Are you related to anyone famous?

[bif]

I did the DNA test and it turns out I'm related to King Louis XVI of France.

[True Dough]

1. Not that I'm aware of

But I hope your fate is better than Louis XVI's ignominious downfall.

[Quakerfriend]

2. Wow, very nice! I'm related to King Henry VIII,

and the signers Richard Stockton & Benjamin Rush.

[Mad_Dem_X]

3. On my paternal grandmother's side...Martha Washington.

Or so I've been told.

[Croney]

4. Famous only if you're a soap opera fan.

My relative is on TV but it won't be a very exciting reveal so I won't name him. 🙂

[hauckeye]

5. 3rd cousin to one of the original Beach Boys

Also 9th cousin to Barack Obama through his mother 🧑

[MLAA]

32. We are cousins! I'm related to President Obama through both our mothers. We share the 13th or so great grandfather.

[BootinUp]

6. An actor cousin

Cameron Mitchell

This was according to my parents. Never attempted to make contact with him. He passed in 1994.

[mnhtnbb]

7. Indeed

Sir Redvers Buller--remembered for his military stupidity and losses during the Boer War--is a cousin of some sort on my father's side. My dad had the genealogy, but my copy of it was lost during our house fire. I have a nephew who has done more work on the family tree, but I can't put my hands on the research.

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/biography/redversbuller.htm

I framed a copy of this well known official portrait of Redvers and it is hanging on my living room wall. I had a memorial plate of him that I found in an antique store in Rye, on a trip to England in 1987, but it was also destroyed in our house fire.

[LSparkle]

8. Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin")

My maternal grandfather researched our genealogy and she’s one of my Foote family relatives. I think Shelby Foote (another author) is also a relative.

[Old Crank]

10. Surprise!

That makes you one of my daughter's cousins X times removed some how.

[LudwigPastorius]

42. According to my family lore,...

Harriet Beecher Stowe was somehow socially snubbed by one of my distant relatives, so she named the villainous plantation owner in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" after him as a bit of revenge.

(She did change the spelling. My relative's last name was "Legare", but it was pronounced the same way as her evil Simon Legree.)

[Old Crank]

9. I don't think I am, but

one of my daughter's uncles dug up records to get into the Son's of the American Revolution.

Turns out that she is related on my late wife's side to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher.

[mwmisses4289]

11. According to family lore,

On dad's side, Robert the Bruce, an actor who was somewhat well known during the 1960s, and Sitting Bull; don't know on mom's side. Not sure I ever really believed the Robert the Bruce and Sitting Bull part; the actor, maybe.

[Drum]

12. The acting family, the Barrymores, on my mom's side. nt

[Marthe48]

13. Through their Dad, our kids are related to President James Monroe's wife

Elizabeth Kortright.

[bamagal62]

14. Owain Glyndwr

The last native Prince of Wales. through his wife, Margaret Hanmer, on my Dad’s side.

[GentryDixon]

15. DeWitt Clinton

DeWitt Clinton was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the sixth governor of New York. In the last capacity, he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal.

He was a cousin on my mother's side through the Dewitt branch .

[tetedur]

16. I entered a few relatives in my family tree in Wikitree and found out I was a 34 generation great-grandchild of

Charlemagne. At first I was impressed. The information was there I didn't have to research back to the 800's myself. It also pointed to other connections of other people of note like Louis XIV, Charles III etc. Those royals are all related to each other!

Then I Googled how many people are direct descendants of Charlemagne? It said everyone in Europe could possibly trace some connection to Charlemagne but there was no way to know how many direct descendants there are. Thanks AI! Safe to say there are probably thousands upon thousands of such people.

One set of connections that I found interesting was a list of about 24 Surety Barons that were 1st, 2nd, 3rd cousins 25+ times removed. I had to look up what that was about and had a little history lesson on the Magna Carta. What those guys did in 1215 planted the seeds of democracy. It was a step towards taking the power away from the king, undoing the feudal system and giving people more freedom. By the time people in America were ready to overthrow the yoke of the king, the ideas of democracy were based on that document.

Finding these connections makes history personal not that it makes me feel special. Each one of us is a strand on the web of life. What we do today will reverberate into the future. How will your children's children be living tomorrow because of what you do today to make life better?

[Nittersing]

17. Ann B. Davis aka "Alice"

She and my mom were twin sisters.

This used to really impress people...

[Boomerproud]

22. Your mother is her sister Harriet?

Cool.

[Nittersing]

25. Yes. Google?

Or did you know Mom?

[Boomerproud]

27. Google.

Thanks for posting.

[piddyprints]

18. Only by marriage.

Husband is a direct descendant of John Adams and John Quincy Adams on his father's side. There are 2 other presidents on his mother's side, but I can't remember which ones.

I'm just a Heinz 57.

[CanonRay]

19. Not me, solid peasant stock.

Now infamous, that might be different. Mrs. Canon has the blue blood.

[Redleg]

20. Siward, Earl of Northumbria

Died in 1055. He was the English earl who fought against MacBeth.

[Casandia]

21. Elizabeth Howe

From the Salem witchcraft trials 😢

[Tbear]

23. Direct descendant of the first"white people"

to settle the new Midland Territory in Michigan.
That is what the newspaper of the time said, white people. Windover.

[Midnight Writer]

24. My cousin was on COPS...three times.

[Niagara]

37. As a fugitive or law enforcement?

[MiHale]

26. Yes...a distant cousin... Lech Wałęsa...

Former President of Poland…on my grandfather’s side. My mom’s dad.

[Ocelot II]

28. Supposedly Harald I of Norway was my 27th great-uncle,

and I am a direct descendant, along with thousands of other people, of William Brewster, a passenger on the Mayflower. AFAIK I am not related to any famous live people.

[bif]

29. My aunt married a descendant of Francis Scott Key

[Tetrachloride]

30. 3 blood relatives were influential in their fields. None were headline makers or noble ancestry or such.

so, strictly speaking, nobody "famous" in my family history.

[MLAA]

31. President Obama. We share the same 13 or so great grandfather on both our mothers' side.

[madamesilverspurs]

33. Mayflower Madam

For reals.


.

[waterwatcher123]

34. William the Conquer (mother's side) and Robert the Bruce (father's side).

[mwmisses4289]

41. Fascinating.

You and I might be related many times removed; my dad always claimed we're descended from Robert the Bruce.

[chowmama]

35. Direct descendent of Thomas Leffingwell

Who founded Connecticut. He's supposed to be the inspiration for Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) in The Last of the Mohicans. However, neither Leffingwell or Cooper are around to verify or dispute this.

This is according to DH's genealogy research. It's through my maternal grandmother's side.

Leffingwell descendent(s?) fought in the Revolutionary War. If my aunt had only followed her mother's genealogy instead of her father's, she could totally have joined the DAR. It was her lifelong unfulfilled dream, alas. It's a dream unshared by me.

[catbyte]

36. No, but my mom's adopted mom was related to Abigail and John Quincy Adams.

Does that count?

[electric_blue68]

38. By former friendship waaay back - Director Barry Sonnenfeld

[yellowdogintexas]

39. I am a direct descendant of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler

Not that is anything to brag about; he is ranked in the bottom 10
but he was the first VP to become president after death of the POTUS

[PufPuf23]

40. My great great great grandmother's sister, Sophia Johnson,

married Cornelius Vanderbilt and bore all 13 of Vanderbilt's children.

Brayton Van Pelt is my great great grandfather:

"Brayton Douglass Van Pelt,

son of Jacob Van Pelt

and Eleanor Johnson, nephew of

Sophia Johnson that m. Cornelius Vanderbilt

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147900773/brayton_douglass-van_pelt

Sophia and Eleanor Johnson are first cousins of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

My great great great grandmother is a cousin and sister in law of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

[Pacifist Patriot]

43. Does a 16th century German theologian with his..

own Wikipedia page count? Poor guy has no idea his descendants ended up as evangelical dipshit dirt farmers in Alabama.

[hunter]

44. I hope not!