# Your Celebrity Relatives **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 23, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291 "2004-12-23T05:02:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/81 "2004-12-30T15:26:36Z")
A relative of my mother’s (great great uncle I think), was a Chicago building contractor who built the Water Tower. Another one was the Harper of Harper’s Ferry. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/82 "2004-12-30T17:06:49Z")
Well, I’m apparently related to **Meatros** - as I’m related somehow to Edgar Allan Poe too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PinkMarabou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@PinkMarabou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PinkMarabou)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/83 "2004-12-30T19:58:35Z")
I am told by my uncle that I am a distant relative of Dr. John Henry “Doc” Holliday, dentist, gambler, alcoholic, and gun-slinger of the early American West. Friend of Wyatt Earp. I am trying to find out exactly what the connection is, but I’m not sure how long that will take. I read on a geneology forum from people who _might_ be related to me, that there is a connection :::BIG SHUDDER::: to the Bush family (ack!!!). I refuse to be happy about that if it’s true. In fact, that will downright depress me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that if (og-forbid) there’s a connection, the relation will be VERY distant!! He doesn’t look or act like a Holliday, so I hope not. :o ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/84 "2004-12-30T21:05:29Z")
As far as I know, there’s no fame in my family - Dad’s parents and Mom’s grandparents come to the States from Poland in the early 1900s - they were farmers and miners in the old country. Closest I can claim is that my dad and uncle were Polka DJs in Baltimore for a lot of years. _Very_ minor celebrity there. My MIL claims that somewhere along the line, they’re related to Jerry West, the basketball player, and Dean Martin. More famous celebrities, but the connection is really tenuous. I got my picture taken with Cliff Robertson in 1975 - is that worth any points here? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/85 "2005-01-02T04:01:20Z")
I am a direct descendant of the only privates in the Confederate Army. (Every other white southerner I knew growing up was a descendant of this colonel or that major or at very least that captain, but my ancestors went into the Army of the CSA as privates and came out years later as privates (or in some cases as dead privates). The only Civil War ancestor who gained rank was from north Alabama and, to quote Woody Allen from _Take the Money and Run_, after years of service “was catapulted to the rank of corporal”, but he fought for the Union. (Not everybody knows that most southern states fielded Union regiments.) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/86 "2005-01-02T05:26:09Z")
**Antigen** and **Loopydude** , I suspect this doesn’t count, but…My brother-in-law’s grandson’s step-father is married to Celine Dion’s sister. (There are enough family relations for everyone to be kin to her.) **Interrupting Cow** , your Dad’s relative, the infamous Mr. James, and my great-uncle John hung out together. (Uncle John went pretty wild during and after the Civil War.) Some of my cousins can remember their grandfather talking about meeting him when he came to visit.) I’m related to Sir Walter Scot and another writer or two. I’m also supposedly a descendent of King David II of Scotland – who had no legitimate children and I’m also a descendent of Robert the Bruce. There’s one more, but I can’t bring myself to type it. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/87 "2005-01-02T22:45:31Z")
Two of my second cousins were minor celebrities in their part of Pennsylvania a couple years ago when they were arrested in a Mafia crackdown, turned state’s evidence and wound up in the witness protection program. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/88 "2005-01-02T23:27:31Z")
I know ridiculously few facts about my past, and so I claim none of this to be true. I wouldn’t believe a word of it unless I had some cold hard facts to back it up. My family is strange. That said: On my mother’s side, we are “somehow” related to the Romanovs. I have no idea how. My name is Anastasia - but I’m not _that_ one 😉 The relation was factored into my given name, though. My great grandmother, before she died, took my hand (yeah, just like in the _moving pictures_) and told me not to forget to claim my title of “Marquise” when I turned 25. My mother flushed red and embarrassed and told me to forget about it. Great Grandma easily could have been delusional. However, for fun, I’ve been calling myself a Marquise ever since 😃 On my father’s side - they insist… _insist_… though I’m not sure exactly why they would want to… that I am directly descended from _Caligula_. I always loved to study the guy in school, and when my parents mentioned it at a family gathering one year, all of my father’s siblings piped up at nearly the same time “She should be, she’s descended from him like we are.” Bunch of weirdos. My father rolls his eyes at the idea. So do I: :rolleyes: My husband’s father’s side is… nobody we know of 😃 However, on his mother’s side, they all insist they are descended from a Scottish royal family. I haven’t figured out exactly which yet, and neither has hubby. They keep winking at him and telling him “You’ll see.” He gets an inheritance this February (incidentally, for turning 25) and another at 30. His younger brother will, too, when he hits those ages. They tell them both, all the time “Don’t ever forget - you’re _royalty_.” It’s all very weird. We have no idea how much he gets, but that side of his family lives very, very well. They all have houses on the beach, or by the ocean, or in Hawaii, and travel around the world, and have boats, nice cars, etc. I didn’t know any of this when I married him. LOL Hubby pulled a fast one on me - he married me, then told me “I have something to tell you.” What a relief it was that he told me he has money and not something horrible, like a terrible disease or that he beats women!! :eek: I would have married him if all he had in the bank was $2 and his inheritance was all of $10! We’ll see how much he ends up getting soon enough - either way, I’d live with him in a cardboard box. I’ll go get one of those paper crowns from Burger King. So - dubious “celebs”, but someone somewhere seems to want me to be royalty. :rolleyes: Okay by me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/89 "2005-01-03T05:24:59Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Closest I can claim is that my dad and uncle were Polka DJs in Baltimore for a lot of years. Does anybody else get a mental picture of two guys scratching Polka records in a Polish hip-hop club? _r-r-r- roll r-r-r- roll r-r-r- roll out the b-b-b- barrel_ My mother’s side of the family is supposedly related to actor Basil Rathbone, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. On my father’s side, I’m proud to claim Terence Bellew McManus, one of the most well-known Irish Fenian rebels of the 1800’s. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/90 "2005-01-03T08:55:10Z")
I may or may not be very distantly related to [Leonhard Seppala](http://www.henkimaa.nu/finndex/henkilot/seppala.html), who helped bring medicine by dogsled to the town of Nome, Alaska during the 1925 diptheria epidemic. There is a famous line of Siberian huskies named after him and a park in Anchorage named for his lead dog, Balto. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/91 "2005-01-03T14:13:12Z")
My Great-Grandmother’s cousin was **Dame Nellie Melba**. But of course, that means nothing outside of opera and Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/92 "2005-01-03T14:52:43Z")
My great grandfather was Richard Humphrey, who was a cricketer of some renown, and played on the team from England that toured Australia in the 1880s or 1890s. Sadly, they found him floating face-down in the Thames in 1906, robbed of his pocketwatch. ☹ My grandfather came to Canada in the late twenties and moved to Saskatchewan… just in time for the Great Depression. _shudder_ Later he got into progressive politics (the CCF) and ran for Parliament a couple of times in the fifties. Apparently most of his family ended up in Australia. I could have been Australian, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/93 "2005-01-03T14:55:23Z")
> [@Agrippina](#): > > Supposidly I’m a relative (possibly descendent) of Erik the Red and Leif Erikson. But it doesn’t matter when one realizes that most people of Norse ancestry are probably related to some famous Viking. I am in the direct line. I sent my name and birthdate along with my parents’ and grandparents’ names to a fellow in Iceland (can’t remember who exactly, now), and he sent me the lineage from both sides of Mom’s family. Way cool. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/94 "2005-01-03T14:56:29Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#): > > My Great-Grandmother’s cousin was **Dame Nellie Melba**. But of course, that means nothing outside of opera and Australia. And dessert lovers. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/95 "2005-01-03T17:26:54Z")
> [@Badge](#): > > My mother’s side of the family is supposedly related to actor Basil Rathbone, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. A good friend of ours is supposedly his first cousin. Her maiden name was Rathbone. Someone with the same last name as me won a gold medal in the Olympics. It is not a common name, so I suspect we are related somehow or other. Other than that, I got squat. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/96 "2005-01-03T17:45:47Z")
My grandpa’s mom was supposed to come over on The Titanic with her 5 kids. Her husband had gone ahead to set up home for them all. Unfortunately (well actually _fortunately_ ) they all caught the chicken pox (or measles-this is disputed within the family) and weren’t allowed onboard. The same great grandmother is supposedly from a stinking rich family (her father was even mayor of a town outside London) but they disowned her when she married my poor, carpenter grandfather. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/97 "2005-01-03T18:46:56Z")
> [@Abbie Carmichael](#): > > 4 Mayflower ancestors for me: > > John Tilley > Joan Tilley > Elizabeth Tilley > John Howland (who fell off the boat and almost drowned on the trip over here) > > John Tilley & his wife Joan died that first winter. Elizabeth married John Howland and they went forth and multiplied. I’m descended (on my mom’s side) from their first kid, Desire. > > So because of them, I’m related to Dubya & Dad, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and _hangs head_ Alec Baldwin. > > Family history also says we’re descended from Pocahontas, but I can’t prove it. Hey, I’m descended from John Howland as well. I’m also descended from Peter Folger, the grandfather of Ben Franklin. ---
**Author:** ![Bangiadore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@Bangiadore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bangiadore)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/98 "2005-01-03T19:55:44Z")
My grandmother was supposedly cousin to [Misia Sert](http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6306), who was quite the hottie in turn-of-the-(last)-century Paris. How the connection worked, I don’t know; both were from Poland originally, but my grandmother (bless her dear heart) died years ago and there’s no one left to ask. ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291/99 "2005-01-03T23:37:09Z")
Well, one of my uncles is a nephew of [Budd Boetticher](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0091430/), a B-Western director of some note in the '40’s and '50’s. He directed Randolph Scott in a number of pictures (“Ride Lonesome” being the best), and was married for several meaningful minutes (actually a little over a year) to Debra Paget. According to my uncle, Budd was a real son-of-a-bitch. Of course, my uncle is married to my mother’s younger sister, so it’s not a blood relation, but that’s the best I got. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-celebrity-relatives/281291.md?page=4)