Anyone Interesting in your family tree?

[Rafini]

Howdy MFK,

My brother had twins about a year ago and it was at this point that he began making a family tree. Until we started this we didn't really know much past the last few generations.
He enlisted my help and we managed to find out a few interesting things.
On my fathers side I am descended from a famous British ship builder who built many of the ships that took settlers to Australia, New Zealand and the Americas, as well as a great many trade ships.
I am also descended from one of the Vagliano bros (specifically Marinos Vallianos), wealthy Greek shipping tycoons from the 1800s. There is a huge marble statue of his brother Panayis outside the National Museum of Greece. Marinos was also sued by the Russian Empire and successfully won the case. This is to date the longest running case in Russian legal history.

I was pretty surprised to find this out as for the first 8 months or so of digging, I found nothing really of interest.

So here is my question, Anyone here find someone interesting/prominent in your family tree?
I'd love to hear some stories!

Rafini

 

[Deadeye]

A distant cousin of mine is Al Jolson, the actor to star in “The Jazz Singer,” the first movie to have sound.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Nope.

 

[Chefken]

just me!

 

[esoxlucius]

My family tree goes way way way back. Quite a famous book was written all about my early ancestors frolicking about b******k naked in a fancy garden. I think they were called Adam and Eve!!! But of course those two are ALL our long lost relatives......if you chose to believe in all that stuff, which I don't. Lol.

Seriously though, this sort of stuff does interest me, but you can only go so far back before the old written parish documents and such become very sketchy, or the trail just goes completely dead. My auntie went down this road years ago and got back as far as 1850 or so, which is what, great, great, great grandparents territory, not far in the whole scheme of things really.

Because of technology taking off like it has in recent decades, our future relations, even thousands of years in the future will, with a bit of digging, be able to trace back a very detailled footprint of their very very distant relatives, with pictures and all sorts.

 

[Rafini]

My family tree goes way way way back. Quite a famous book was written all about my early ancestors frolicking about b******k naked in a fancy garden. I think they were called Adam and Eve!!! But of course those two are ALL our long lost relatives......if you chose to believe in all that stuff, which I don't. Lol.

Seriously though, this sort of stuff does interest me, but you can only go so far back before the old written parish documents and such become very sketchy, or the trail just goes completely dead. My auntie went down this road years ago and got back as far as 1850 or so, which is what, great, great, great grandparents territory, not far in the whole scheme of things really.

Because of technology taking off like it has in recent decades, our future relations, even thousands of years in the future will, with a bit of digging, be able to trace back a very detailled footprint of their very very distant relatives, with pictures and all sorts.

yeah everyone in Europe has some ties back to aristocracy. And through them you get to royalty very easily.
I went to the 1500's on one side of my tree and the chancellor to king Henry VIII is my direct ancestor, This is hundreds of years ago though so I'm sure there are many people also related to this guy.

These DNA tests also typically only go back to 6 generations, so it can't tell you much more than your great grandparents great grand parents.
I became interested in this considering I've never met my paternal grandfather, and I know very little about both sides of my family tree.

Al Jolson huh? Thats very interesting. He looks like a relative of Justin Trudeau's?
In all seriousness, it must be really cool to watch an old movie and be able to say, That guy right there is my relative.

Any other interesting or surprising relatives?

 

[Backfromthedead]

Caesar Rodney, or rather his wife, was a distant ancestor of mine. He was an American revolutionary and later governor of Delaware. He is the guy riding the horse on the back of the Delaware state quarter.

 

[Rafini]

Caesar Rodney, or rather his wife, was a distant ancestor of mine. He was an American revolutionary and later governor of Delaware. He is the guy riding the horse on the back of the Delaware state quarter.

Hey Backfromthedead, That's awesome!
You can literally show the coin to someone and be like, this dude is my ancestor.
That's sweet!

 

[The Masked Shadow]

I am descended from an Irish saint Sebaldus. You can look him up on Wikipedia. My last name is Sebald. I am:

a little under a half irish
1/8 spanish
a little over a 1/4 polish
and a few other things like British, and Fijian.

 

[Ogertron3000]

I havent looked back far, im very interested in my great grandfathers experiences fighting on the western front in WW1 but theres no real documentation. He did give me his service bayonet before he died which is a cool memento. Guys of that generation never really talked about their wartime experience, they just came home and went on as normal so its really all lost in time.
Since I have UK heritage there are some noble/minor royals in the mix. I sometimes wonder how many people would have to die for me to become king of england, like that old movie King Ralph.
I would like to hear someone say All rise for the reign of King Ogertron and then the trumpets play and the maidens rejoice!