Found Anyone Famous

[aghadowey]

I'm descended from Kings of England, Scotland, France, etc., High Kings of Dalriada (Ireland), St. Louis, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, etc. (royal blood is easy to trace and so many connections there).
Also lots of Mayflower ancestors including John Howland who fell overboard and was rescued and related to Oceanus Hopkins (born at sea on voyage to New England). Again, easy as the families all intermarried in 1600s.
Descended from 'most hated and feared man in the Dutch towns of Long Island'- son of a Dutch pirate and a Moroccan woman- who married the 1st prostitute in New Amsterdam (rumour has it that she was also quite busy on the voyage to the New World).
More recently, my great-uncle was 1st person to sail around the world single-handed and very famous in his day.
Just read this through and it should be 1st person to twice sail around the world single-handed.
However, some of my most interesting ancestors/relatives have been totally un-famous (although a few were infamous).

[Minn]

aghadowey I have most of those same royal ancestors too - you and I must be 400th cousins 

I recently discovered Princess Diana is my 11th cousin twice removed. Our common ancestor is Sir John Popham.

Minn

[mitchell]

Fellow Aussies, how could I forget my g-g-grandfather John Haynes?  Born 1850, he was the co-founder, along with Mr Archibald (he of Archibald Prize fame) of "The Bulletin" newspaper (now a magazine).  Granted, they were thrown in jail in 1882 for not paying court costs associated with a libel case brought against them, and he went bankrupt within a year or two and the Bulletin was sold on!! John went on to run another paper with his son in the late 1890s-early 1900s and was a long-serving and very prominent MLA in NSW for a total of 30-something years.  He seems to have been quite a rabble-rouser and famously almost single-handedly pressured the government to order an enquiry into some dodgy land deals in Sydney involving prominent local personalities.  He even made it into the Cyril Pearl book "Wild Men of Sydney"!  Must have been his Irish blood.Prue

Prue,

I was reading through your post this evening and thought the names were familiar so, I've checked, and wanted to tell you that I'm distantly related to J F Archibald 
I only know what a distant cousin in New Zealand has told me, which wasn't a lot, so I'm delighted to find out more from you and to see the photo  I'll have to google him now and find out more 

Elaine

[Josephine]

I have nothing to add to this thread.

Perhaps I should start a thread called, "Ancestors who abandoned their children, lied on their official certificates, hid from the census-taker and didn't want to be found" or "Lives of the poor and infamous" or "How many fathers named Unknown in your tree".

 

Just teasing, folks.  I'm enjoying reading about your discoveries.   

When I read on my great-grandmother's marriage certificate that her father was an actor, I had hopes of researching his career.  Well, either she lied or the registrar made a very big boo-boo:  her father was a brick maker.  (I'm sure he was a very good brick maker.)

Regards,
Josephine

[Jigsaw]

My husbands Great Uncle was Reg Stone a female impersonator who entertained the troops in France in the 1st World War and afterwards was in a few films with a troup of female impersonators called 'Splinters'

[KathMc]

I have a relative who was friends with William Shakespeare, and I think that is as good as it gets for me.  And a stepgrandfather who was friends with Ed Sullivan. And my husband has a great uncle who was friends with Danny Kaye. Do you see a pattern here. 

Kath

[Jean McGurn]

That your rellies could walk down the street without someone asking for their autograph? 

I went to school with Freddie Starr (well he was in the year below me) does this count?  I remember he was always clowning around and we used to tell him he should be on the stage - catching the next boat out. If only we knew then what we know now.

Jean

[Josephine]

Six degrees of separation from fame, LOL.   

My husband's father (now deceased) went to broadcasting school (in Canada) with Rich Little.

In fact, my husband's father was a broadcaster and was well-known in certain cities when he worked in television and radio news.

And my husband's g-g-grandfather was kind of famous because he was a founding father of a city here in Canada.  He is still remembered with pride by the citizens of that city.

But that's sort of an ordinary kind of being well-known.  And they're not my relatives.  Other than that... 

[Jayson]

I have a family connection - although a very distant one - with Tara Palmer Tomkinson.  More interestingly to me however is that I have an ancestor, John Swynfen (an MP) referred to in the diary of Samuel Pepys. Jayson