fourth wife) felt a need to cheat on him. . . . Finally, about 1654, he _returned to England_, where he died. Yeah, he was _two_ of my ancesters. My paternal great-grandparents were second cousins. I’m also seventh cousin, once removed, to Richard M. Nixon, but we don’t talk about that. . . . ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/71 "2005-06-12T20:39:26Z")
I had a great-uncle on my father’s side who… if I remember this right… played basketball for the Baltimore Bullets in the old ABL, and later ran for mayor of some town in Florida on the Socialist ticket. My grandmother says one of her ancestors walked from Russia to France to emigrate to the USA, but I guess nobody believes her. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/72 "2005-06-12T20:52:21Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > My grandmother says one of her ancestors walked from Russia to France to emigrate to the USA, but I guess nobody believes her. Oh, I might believe her. I know this seem incredible in an age when people will cruise parking lots for fifteen minutes in order to save a dozen steps, but there really was once a time when people would walk great distances. How many folks, a century and a half back, made the trek from Independence, Mo., to Oregon on foot? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/73 "2005-06-12T21:19:56Z")
I think it’s more a question of Grandma than the walking (this would’ve been about 100 years ago), but I’ll look into it. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/74 "2005-06-12T21:33:26Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > From what I understand, Marie Antoinette is on a side branch of my tree. Ooh, fellow royalty! 🆒 King Richard I “The Lionhearted” is an ancestor of mine through a bastard son. I’m not sure that’s something to brag about, though… Richard was hardly a great guy, killing masses of “infidels” and so on… ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/75 "2005-06-12T21:57:08Z")
I must be somehow related to a couple of others in this thread, because I’m related on my mother’s side to Sir Francis Drake. I also have an ancestor of some sort who fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War - take captive by the British and never heard from again. I can’t remember any details, as its been several years since I’ve last looked into it. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/76 "2005-06-12T22:05:22Z")
> [@eustachian≠fallopian](#): > > Ooh, fellow royalty! 🆒 > > King Richard I “The Lionhearted” is an ancestor of mine through a bastard son. I’m not sure that’s something to brag about, though… Richard was hardly a great guy, killing masses of “infidels” and so on… There is a society dedicated to folks who, like you, can claim such a royal descent. I forget the official name, but they fondly refer to themselves as “The Royal Bastards.” ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/77 "2005-06-13T00:29:33Z")
> [@Sweetums](#): > > Sir Francis Drake for one. Howdy, cousin! ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/78 "2005-06-13T01:47:11Z")
One of my relative’s perished on the [Reuben James](http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/DD/DD-245_ReubenJames.html) when it was sunk by a U-boat. His brother was kinda peeved about it; So he joined up at age 17 and manged to shoot down a tidy collection of Japanese Zeroes, Kates, and Vals before it was all over. Another relative committed an _extremely_ well-known shooting. But since we share a name, I’m gonna preserve my anonymity by not saying who. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/79 "2005-06-13T01:50:37Z")
Okay, now I’m terribly curious: Are you a Booth, or an Oswald? 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828/80 "2005-06-13T02:23:37Z")
My great-grandaunt Margaret ran a speakeasy in her basement during Prohibition to support herself and her three children (she was a widow). Unfortunately, she died the same day I was born, so I never met her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-cool-ancestors/307828.md?page=5)