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Historical figures you're (tenuously) related to


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This was inspired by Oakland mentioning that he's related to this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers

Anyone else have any lineage to historically notable people? I'm not sure exactly how many generations back it is, but I know I'm related to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hart

(I think it's something like great great great great great great uncle.)

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this guy was my great to the 8th power grandfather:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Weiser

there's a school district named after him and a buncha other stuff. apparently my dad signed me up for the conrad weiser historical society when i was little, cuz i keep getting newsletters from them.

also related to sir isaac newton in some bizarre way (or so my mom tells me).

my mom's cousin was an olympic rower. he would have gone to another olympic games, but it was the year the US boycotted. oddly enough, i saw him on a commercial during the olympics one year.

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/be/william-belden-1.html

he's the last one profiled in this article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93343705

none of them are super famous, but oh well!

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this guy was my great to the 8th power grandfather:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Weiser

there's a school district named after him and a buncha other stuff. apparently my dad signed me up for the conrad weiser historical society when i was little, cuz i keep getting newsletters from them.

Weird... I graduated from Conrad Weiser.

I did terrible things in that place that your great to the 8th power grandfather would have been ashamed of.

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My grandfather is sort of half-assed looking up our ancestry. I know that my family was Prussian royalty but peaced out of there around the Franco-Prussian war and left it all behind. The only Irish ancestor I have was one of like.. 5 or 6 Irish people on the Mayflower.

Other than that, I got nothing.

[Edit] My grandfather told me the Mayflower ancestor was Irish, but Francis Cooke is a family name through many generations up until about 60 years ago, so I'm fairly certain that's who we're begotten from.

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historically, as in, way back in the day - no clue. my great grandparents were scotch-irish immigrants.

but in recent history, my great uncle is:

[image]

steve cropper aka guitarist of the blues brothers aka guitarist of booker t and the mg's aka author & co-author of many classic r&b songs ("sittin' on the dock of the bay") aka HE ALMOST WORKED IN STUDIO WITH LENNON AND MCCARTNEY

i've only met him once, when i was like 12. he was nice. i met billy preston the same night. he was awesome.

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Anyone a member of Ancestry.com?

I've always wanted to sign up.

My sister signed up for it a few months ago and learned that our dad was married for about 6 months before he met our mom. That was an awkward conversation over 4th of July weekend, but I guess it could've been worse -- he could've still been married to her.

So yeah, be careful if you sign up, you might unearth a family secret or two.

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