# Notable people without living descendants **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214 "2007-02-22T13:22:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/41 "2007-02-23T13:28:01Z")
Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/42 "2007-02-23T14:25:03Z")
[QUOTE=flodnak] Those who grew up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books may be surprised to know that none of Laura’s family have any living descendants. Laura and Almanzo Wilder had one daughter, who as an adult wrote under her married name, Rose Wilder Lane. RWL had no children. None of Laura’s sisters had any children, either. [/QUOTE] However, her mother’s sister Eliza married her father’s brother Peter and her mother’s brother Henry married her father’s sister Polly. Both families continue to this day. There was a rumor in Mia Farrow’s Family that her father John was the result of his mother having an affair with Edward VIII. She died in childbirth, so there’s no way of knowing. Eva Peron. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/43 "2007-02-23T14:29:52Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] I guess that means he wasn’t forward-thinking? [/QUOTE] He put Descartes before the horse. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/44 "2007-02-23T14:58:58Z")
Dorothy Parker ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/45 "2007-02-23T15:09:45Z")
Lewis Carroll. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/46 "2007-02-23T15:22:47Z")
Arthur Conan Doyle. He had five kids, none of whom had children. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/47 "2007-02-23T15:41:29Z")
[QUOTE=Mycroft H.] Arthur Conan Doyle. He had five kids, none of whom had children. [/QUOTE] I guess _you_ would know. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/48 "2007-02-23T16:23:28Z")
In addition to Descartes and Nietzsche, other philosophers on the list would include: Spinoza Kant Kierkegaard Wittgenstein Aquinas ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/49 "2007-02-23T16:28:18Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] He put Descartes before the horse. [/QUOTE] It would appear he put Descartes before the whores as well. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/50 "2007-02-23T22:19:52Z")
Harriet Tubman ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/51 "2007-02-24T00:50:54Z")
U.S. Presidents James Madison, James Polk, and James Buchanan. (What is it about that name?) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/52 "2007-02-24T00:56:29Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] I take it you haven’t read **The Da Vinci Code**? [/QUOTE] But that is fiction. Yeshua ben Joesph had no descendants. Are there still descendants of the High Preist? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214/53 "2007-02-24T15:00:31Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] But that is fiction. Yeshua ben Joesph had no descendants. [/QUOTE] Actually, we don’t know that. The Bible is silent on the subject. Jesus was 30 when he started his ministry, yes? We have no idea what he was doing in his 20s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-people-without-living-descendants/393214.md?page=2)