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Do you Have Any Historical Figures In Your Family?

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:04pm
by FSTargetDrone
In the immigration thread I mentioned that I have a distant relation, Francisco I. Madero, who was briefly president of Mexico until his untimely death at the hands of his political opposition. He was the son (along with at least 3 other siblings) of my great-great-great-grandparents on my father's side. Madero apparently died without any offspring.

So thinking back on ol' Franky got me to wondering, does anyone else here know of a historical individual in your family? Or famous people, whatever.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:05pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
Susan B. Anthony.

Additionally, although it's been a long time since I've read the fine historical details, my family is also decended from French nobility dating back to at least 1300 CE, and spread out from there (going through England, Canada, and finally America by 1800) during the whole Huguenot ruckus, with at least two being executed.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:09pm
by Duckie
Charlemagne is somewhere in my family tree.

But then again, so does all of Europe's other residents/former residents except maybe the Basques according to some studies

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:12pm
by Rye
I'm afraid that I, and all of my family are mythical. :( We were invented by the christians.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:14pm
by CaptainChewbacca
I am a direct decendent of a Revolutionary war general.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:16pm
by FSTargetDrone
CaptainChewbacca wrote:I am a direct decendent of a Revolutionary war general.
On which side?

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:18pm
by Bertie Wooster
Direct lineage from John Hancock. A former President of The Philippines was my mother's distant cousin. The oldest famous person I'm directly descended from was this guy Hendi who was listed in the Domesday book, but I don't know if being listed in the Domesday book counts as fame.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:18pm
by LadyTevar
Back in Scotland, in the 1400s, there were two sisters. One sister married into Clan Stuart, just before they became heirs to the throne. The other sister's children were my ancestors.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:29pm
by Deathstalker
Nathan Hale is a relative on my fathers's side.

Posted: 2006-03-31 04:50pm
by Losonti Tokash
Supposedly, I am directly descended from Ulysses S. Grant, and am vaguely related to Robert E. Lee as well. If that's true, I'd be related to Washington as well, but by marriage, rather than blood.

Of course, I've never done any research of my own on this and it's all from my dad.

Posted: 2006-03-31 05:12pm
by TheBlackCat
I'm not sure this actually qualifies someone as a historical person, but my father developed the S&P 500 index we currently use when he was working for McGraw Hill.

His father was The Auditor General of the Army, the head of the army audit agency (4 star general equivalent rank). Apparently he and his family were on the list of people to save in the event of a nuclear war. They had to move a telephone pole so a helicopter could land in the street to pick them up, and they had drills where a helicopter would land in the street to pick them up and others where they would rush out of the house to where the helicopter would be.

Posted: 2006-03-31 06:19pm
by FSTargetDrone
TheBlackCat, I think this qualifies. :)

Posted: 2006-03-31 06:58pm
by Archaic`
On my mother's side, Scott Goodman (Atlanta Olympics Bronze medalist) is a cousin, and I'm related by marriage to Ned Kelly (a name I'm sure few outside of Australia know), and Joseph Aspdin (Inventor of modern Portland cement). We've apparently also got links to the Spanish royal family, but those are pretty far back, and I don't know what the links are exactly. By marriage to someone far down the line of succession, I'd imagine.

On my father's side, I'm a decendant of Ilbert de Lacy, who constructed Pontefract Castle and Kirkstall Abbey. Not sure if we're direct decendants or not though.

Posted: 2006-03-31 07:30pm
by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
Apparently, my great-great-great-great-great grandfather was George Washington's personal secretary. There are probably others that I haven't uncovered, as it's been traced back nine generations with plenty of blank spots in between.

Posted: 2006-03-31 07:34pm
by Laughing Mechanicus
Not particularly much from my family bar one exception; one of my blood ancestors, Hughe D'Ashbrooke, was in the battle of Agincourt as a longbowman in the English army.

Posted: 2006-03-31 07:49pm
by The Dark
"Gentleman" Jake Daubert is a great-great-uncle of mine. Not well known outside baseball historians, but he was the team captain of the Reds the year they won the World Series in the Black Sox Scandal, and one of the founders of the Players' Union. Still holds three records in MLB, despite dying in the 1920s. The Dauberts also held a land grant that was essentially an entire county in Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary War (been in America since 1752, two fought in the Revolution for General Washington).

We're apparently also descended from the Mac an Mhaoir of County Ulster, who were the hereditary guardians of the Book of Armagh, which is the earliest record of St. Patrick.

And my great-grandmother was a Waterhouse, although from a very junior branch of the family.

We're still researching our family, because the family legends are so numerous and contradictory. We're uncertain whether the Dauberts were originally French, German, Russian, or something else entirely. We can trace them back to Rotterdam, and diaries suggest they went through Germany to get there, but there are no actual records we're aware of.

Posted: 2006-03-31 07:54pm
by Ghost Rider
Variety of high muck-a mucks and such nobility on the Korean side.

American...nothing special as the Italian and Irish sides....might have something but that's likely pushing it.

Posted: 2006-03-31 08:09pm
by Ninja of the North
From what I understand, I am related to William Bradford and Miles Standish. All I can remember this late at night is that the two were rather well to do in the Plymouth colony and traveled on the Mayflower.

Posted: 2006-03-31 08:09pm
by JediMaster415
Unfortunately, nobody on either side of my family knows anything past my great-grandparents so I can't say. But, I am trying to compile a family tree for myself so I might find out.

Posted: 2006-03-31 09:07pm
by Captain Cyran
I've got a few relations. Line to John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. Through that apparently I'm also related to John Wayne as he was related to John Chapman, but I got that off of a game of Balderdash so I'm not sure of that one.

My family also thinks we have a distant relation with Aaron Burr. I don't remember how we know that though.

I also had two relations on my mother's side who were in the American Civil War, I believe both were in the Cavalry. I can't remember what famous battles they were in.

Posted: 2006-03-31 09:12pm
by Joe
Daniel Boone is a distant great-uncle on my mother's side.

Posted: 2006-03-31 09:23pm
by Gil Hamilton
One of my great aunts was an aide to Doctor Jonas Sauk, the man who, at the University of Pittsburgh, developed the Polio vaccine.

Posted: 2006-03-31 09:30pm
by Sonnenburg
Great-something grandmother is apparently Mozart's sister.

Posted: 2006-03-31 10:20pm
by Vendetta
The family name apparently descends from Geoffrey of Monmouth, the firstchronicler of the Arthur legend, but that's about it.

Posted: 2006-03-31 10:41pm
by Kadaeux
I'm related distantly to Ned Kelly.