# Geneology. Anyone famous in your ancestry ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589 "2011-08-22T00:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/41 "2011-08-23T16:25:24Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > We’ve done this thread before. But [Sir Humphrey Gilbert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Gilbert), discoverer of Newfoundland and half-brother (through their mother) to Sir Walter Raleigh. The male descendants – my ancestors – extended all the way to the 19th century, when a Gilbert daughter married my great-grandfather. My grandfather and father both were given Gilbert as a middle name. Sir Humphrey received his knighthood from slaughtering the godless Irish. I even read a _New York Times_ piece on him that claimed he had lined the path to his tent with the skulls of those he had ordered hanged. Oh, goody. The Wikipedia link mentions the path of heads too. That rascally ol’ Grandpa Humphrey. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/42 "2011-08-23T16:27:39Z")
If you count a very lightly researched trip back through [Ancestry.com](http://Ancestry.com)’s “leaves” (done as a lark one weekend rather than in a serious search), through my paternal grandmother, I’m related to the 13th-Century Dukes of Brabant and through them to several princesses of the HRE. Other than that, we’re kind of nobody. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/43 "2011-08-23T16:53:45Z")
One of my grandparents shared a last name with a president, and it’s rumored that they were related but I’ve never seen documentation of it. I do have an ancestor who sued one of the Founding Fathers, who was his neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/44 "2011-08-23T17:06:44Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Charlemagne. But this means a specific traced line back to him (presumeably among billions of untraced lines). There is a famous genealogist who traced herself back to him, and I had the good luck to find her in my own tree. Although Charlemagne lived long ago, descent from Charlemagne is (paradoxically?) not particularly desirable among genealogy “snobs.” That’s because essentially all European nobles from the last several centuries have demonstrated descents from Charlemagne. To make this clear with an arbitrary example, suppose you descend from a Baronet Pelham. That’s all you’d need to say, since the Baronets of Pelham are descended from Earls of Ormonde, who descend from King Edward I, who descends from William the Conqueror, who descends from the Counts of Vermandois, who descend from the famous Emperor of the West crowned in 800 AD. I have a specific certifiable (and bastard-free!) line to Charlemagne, yet have not yet found a widely-recognized descent from even William the Conqueror (though statistically an unknown descent from him almost certainly exists). :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/45 "2011-08-23T17:09:20Z")
> [@Snake\_Plissken](#): > > Wyatt Earp Pretty sure that Wyatt Earp didn’t have any children. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/46 "2011-08-23T17:38:55Z")
I started on the journey, but became stymied due to my inability to read/write in Polish and Czech. My mom’s paternal grandfather and grandmother came from Bohemia, her maternal grandfather from Poland. I got as far as their ship registries to the US, nothing further back. Even once they all landed in the US, you add all the variations of spellings (primarily in the Polish line) and it’s been difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/47 "2011-08-23T19:01:27Z")
i’m too lazy to hunt down a similar thread we had on this a while back because i can’t remember everybody i’m related to that i mentioned in that thread, but, off the top of my head i have ties to louis the sixteenth, mary queen of scots (somewhere in Scotland i think is the family castle), katherine howard, poor ladies both, and – oh, a little family line called the windsors. i believe i’m up for the throne – in about 500 years. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/48 "2011-08-23T19:12:06Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > i believe i’m up for the throne – in about 500 years. 😃 Or one bad electrical accident during a “Whole Royal Family Photo Shoot”. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/49 "2011-08-23T19:30:09Z")
My entire line goes back to Jews in Eastern Europe so I don’t think that I’m descended from Charlemagne or anyone else famous. It was a pretty insular group once you get back three generations or so. My Mom is big into the largest Jewish Genealogy site. She managed to find a few of her living second cousins and become close friends with one of them. She also found out that the guy who played Peter Brady is my third (?) cousin. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/50 "2011-08-23T21:38:19Z")
Absolutely no famous ancestors at all. Farmers not that long ago, and probably peasants before that. I will never be in the DAR or Mayflower Society, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/51 "2011-08-23T21:51:46Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Although Charlemagne lived long ago, descent from Charlemagne is (paradoxically?) not particularly desirable among genealogy “snobs.” That’s because essentially all European nobles from the last several centuries have demonstrated descents from Charlemagne. > > To make this clear with an arbitrary example, suppose you descend from a Baronet Pelham. That’s all you’d need to say, since the Baronets of Pelham are descended from Earls of Ormonde, who descend from King Edward I, who descends from William the Conqueror, who descends from the Counts of Vermandois, who descend from the famous Emperor of the West crowned in 800 AD. > > I have a specific certifiable (and bastard-free!) line to Charlemagne, yet have not yet found a widely-recognized descent from even William the Conqueror (though statistically an unknown descent from him almost certainly exists). :smack: Incidentally, isn’t one of the reasons why Charlemagne is supposedly in the family tree of most Europeans is that he wasn’t exactly the monogamous type? He had about 8-10 wives/concubines and fathered 20 legitimate children. That doesn’t even count the ones he might’ve sired from quickie affairs with “unofficial” mistresses. (It’s good to be the king.) ---
**Author:** ![rostfrei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@rostfrei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rostfrei)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/52 "2011-08-23T23:05:48Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Sure, Charlemagne 😉 Me too!!! (lol). ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/53 "2011-08-23T23:48:10Z")
My grandmother has, somewhere in the back of her cupboard, a massive family tree which shows our descent from Henry VII (of England, that is). Other than that, no-one famous. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/54 "2011-08-24T08:26:36Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Incidentally, isn’t one of the reasons why Charlemagne is supposedly in the family tree of most Europeans is that he wasn’t exactly the monogamous type? He had about 8-10 wives/concubines and fathered 20 legitimate children. That doesn’t even count the ones he might’ve sired from quickie affairs with “unofficial” mistresses. > > (It’s good to be the king.) Yes. It may seem paradoxical, but almost all Europeans alive at the time of Charlemagne were either ancestral to almost all present-day Europeans or to absolutely no living persons at all. The fertility of Charlemagne and his sons makes one confident he’s in the former category. 🆒 The mathematics of pedigree growth and related questions have attracted much interest and surprising results. Google “MRCA” or “Identical Ancestor Point” to find articles like [http://tedlab.mit.edu/~dr/Papers/Rohde-MRCA-two.pdf](http://tedlab.mit.edu/~dr/Papers/Rohde-MRCA-two.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/55 "2011-08-24T10:02:48Z")
Irish and Scottish peasants, who eventually became Australian peasants. I doubt any of their bloodlines crossed with anyone historically notable. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/56 "2011-08-24T12:16:35Z")
I’m the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of [Laura Secord](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Secord): [QUOTE=wiki] Laura Ingersoll Secord (September 13, 1775 – October 17, 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for warning British forces of an impending American attack that led to the British victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams. [/QUOTE] There’s also a chocolate company named after her. So I have a piece of chocolate with my grandma’s face on it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/57 "2011-08-24T13:05:25Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > So I have a piece of chocolate with my grandma’s face on it 🙂 In the wrong context, that would sound REALLY creepy… ---
**Author:** ![moldmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@moldmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/58 "2011-08-24T23:48:19Z")
Through my paternal grandmother, I am descended from OregonTrail pioneer [JESSE APPLEGATE](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Applegate) and am related to Declaration of Independence signer, [Samuel Hungtington](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Huntington_(statesman)) and robber baron [Collis Hungtington](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collis_Potter_Huntington). That side has been traced back to [John of Gaunt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Gaunt,_1st_Duke_of_Lancaster) and through him several English Kings and on all the way back to . . Charlemagne. The rest are all various N. European peasants. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/59 "2011-08-25T01:50:22Z")
People tend to underestimate how many ancestors they have. Think about it. Go back one generation: you have 2 parents. 1. 2, they each had two parents 2. 4, who each had 2 parents 3. 8 4. 16 5. 32 6. 64 7. 128 8. 250 (I’m actually rounding down just to make the numbers easier) 9. 500 10. 1,000 11. 2,000 12. 4,000 13. 8,000 14. 16,000 15. 32,000 16. 64,000 17. 128,000 18. 250,000 (rounding down again) 19. 500,000 20. 1,000,000 Look how high the numbers get when you go back only 20 generations. If we say a generation is about 30 years, you could potentially have well over 1,000,000 ancestors without going farther back than 1400. That’s half a millennium after Charlemagne and the Viking era king mentioned by the OP. Of course, your number of ancestors is probably not so high because of pedigree collapse, as another poster mentioned. If the OP is European, there is a fair chance that he is descended from the exact same king that his wife was. They almost certainly share a common ancestor somewhere down the line. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589/60 "2011-08-25T09:49:30Z")
Based on what I’ve learned of my tree, I’m more closely related to myself than I thought I was. And yeah, another descendent of Charlemagne. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geneology-anyone-famous-in-your-ancestry/593589.md?page=4)