How many degrees are you separated from a long-deceased historical figure? List the number of people (preferably a friend or relative) and the year the historical figure died.
(There may have been a SDMB thread like this in the past but I didn’t feel like searching for and resurrecting it.)
Looks like this thread is going nowhere fast so I might as well submit mine.
I’m two degrees of separation from Theodore Roosevelt (died 1919). My great-grandmother–who was alive until I was 20–met him sometime around 1905.
Anybody have anything else?
I, like loads of other men carry the Genghis Khan gene on the Y chromosome. That makes me a direct descendent of him. In my case it is most likely through the eastern European side of my ancestry. I’m adopted so I don’t know if I’m related to anyone else famous.
The great (or possibly great great) grandfather of my ex taught Napoleon III to ride. And that’s another step back to the first Napoleon of course.
I have an ancestor who sued one of the Founding Fathers. I’m not sure exactly how I’m related, whether I’m a direct descendant, but he has the family last name (not a common one), lived in the same area as the rest of the clan, and he’s mentioned in a genealogy book that some distant relatives have compiled.
I have an ancestor who killed a signer of the Declaration of Independence in a duel. And another ancestor who signed the Declaration. The story would be more interesting if I had been descended from both duelists, but I doubt that the Gwinnetts were doing much socializing with the murderer for a while…
My grandfather acted as a chauffeur for Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim at least once, so that’s two degrees to him and through him three degrees to Hitler. 
Ted Sorensen and his first wife were college friends of my mom and dad. I am named after her. Ted was JFK’s confidante and speechwriter.
I guess this puts me 4 degrees from JFK, and 5 degrees of Marilyn, then 6 of DiMaggio, Arthur Miller, Tony Curtis, etc. That could be an interesting and prolific tree to map out if I took the time.
I’m not sure if this counts, but while I was doing a geniology search on the man I think was my sperm doner, I learned that one of his great uncles was hanged as a horse thief. For some reason, this tickles me to no end.
Did you ever meet Sorensen? If so, you’d actually be only one degree removed from Sorensen and two degrees removed from JFK.
As for me, here’s another one. My great-grandmother–the same one who met Teddy Roosevelt–also metBuffalo Bill Cody(died 1917) after seeing his touring Wild West Show. That puts me two degrees from him.
My grandfather and some guy named Dean Acheson were once on opposite sides of a legal case, and my grandfather got to swap stories with him while negotiating a settlement in the case. So I’m two steps away from Acheson, and three steps away from Presidents FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, and (shudder) Nixon, as well as luminaries such as Winston Churchill, Cole Porter, Felix Frankfurter, Louis Brandeis, George Marshall, and George Kennan.
My Great-Grandfather was John Brown, who romanced Queen Victoria in a platonic way. Is that one degree?
I was so young, it was possible but not recorded, so I err on the side where it didn’t happen. Either way, sometime when I take the time to pursue it…It will be interesting.
Assuming your great-grandfather did not die before you were born, you’re two degrees from Victoria.
My great great-grandparents used to farm lavender in Clapham, London, Queen Victoria used to ride through their fields. I’m not sure they talked though…
I knew Ayn Rand, who of course knew a great many famous people, including presidents, major actors, authors, etc. Through her I met Alan Greenspan.
My mother met one of the Wright brothers. And in high school she dated Jerry Siegel, one of the creators of Superman.
As a kid, I met Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with Tenzing Norgay, was the first person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Of course Hillary knew lots of famous people, including Elizabeth II.
I once met Stephen Sondheim (my then-BF knew him).
Somehow, my parents knew the parents of Joel Grey. They also knew Tim Hagan, who married Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek: Voyager. (Does that count as a negative degree?)
One of my college friends has a friend of her parents who had a chemistry partner who went on a date with Ted Bundy. So, that’s six degrees of separation?
Considering how small of a country it is population-wise, just about every Icelander can claim that they’re a descendant of Leif Eiriksson. Similarly, my mom met the first female Icelandic president when I was a kid, and we’re family friends with one of the consul generals for our region of the US. I’m sure that’d point me to a bunch of other ones.
Oh, and a family friend we were close to knew and worked with the guy who crashed the Exxon Valdez. Seriously.
Francis Cooke, Mayflower passenger, died 1663. I’m in the 14th generation of his descendants.
That is extremely cool.
I’ve met Princess Anne a couple of times, so that means a very short degree of separation for an enormous amount of people. Loads of folk have met one of QEII’s children though. It’s their job.
Does J Edgar Hoover (1972) count? My father worked for him in the late 60’s and very early 70’s. (1972)
My father once answered the phone at headquarters during one of off shifts and it was President himself on the other end. (Lyndon B. Johnson, 1973)
Dad also frequently ate breakfast with Mark Felt, the man who turned out to be Deep Throat. He says that I met him one day. I have no recollection of that. He died only a few years ago.
Two degrees if you count these people as historical figures