Genealogy Wise

The Genealogy & Family History Social Network

I'd be interested to hear anyone's story or stories about being linked to someone famous. I think these stories are facinating and love to hear how it all came about.

Views: 1269

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

No stories, since I've never met them, but am related to Celine Dion, Madonna, Melissa Ethridge & Avril Lavigne, all singers, but I can't carry a tune in a bucket! So much for DNA.

If a member of familysearch.org, anyone here can also go to relativefinder.org, login using their familysearch ID and password, and they can see who they are related to, and the ancestral descendancy. For me myself, I am also supposedly related to quite a few presidents, european royalty, a couple of Yale University Presidents, the inventor of the television set, Magna Carta, and a few persons of note, like Lizzie Borden and Jesse James. I cannot forget a few classical music composers or other famous americans like John Wayne or Amelia Earhart, or the Wright Brothers. Do I believe any of these? Not really-although it's entirely possible that we are related, I just haven't researched that deeply into the collateral lines yet. Still trying to break a brick wall for my 3x g grandmother.

Hello! I am related to Calixa Lavallee - born Calixte Paquet dit Lavallée, was a French-Canadian-American musician and Union Army band musician during the American Civil War who composed the music for O Canada on my grandfathers side of the family. May explain why my/extended family seem to be very musically inclined. 

We also have been told that we have Indian blood ( not sure of the tribe) as it was a hushed thing back then. 

My Canadian Indian heritage covers the surnames of Richard/s, Lyon/s and Salteaux.  The last name is the name of a tribe.  What I've learned so far is that Europeans married native women, their children were called Metis among other terms.  Also many tribes intermarried and it is difficult to name a person's main tribal ancestry.  The area where my ancestors lived was the Red River Settlement in Manitoba.  At that time a very large area was called the Northwest Territories.  My ancestors worked for both major fur trading companies.

Not to burst anyone's bubble or rain on the parade, but the fact we're all of one species with our point of ultimate origin in East Africa means that we're all literally cousins and, thus, everyone who ever lived is related to everyone living today. Kinda takes the shine off of being related to famous people, eh? :)

This occurred several years ago and made me much more realistic about my genealogy findings. It was exciting to learn that I had several Mayflower passenger ancestors. This seemed to be a neat group of ancestors and, to be truthful, something a little exclusive to boot. Then a friend pointed to an article which suggested that there may be as many as 7 million living Americans with Mayflower ancestors. That burst the exclusivity bubble somewhat. Perhaps my genealogy research and my genealogy expectations are more realistic today. It is, however, still neat to find that you an interesting or even historically significant ancestor.

Yep, I'm one of the 7 million, myself. Just the fact that, as you go backward in history, the world's population becomes smaller ensures that the pool of ancestors for the entire human species gets smaller and smaller, as well. This is why, once you get back to a certain point in your genealogy, you begin finding the connections between ancestors are more tightly woven. Another factor in this is that, you don't have to go very far back before reaching a time when the average person lived out their entire life in a geographical area that was very small, only a matter of a few square miles. This confined relationships to the people who lived in the area and, thus, there were many intermarriages within a small area. I found this to be the case while researching my ancestors in 17th century Worcester County, Mass. Generations of them all knew and lived and worked together and intermarried and, thus, I'm descended from a huge pool of people who lived in one tiny little place.

You could allow that to burst your bubble. My sixth great-grandfather had eighteen children. So, I have many, many cousins from this branch alone. That does not diminish my kinship with him, nor make it less special. He was a very special man, and I am honored, by that alone, to be his descendant. 

You've missed my point, April, which was that being related to anyone famous or to any historical persons is not only nothing unusual, but nothing special, as we ALL are, at some point in time.

Oh, no, I do get your point. I just refuse to let you rain on my parade. What you're saying is that the whole of humanity are related. One only needs read Genesis from the Old Testament to understand this. Yes, we all  go back to Adam and Eve. Face/palm. But, as siblings we're still going to fight.

My sixth great-grandmother passed away at the tender age of 33, just after the birth of her tenth child. Her husband, my sixth great-grandfather married again, which was not only necessary in the time zone (200 years ago) but he went on to have eight more children with the second wife. As for how tightly woven together we are. One of the second wife's daughters married the nephew of her husband's first wife. No blood relation, mind you, (although there were plenty of cousins who married cousins for the land legacy) but still. If ever a woman was living with the 'ghost' of her predecessor, this would have to be one of those cases.

As to the remainder of your point, you can take Adam, and bask in your own mundane, nothing special here- ness. I'll take my sixth great-grandfather. Deal? Better still, I shall boast on the Lord Jesus. You just made the argument, we are indeed related even to Him. :) And that, my friend, cousin-ish, makes us ALL special. 

I don't worry of anyone opinion,,its true.,I finding more from my ancesters lives then from parents,& a lot of what we were told s totally difrent..Cant change any of what they did,so live wth t.You get out what they put in..No is any beter then other people.Nce to e part of whom ever you find..Im connected to Lincoln,thru Cobb of Taunton mass.. Proctor is "Cherokee"  I don't really care of whom I find,theyvare who they were.. I find we are cousins for the most,ya.So what..Can you change it??

..

Cobb/Lincoln..

RSS

Members

© 2024   Created by IIGSExecDirector.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service