My great-great aunt, Donaldina Cameron, was instrumental in ending the Chinese slave trade in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
When my Mom had our genealogy researched we found that we were descended from totally unremarkable people with unpronouncable names of no fame whatsoever. I am of half Croatian descent where the men died in shipwreck, the women in childbirth. The Irish half were farmers in County Mayo who harvested rocks through the centuries.
I am proud of what they did here and could care less where they came from.
My family tree is the banzi.
I’ve taken to calling everyone cousin.
(Actually, according to the people who follow these things, I’m related to Herman Melville and Edgar Allen Poe, on one hand by marriage and the other by adoption.)
My geneological aunt believes that we may have been descended from Daniel Boone. She’s still checking to be certain. While it would be rather neat if it proves to be true, like straykat23, I’m not completely sure… Is it cooler to have one “famous” ancestor or an unbroken line of hardworking nonentities digging ditches and running boarding houses and skinning mules in order to raise and support the next generation? I lean towards the latter.
That said – Sparteye? Your husband is related to Laura Ingalls Wilder? Now, that’s cool!
Being nearly 3/4 Norweigan, I could very well be descended from Erik the Red. I’d love to be able to trace my family tree back that far, but I hear it’s damn hard to trace us Scandinavians.
The trick is to hit royalty. researching farmers is like driving downtown but once you hit royalty is like getting on the freeway. And since all European royalty is related somehow (maybe) you get everything from Russian and Byzantine to English and Spanish in pretty much one fell swoop. Although finding the on-ramp can be really tricky. I’ve though I’ve seen it a few times but each time it turned out to be false. I hope you try, it’s a lot of fun, a real puzzle with meaning.
President William Howard Taft was my great-great-uncle. The “Howard” still survives as my brother’s middle name.
I’m also a direct descendant of Bathsheba Spooner, who was the last woman executed for murder in Massachusettes. It was an arranged marriage, she was much younger than he was. Bathsheba and her lover conspired to kill him and threw his body down the well. She admitted to doing it, but asked that her life be spared because she was pregnant with a child conceived in marriage. The midwife who examined her said she wasn’t (probably because she suspected the child was the lover’s), so Bathsheba was hanged. The autopsy revealed a perfected formed five month old fetus.
My family, near as can be determined, consisted of miners and farmers in Poland.
My husband’s family claims some sort of relationships to Dean Martin and Jerry West - tho I’ve never seen any documentation.
But I did attend the same high school as a girl who became a Rockette and a Gold Digger.
Whoop-de-flippin-do…
I think I’m descended from Eve…
I posted this in another thread a coupla’ months ago, but on my mothers side: Rembrandt; and on my fathers side, a mathematician who got a proof or theorem named after him, though I don’t know who (I really should find out one of these days.)
My most famous reletive was Miguelito (Little Miguel), the town retard, who in one day single-handly managed to not only burn down the local church, post office, and fire station but the local brewery as well. Boy, everyone was pissed off about the last one, let me tell you.
On my mother’s side (Canadian), we are related to Mary Pickford. I don’t know the exact relationship, though…(Her bio mentions two adopted children, so I’m pretty sure it’s not a direct descendency.)
In a more direct line, my father-in-law is a two-star Admiral (ret.) in the US Navy, Thomas Marfiak. He was the air warfare commander in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm (had command of all things flying in and out of the gulf, and out over Baghdad.)
Paul
“I think I’m descended from Eve…”
—Wassat you say, Vanilla?
I, fittingly enough, am only related to show-biz people of note. Lauren Bacall is a cousin on my mother’s side, and Alex North was a great-uncle (he composed the scores for The Misfits, Cleopatra, Streetcar named Desire and about 60 other movies).
Paul, the IMDb mentions two lesser known siblings. Perhaps you’re descended from her sister Lottie or brother Jack?
It’s possible, but they are recent enough personages (only a couple of generations back) that I would know if it was a direct lineage. Probably something more on the lines of a cousin or somethin’. I guess I should ask my Mom sometime.
Interesting how they all adopted the family name “Pickford” (their mother’s maiden name) for their stage names. One of my Mom’s many middle names (she has 3 - mebbe it’s a Canadian thing?) is Pickford.
Hmmm…I’m related to one Mr. MARTIN VAN BUREN, that squat, funny li’l president of ours.
My husband is related to Paul McCartney. And in fact, six or seven years ago, Linda McCartney called my father in law to make sure we were all on the family tree.
jarbaby
In addition to the accused (and executed) witch mentioned in the OP, I am also 26th cousin 4 times removed to Prince Charles. Yes, I actually sat down with my gene tables and figured that out. Our common ancestor was Edward I, king of England, who died in 1307.
Observation: Once you can plug your ancestry into the western european peerage, you can generally find connections to the kings of England, Wales, Scotland, Norway, Denmark, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Kiev Rus, and even the Byzantine empire. And I have heard, but don’t know if it’s true, that if you have any western european blood in you from after 1700, your chances of being descended from Charlemagne are about 90%. Not that you’d be able to necessarily document it, but given his profligacy, that’s the statistical odds.
Qadgop
my 5x great grandfather fought at Bunker Hill for the yankees!
I am a Hatfield from that famous fued, possibly related to Matt Leblanc of friends, Jackie Mason (a jewish comedian), and through my step-dad Miles Standish, and by marriage to the Roosevelts. On my bio-dads side I don’t know much except there is a town named after the family in Germany before they came to America and re-arranged the name from VonHarm.
And from what I understand brother rat, that Standish thing puts me way lower on the totem pole of favorite Mayflower people than you.
But I have found many cool things relating to the Hatfields and McCoys. Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunnie have put them in cartoons, they did a documentary on the history channel, there is a book out there, we have been in songs, and someone even built a Hatfield house for the Sims. And of course they have all the crapy furniture, unfinished walls, and an out house.
I take it all in good fun.
Gotcha! Now where’d that ant go?
For years folks on my Mom’s side of the family had said that we were direct-line descendants of confederate General Richard Stoddard Ewell, who had a very distinguished military career (well, except for, um… Gettysburg…) We even have handed down to us what we’ve been told are two of the three pieces of furniture that remained after the Union army burned down his house. And a portrait of his daughter.
Well, I decided to see if I could verify this, and much to my surprise found out that R.S. “Old Baldy” Ewell never had any children!.
So who is that in the portrait? And whose furniture have we been caring for all this time? All the relatives who could have clarified all this are unfortunately long gone.
The best I can tell is that we are still related to him, but to find a common ancestor I had to go back to my 9x great-grandparents, Edward Ewell (1604-1686) of Accomac, Virginia, and Katherine Boys (1620-?) originally of Nonington England.
Which, according to my genealogy software, makes me General Ewell’s 4th cousin 6 times removed, whatever that means 
Supposedly, somewhere on my father’s side is Nathaniel Greene, but I need to press dad for details…