Do you have any famous ancestors?

Question

My Grandma's madem name was Cortez and it was passed on that we were the descendants of Hernando Cortez and an Aztec slave girl! I don't know if this is true or not but that's what has been passed down through the centuries in our family..

What about you? Are you realted to anybody famous or have famous ancestors?

Answer 1

My husband has the more interesting set of characters in his heritage.

He descends from the Pilgrim John Howland, the man who fell off the Mayflower during a storm and managed to pull himself back onboard.

He (actually his witchy mother) descends from three of the Salem witches...including the last man executed for witchcraft in America.

There are a couple of links to Benjamin Franklin (first cousin a dozen times removed), which is ironic since his mother's family was expelled for being Loyalists during the Revolution.

And one of my favorite ancestors in his tree is Annetje Jans, the wife of a Dutch parson in New Amsterdam (Manhattan). She actually owned much of the land where the World Trade Center stood. She was much ahead of her time by being a female land owner in the 1600s.

My favorite ancestors were Guillaume Couture, Alinor of Aquitaine and Louis Riel. The names may not mean much to most Americans, but among the French and French-Canadians, their stories are legendary.

Answer 2

Infamous is the mot juste in the case of "my lot" (as my husband calls them) I have a 3x Gt. uncle who was sentenced to death at Taunton Assizes in 1829 for the crime of stealing £200 in Promissory Notes. The Sentence was commuted to "Life" in Australia whence he arrived in December 1829, eventually receiving a "Conditional Pardon" after working at a homestead in the Wellington Valley. I have another ancestor who featured in a Government Report on the employment of women and children in the mines of South Gloucestershire - John Lines, coal haulier, was 13 years old when interviewed. He said the hauliers' leather girdle didn't hurt him; he had been working there for 4 years, did an 8 hour shift (6 days a week) after walking 4 miles to the pit each morning (and back at night); he had learned to read and write a little at a Wesleyan Sunday School. I have an ex Leader of the Liberal Party on my Tree, a Lord Chief Justice of Appeal (not blood related - one of my lot married him), one of the founders of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and possibly a Sir Lewis Pollard - Circuit Judge. The grandchildren will also be able to boast that their gramps designed the electronics for the machine which compacted the first ever Viagra tablet for Pfizer!

Answer 3

wait, how can you be a direct descendent of King Henry VIII if he didn't have any grandchildren?

I know I'm descended from the brother of Squire Boone, the father of Daniel Boone. My 7th great grandmother Barbara Leininger was kidnapped by Indians in 1755, and that story is recorded in the PA archives.
According to a legend, I'm also a descendent of Hayraddin Saladin, a Turk who was kidnapped during the Crusades in 1105. He was sent back to France, accepted into the nobility, and changed his name to Arnulph LeTurk.
One of my ancestors, Maria Beau, sewed gold coins into her dress and escaped France into the Netherlands in 1698 along with her husband Daniel LeVan. Their children later left the Netherlands and traveled to the US into the Oley Valley.
I'm also descended from William the Conqueror and other kings of England

Answer 4

Charlemagne and various kings, queens, dukes, barons, bishops from England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy...
Proven by both a paper trail and DNA.
Have you had a DNA test? That would shed some light on whether or not Indian blood is mixed with that of Cortez.

Answer 5

On one line (mom's side), I am a direct descendant of King Henry VIII and of course, all his royal ancestors before him. On another line (dad's side), I am a direct descendant of King Edward III of England, and of course, all his royal ancestors before him. On another line (also dad's side), I am a direct descendant of Chief Powhatan. On another line (dad's side) I am a direct descendant of William Byrd. That name probably doesn't mean much to most. He was the founder of Richmond, Virginia, which is my home town.

On both my parents sides, I have a multitude of famous outlaws as cousins:

Sam Bass - 2nd cousin 4x removed
Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) - 6th cousin 2x removed
John Wesley Hardin - 5th cousin 4x removed
Jefferson "Soapy" Smith - 6th cousin 3x removed
Butch Cassidy - 8th cousin 1x removed
Pretty Boy Floyd - 7th cousin 3x removed
Edward "Ned" Kelly - 6th cousin, 7x removed
Frank and Jesse James - 8th cousins 2x removed

There are many other great-grandfathers, uncles, or cousins of notoriety, but these are the ones I generally find to be the most interesting or fascinating to me.

My husband is 8th cousins to Elvis Presley. He has always loved Elvis. We even have a chihuahua named Elvis, so he was very surprised to learn that he is his cousin.

Answer 6

Alexander Graham Bell on my great grandmother's side.

Also, my great, great, great , great grandfather was a pensioneer from the Revolutionary War. I'm a 9th generation American, he was a third generation American. Documented in the Library of Congress.


And GWB can kiss my ***



Note: the two previous generations to the man of mention were on this continent before the USA became the USA.

Answer 7

Mary Chilton. Marvin Rainwater.

Answer 8

I only have ancestors with minor claims to fame, not major. However, my aunt (by marriage) is descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Answer 9

My 3rd cousin is a famous soccer player in Portugal. Another one of my cousins is a singer in Portugal. I'm from royalty on both sides. We own a castle in Portugal. Also one in France on the other side. They have a book in Portugal that talks about our family. It was in a school text book.

But in the end we are all related to each other because we all came from Adam and Eve

Answer 10

My grandfather is trying to trace our lineage back, but he hasn't found anyone interesting. At least from England. From our Scottish side, we might be related to Rob Roy MacGregor, which is pretty cool. I like to idea of being related to a Robin Hood character!