01:48 Jun 23 2010
Times Read: 658
I have been working on my Family tree, for my 93 year old grandmother. She has a 20 gallon tote full of records that she refuses to part with, so I am requested that when I come for a visit to Florida (and she hopes it will be soon) that I bring a scanner to be able to protect and log all of these pictures and papers of family tree.
So, as I am going through, finding relations, tracking down dates, I found I was enjoying myself. Its like being a detective, to learn more about yourself and your upbringing. I am amazed at how many famous people, I am related too. So, these are some of the people that I have just verified, that I am related to, one way or another.
P.S. All notations for the names were found in wikipedia.org.
Francis Cooke
Francis Cooke (1583 – April 7, 1663 Plymouth, Massachusetts) was one of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower. This early settler is one of the twenty-six male Pilgrims known to have descendants.
Richard Warren
Richard Warren (c. 1580–1628) was a passenger on the Mayflower (old "May Floure") in 1620. He settled in Plymouth Colony and was among ten passengers of the Mayflower landing party with Myles Standish at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620.[1][2][3] Warren co-signed the Mayflower Compact[3] and was one of nineteen (among 41) signers who survived the first winter.
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, writer and artist. To date, he is the only British Prime Minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first person to be recognized as an honorary citizen of the United States.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945; pronounced /ˈroʊzəvɛlt/ ROE-zə-velt;[1] also known by his initials, FDR) was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. The only American president elected to more than two terms, he forged a durable coalition that realigned American politics for decades. FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the depths of the Great Depression. FDR's combination of optimism and activism revived the national spirit, but historians and economists still debate the wisdom of his policies. He led the United States through World War II, dying at the start of his fourth term just as victory was near over Germany and Japan.
Mrs Anna Mary Robertson aka "Grandma Moses"
Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), better known as "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist. She is most often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age.
Reverend Cotton Mathers
Cotton Mather (February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728; A.B. 1678, Harvard College; A.M. 1681, honorary doctorate 1710, University of Glasgow) was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered, and falsely accused, for his role in the trial and deaths of several people accused of witchcraft in the
Salem witch trials. He was the son of Increase Mather, and grandson of Richard Mather, both also prominent Puritan ministers.
(LordV gets a tickle out of this, due to me living in sin with a witch! LOL)
George Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, writer, actor, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work and despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting and chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios, which resulted in many of his films being severely edited and others left unreleased. He has thus been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur."[1]
Welles first found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds which, performed in the style of a news broadcast, was reported to have caused widespread panic when listeners supposedly thought that an extraterrestrial invasion was occurring. Although these reports of panic were mostly false,[2] they rocketed Welles to instant notoriety. Citizen Kane (1941), his first film with RKO, in which he starred in the iconic role of Charles Foster Kane, is often considered the greatest film ever made. Several of his other films, including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and F for Fake (1974), are also widely considered to be masterpieces.[3][4][5]
In 2002 he was voted the greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute's poll of Top Ten Directors.[6][7] Welles, who was also an extremely well regarded actor, was voted number 16 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the greatest film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and was well known for his baritone voice.[8]
Actor Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere[1] (pronounced /ˈɡɪər/, geer; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, and came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film "American Gigolo", which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. He went on to star in several hit films including An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, and Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actor, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Best Cast.
Actor Dick Van Dyke
Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades.[1] He is arguably best known for his starring roles in the films Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the television series The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis Murder.[1]
Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson from The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961, who gained popularity for their close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a Southern California youth culture of cars, surfing, and romance. Brian Wilson's growing creative ambitions later transformed them into a more artistically innovative group that earned critical praise and influenced many later musicians.[1]
The group was initially composed of singer-musician-composer Brian Wilson, his brothers, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. This core quintet was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 1988.
The Beach Boys have often been called "America's Band",[2][3][4] and Allmusic has stated that "the band's unerring ability... made them America's first, best rock band."[1] The group has had thirty-six U.S. Top 40 hits (the most of any U.S. rock band) and fifty-six Hot 100 hits, including four number-one singles.[1] Rolling Stone magazine listed The Beach Boys as number 12 in the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[5] According to Billboard, in terms of singles and album sales, The Beach Boys are the No.-1-selling American band of all time.[6]
I am also related to both George Bushes (God help me!!!), some British Loyalists that defected to Canada, during the Revolutionary War. I have found evidence of some Native American in my Family Tree and also several kings and a princess, including King Edward of England, Princess Diana and King Njord of Sweden.
I feel for LordV, as his family, has changed their last name, several times, making it hard to track. I know that I'm not done, but this is what I have found so far.
COMMENTS
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Nightgame
02:25 Jun 23 2010
This is really cool! I'm like LordV, my family changed their names I suspect to prevent prosecution not persecution! lol