In the 50s, they published a geneology of my father’s side of the family. We came from Holland, and they think we are a bastard strain of German royalty. Now, if we were a bastard strain of BRITTISH royalty, I could be a member of the Royale Bastards Society.
Other notable connections -
My sister-in-law is the 2nd cousin (I think) of John and Joan Cusak, and my wife’s grandfather used to be a driver for Al Capone. Later on, he was a school bus driver in Chicago.
“The large print givith, and the small print taketh away.”
Tom Waites, “Step Right Up”
Andrea: If you are related to Teddy Roosevelt (by blood) you are also related to Franklin D. Roosevelt, TR’s 5th cousin. FDR was related, by blood or marriage, to all the other Presidents who were related to each other, including the Adamses, James Madison and Zachary Taylor (second cousins), and William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison (grandfather and grandson).
Zulu and Gr8Kat: We all have something in common. I have stated before that I am Irish, well I thought I was until earlier this year. I have an uncle in South Carolina who was doing geneological research and found out that our family was only in Ireland for a very short time. Maybe not even a generation. My mother’s maiden name was Boyd. I am a direct descendant of Robert Boyd, William Wallace’s right hand man. He was second in command after Wallace (sort of) depending on which website/book you read. After Wallace’s death he went to fight with Robert the Bruce and Scotland got its freedom!
What is tragicomic about it is when my sister was dying of Crohn’s disease in 1998 I took her to Ireland to get some soil for our mother’s grave. Mon died thinking she was Irish and made a big deal out of it every year when I was growing up at St. Patrick’s Day. It wasn’t until after I got back from Ireland and placed the soil on her grave I found out we are really Scottish! Though I still think of myself as Irish. Talk about an identity crisis?!?! how about finding out you are Scottish and thinking all your life you are Irish?
I had to learn to drink all over again!
Phaedrus
For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes.
I am a distant cousin of Joe Montana the football player…never met him. My great-grandmother was a Montana, and I think he descended from one of her brothers.
Well, this isn’t people I’m related to, just people I know…
My dad plays conga drums in a local latin band called Conjunto Alegre. The keyboarder for the band (His name is Chris Mozar or Chris Zomar or something like that) used to play for the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.
Also, my brother’s friend Josh was an extra in a corny horror movie, “Dr. Giggles.” (He was about 9 at the time, I think.) I haven’t actually seen the movie, but he tell me he was an extra, seen in a 2-second clip of him playing Dr. Mario.
That’s all I can think of at the moment.
“The Dr. is out…of his mind!” - on the cover of the movie Dr. Giggles
Many of you may not belive this, and I find it terribly ironic…but I am related to Madonna Yea, that Madonna. Turns out her dad was my grandma’s half brother, or something like that. My grandma has tried to contact her, and verify, but to no avail. Oh well. Guess I won’t be in her will.
In 1629, Thomas Dudley (my 11th great-grandfather) was one of the signers of the agreement to form the Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1629 (London), he was chosen one of the five officers to come to America with the Royal Charter. Before leaving England, he was elected deputy-governor. In his lifetime, Dudley was four times elected governor and thirteen times made deputy-governor. Together with another future Massachusetts governor, Simon Bradstreet (my 9th great-granduncle), Dudley founded Cambridge in 1631. Thomas’ son, Joseph (1647, my 10th great grand-uncle), the future royal governor of Massachusetts, was born when the old man was 70 years of age.
And as if this wasn’t enough… my first cousin was one of the original founders of Starbucks. Unfortunately, after the first year or two in business, things hadn’t (yet) caught on the way he would have liked them to, so he sold out! AAAHHHH!!! So he went on to become the founder and CEO of Peet’s Coffee. Too bad I’m not much of a coffee drinker…
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.” I Spy Ty.
I might be related to Steve Allen. I watched an episode of Biography on A&E about him, and his mother’s maiden name was pronounced the same as my last name, but wasn’t spelled the same way in the closed captioning.
Still, they showed some footage of Steve Allen working with his mother, and she looked like my Grandfather in drag! They had the same ears, nose, and facial expressions (different physique, though – good news for both of them, I’m sure! :)).
During the civil War, some families changed the spelling of their last name to differentiate themselves from those traitors who chose the other side, so it’s possible. I have no way of checking, and I’m sure Steve Allen has no vested interest in establishing that I am related to him. I’d rather think it’s possible and not know for sure than to check and find out it isn’t true. I don’t agree with Steve Allen’s every pronouncement, but I do like the fact that he’s intelligent and talented, and not just famous just because he had a good publicity agent.
On my dad’s side, his grandfather Kelly was one of the founding members of the Oklahoma legislature. His father (E.F. Thompson) was a judge in El Reno, and there is a shelf named after him in the University of Oklahoma law library. (Unless it was OSU, I get them confused.)
On my mom’s side, her grandfather Jeremiah Brown (in South Dakota) was a freelance scout for the cavalry. He worked for Custer, who specifically requested him when he headed on his little jaunt out west. He refused to go. He said Custer was nuts. Obviously, he was a good judge of character!
One the one side we have a string of English Sirs leading back to the now defunct house of Buckingham. The Dukes of Buckingham used to be second only to the throne in power - hence the reason they are now defunct. I’ll have to study that connection and see what we turn up, probably all sorts of intriguers, bastards, and traitors lurking in that woodpile.
On the other side, although not related, my g-grandfather worked for Faberge but skipped out of Russia well before the Revolution.
Hey Baloo, nothing is spelled the same way in closed captioning! I’ve seen some real doozies (unfortunately I never wrote them down, but boy do they mangle the language).
My father is very into tracing our family tree and other than our early Massachusetts Bay Colony govorners and the first woman poet in the new country (can’t recall her name), the only other character of interest he’s found would be “Crazy Willy” (last name unknown). As yet, we haven’t had much luck discovering what made ol’ Bill so crazy…
When I was working for the auction company, I came across a lot in a catalog with about 18 letters from a civil war soldier with one of our family names. The research my dad and I did brought us to that distant branch of the family tree, but we haven’t quite made the last connection to old Hillory Shifflet and his wife Jemimah, of Ohio. I didn’t buy the letters but I did have copies made of them, so we were at least able to preserve the words. Cool, huh?!
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.” I Spy Ty.
