Found Anyone Famous

[LizzieW]

I've got quite a few Lords and Knights way back in my tree, whether any of them is actually famous, i.e. a well known name, I have no idea.  I have an ancestor who was Dean of St Pauls and was a colleague of both Sir Thomas More and Erasmus.

Not an ancestor, descendant or relative of any sort (although a fellow Northerner) but what is probably more interesting to cricket fans, is the fact that one of my husband's friends is the Duckworth of the Duckworth Lewis system.  My OH used to work with him many years ago and is still friends with him.  We had many happy pre Christmas family celebrations at his house when our children and his child were young.

Lizzie

I should have said that a portrait of my ancestor who was Dean of St Pauls was done by the artist Hans Holbein and believed to have been commissioned by Sir Thomas More in 1532.  As my ancestor died in  1519, Hans Holbein based his drawing on a bust by the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano (1472–1528).  Today the drawing is part of the Royal Collection at Windsor.  Perhaps I should ask for it

[RMfrance]

aghadowey Our common ancestor is Sir John Popham.

Minn

I'm told that my maternal grandmother (Rosina Harris, b Islington, London) is descended from 'Admiral Popham'. The story as it was recounted to me was that at some point a Popham family daughter fell in love with someone considered beneath her social standing. Her father threatened to disown her if she married her suitor, despite which she went ahead and married her true love.
So, I'm hoping to find a connectgion between Popham and Harris (links to both Ireland and Scotland).

It's a long-shot, but...

[Malcolm33]

     My Uncle Tom used to tell everyone that Sir Leonard Hutton was his cousin.    I know this is not true, though there would be a connection if I were able to go back far enough since it seems that all the Bradford Huttons trace back to an ancestor in Baildon.    My Hutton line were at Eccleshill as far back as at least 1712 whilst Sir Len was born at nearby Pudsey and I do know that his line goes back to Baildon.

     My cousin Marion's mother was a Saxty and that line traces back via Scotland to Bath which is where the father of Albert Saxty came from.   Albert Saxty was one of the few men who held off the Zulu army of Cetaweyo at Rorke's Drift.

     However much more concrete is that my mitochondrial dna gives me a common ancestor with King Charles I, George I, George VI, Prince Philip, Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas and Jesse James, whilst a cousin's dna gives us a common ancestry with King David and King Solomon of Egypt.

[suffolk*sue]

Edwin Sandys is my umpteen times g.grandfather,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Sandys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edwin_Sandys_from_NPG.jpg

A very distant connection to the Boon of Mills and Boon publishers.

[KGarrad]

The family tree can lead to everal hundereds of entry's in different generations,maybe along the way you have found that you are related to Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone, Robin Hood or even Watt Tiler.

Maybe an ancester did something heroic but was never credited for it. Anyway I thought it may make an interesting question.

Ummmm . . . . you do, of course, mean Antonio Meucci, who invented the telephone?!?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci

In my tree I have John Constable, R.A..
His grandmother was Judith Garrad, and his Aunt Ann Constable married back into the Garrad family!

[a-l]

I am a direct descendent of Rev. John Hale of Salem witch trials . That reduced me to tears of laughter as all my life I have collected witches ! Also a family who married into the Hales traces down to Princes William and Harry. I also have connections to Helen Keller and Robert E Lee, Senators and Orators and of course Nathan Hale.

[jbml]

Well, I'm told that my Kipling ancestors are NOT connected to Joseph Rudyard of that ilk. Family tradition says otherwise. But then, I', told that is usual in families wiht the name Kipling in their tree.

It is suggested that my Sinden ancestors are related to the actor Sir Donald ... but I've no tbeen able ot prove the link in an idle afternoon, and I'm not particularly minded to devote any more effort to the attempt than that.

I have found two of my 16th and 17th century ancestors mentioned in academic historical monographs (Francis Washwhite of Wisbech, and William Cockerton of Balsham).

But never mind the people ... what about the houses?

My grandfather's farm (Woolpit Farm in Ewhurst, Surrey) was once the Surrey home of Sir Henry Doulton (of ceramic fame); and my great grandfather's house (Ardmore House, at the boundary of Loughton and Buckhurst Hill, Essex) was once the private residence of Dr Barnado (THE Dr Barnado), and was visited in 1931 by Mahatma Gandhi.

Not bad for a shoemaker's son, who started working life as a railway clerk at Stratford!

[lullaby]

My paternal grandfather and Sydney Greenstreet (of Casablanca fame) were first cousins and a great aunt on my father's maternal side was a stage/early film actress in the 1930's (Lorna Hubbard).  My mother's father was related to George Tinworth (Royal Doulton).

Sadly this artistic bloodline has totally passed me by!

[watto3535]

Actually, yes. My 1st cousin, twice removed was Richard Lewis McGregor (1886-1973). Who?
He was born in Scotland and due to a powerful and God-fearing mother he went to agricultural college. He went to Australia and soon became a government agricultural expert. During WW2 he was in charge of supplying food to the Allied troops and later became Australian ambassador to Canada. He later became a US citizen and lived in Barbados. In 1966 he welcomed the Queen on her visit to Barbados. My father was named George Lewis  and my nephew is also Lewis.