Are we related? or well.. something like that

[Alfonia]

I dunno if i should call this a game or whatever, but the idea was we could post the names of any "celebrities" we are not-so-distantly-related to, or very-distantly-related-to, and find out if we are related in some weird way. I'd like to see this as an experiment, but I don't know what the chances two of us will share a mutual 1500's relative or something...

Anyways, my "famous" relatives are...

John Ericsson, inventor of the USS Monitor and the ship propeller, among other things (that's distant, but not too distant)

Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish soccer player that was somewhat of a legend in Italian team AC Milan, he once scored 35 goals in one season in Italy. (that's very, very distant)


Okay... so if anyone wanna join in... got any famous, or not-so-famous-but-still-not-unknown relatives?

[Sheynat]

I'm distantly related to Bill Murray. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm related to pretty much everybody named Murray, as it's a clan name.

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

Alf, for the record you get points on J. Ericsson's account.

[Elgarve]

I'm distantly related to Va's Governor Berkley and his main enemy Nathan Bacon!

Also, my grandfather was Tomas D. Fox, an intelligence officer and one of the first members of the DEA.

[Alfonia]

so no new distant 10ki-relatives yet...

still this is cool

[Proeliatoris/Tinechordor]

My folks traced the family tree back to Leif Ericson.

[qxuvi]

My family has gone back to people like Marie Antoinette and Henry V, and in the 1200's my family line split because of siblings and 9 generations later it came back together, (dunno if that counts for anything).

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

Neato.

[qarat]

I've got a distant blood relation to the late great Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). The blood's been diluted a bit, though, so the only way it shows is in the way that none of my siblings or I will wear shoes if we can help it.

[Bad Infinitum]

I'm not bored enough to trace my family back farther than my great grandparents. I'm probably a direct-blood descendant of Abe Lincoln or Charles Darwin, but everyone in my family is either too lazy to find out or actually has a life .

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

Such a polite chap.

[Parthini]

My family has a lot of extra time, so I've been traced back to Edward Longshanks AND William Wallace Also, I've been traced back to George Washington. My furthest decendant is a guy name Curdic the Saxon who went from Germany where most of his tribe was killed, to Britian where he established the Kingdom of Essex in the 900s. He was also called Curdic the Pirate before he became king. ARRR!

GPP

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

So it does run in the family...

So, did my ancient ancestors spend all their time sassing the English, Turks, and Germans?

[Keamian Territories]

Well where to start.

On my mom's side I am related to the famous Hatfields and the McCoys (You know the big Fued, yep got both sides in my blood!).

Colonel Logan Salyers a Confederate officer in charge of some of the most deadly partisians in the Civil War.

On my Dad's side

James Johnson Pettigrew a confederate General who took over for Heth after he was wounded in Gettysburg. He also had the highest SAT scores at NC state for about a hundred years.

[Sheynat]

newparthini said:

My family has a lot of extra time, so I've been traced back to Edward Longshanks AND William Wallace Also, I've been traced back to George Washington. My furthest decendant is a guy name Curdic the Saxon who went from Germany where most of his tribe was killed, to Britian where he established the Kingdom of Essex in the 900s. He was also called Curdic the Pirate before he became king. ARRR!

GPP

Acording to family stories I'm related to the guy who co-ruled Scotland with Wallace during the Scottish Civil War (or whatever you call it.) Not sure if that's true, though.

[Alfonia]

Such stories are always hard to confirm, unless you really are a member of a royal house, or at least is a count or something... I know for one thing finding relatives older than the 1500's is very hard here, and well... it would be impossible finding relatives that are a 1000 years old or so, since if you go back that far, the only written "documents" from that time are runestones, and while they do name names quite often, you'd be amazed how many Erikssons (or any name ending with -sson) there are in Sweden now, and were at that time, and since the -sson means.. ehm well "son of" they don't have to be related at all. tricky. Still, I don't really know how far back my family has been traced, I'll check that out soon (if anything, my grandfather will know).


Surnames are very connected to family history, I know, but I find first names to be interesting too. Sometimes telling much of a person (I'd dare to say many Mohammeds are muslims), and sometimes saying nothing (...Is that Lee dude american or chinese? and, is Chris a guy or girl?).
It just struck me I actually don't know many of your guys by your first names, and I respect if you'd like to keep it that way. My name is Alf, well, some of you knew it already, some of you would have guessed it... anyways... I have found three versions of this name, the first one being (yippie) ancient swedish, meaning "elf", i find this funny as some of my friends have remarked that i have pointy ears... the second version of the name is german, and is a shorter version of "Adolf", i don't like that connection, though, despite certain dictators, it's still a royal name. The last version is the most boring one, and that is that, well, it's an american short form of "Alfred". I prefer the first version considering my nationality and all, and will bring out my tights, bow and arrow.

Ever checked out the meaning of your first name?

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

It actually is Nicholas, I'm named for my great-grandfather who came from Transylvania during the Austro-Hungarian Empire days, and Nicholea is more common in Romania than John in America. Heck, even their crazy commie dictator Coceascue was named Nicholea.

[Echolilia]

Aug 24, 2005 16:41:33 GMT -5 Sheynat said:

I'm distantly related to Bill Murray. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm related to pretty much everybody named Murray, as it's a clan name.

This explains a lot.