Researching the family history of a celebrity

[coombs]

Someone said they have done research into famous and infamous people and that the Kray Twins descend from an Auber family of East London. Found out it was the same Auber's as I descend from.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Only on the one or two incredibly rare happenings when I've come upon a distant relationship with someone well-known, and checked it out FULLY!

[IgorStrav]

I did a family tree once for M.V. Hughes, who wrote A London Child of the 1870s, A London Girl of the 1880s, and A London Home of the 1890s, which I read with great interest.

They were autobiographical, and concerned her family, their Cornish roots and the sudden and devastating death of her father (he simply didn't come home one night, he had been knocked down and killed by a carriage in London, and it took some days to identify him and tell his family).

She wrote beautifully, but I was amazed that - as the only girl in the family - she very much took second place to her brothers, who were all 'of course' more important, and in fact glorified the fact that she therefore never took herself and her own potential seriously.

She did manage  to get to school and indeed qualified as a teacher.

It was fascinating checking up on all the clues in the books and pinning the characters down.

[Finley 1]

I thoroughly enjoyed a series of books regarding the Cornish family of Ben Retallick  by EJ Thompson....

LONG before I found I am descendant of the Retallicks..    quirks and coincidences   and of course there are lots of them in this game..

xin


ps Donald Sutherland is NOT a rellie    

[pharmaT]

I have been tempted at times to investigate the family trees of people who are infamous for being racist just to see what their background is but I decided it wasn't worth my energy.

[Mike in Cumbria]

I researched the family history of the famous Aviatrix, Amy Johnson in 2016 when I was approached to help with sourcing and restoring photos of her, for a coffee table book "Amy Johnson: A Life in Pictures" and also exhibition material to mark the 75th Anniversary of her death.
I had already researched the Johnson family when I first started family history, as my Uncle told me that we were related to them. When I could find no relationship, he told me that we weren't actually related to them but my grandparents lived next door to them and my Aunt was at the same school as Amy, and that as children, they referred to Amy's parents as Aunt and Uncle 
I later learned that her Danish Grandfather Anders Jorgenson, (anglicised to Andrew Johnson) in 1901 was a Fish merchant and lived two doors away from my Great Uncle who was a Fish Buyer.

Carol

My first teacher at Junior school, Miss Kirkham, was also at school with Amy Johnson, and presumably with your aunt too. She said that Amy was always in trouble for one naughty deed or another.

[Treetotal]

How interesting Mike....you might be interested in a photo I have of a large group of children at the same school, I think it is dated around 1910 or there about. She was a real rebel and led a protest against the wearing of the school hat. She often played cricket with the boys and lost her front teeth when she was hit in the face with a bat. She was quite a tomboy and ahead of her time in many ways.
Carol

[Erato]

"the family trees of people who are infamous for being racist "

Others are dealing with it and it's quite amusing.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=resistance+genealogy

[Mike in Cumbria]

How interesting Mike....you might be interested in a photo I have of a large group of children at the same school, I think it is dated around 1910 or there about. She was a real rebel and led a protest against the wearing of the school hat. She often played cricket with the boys and lost her front teeth when she was hit in the face with a bat. She was quite a tomboy and ahead of her time in many ways.
Carol

Yes, I'd be interested in seeing that, although I doubt whether I'd recognise Miss Kirkham. If she was the same age as Amy Johnson, she would be about 7 years old in the photo - the same age as I was when she taught me (although she looked about 300 years old to me of course).