I know that everybody is ultimately related to everybody else but what do you know of your ancestors?

On my mum’s side I’m related to the Ismay family who owned White Star Lines (Titanic), 2 murderers, 1 FA Cup winner and a hangman.

Betwen them they bumped off 150+ people*. 7 murders and 140+ professional. If anyone in your family did anything bad in Nottinghamshire in the 1840-70s my fella would have strung you up. 😯

*not including all those on the Titanic. I’m not sure that Mo Saunders and the Preston North End team were responsible for any deaths either.

<keeps quiet about great uncle Adolf>

<keeps schtumm about Great Aunt Mary Magdalene>

<keeps quiet about great uncle surfmat>

Grandma was a famous French concert pianist.

Some of my father’s relatives helped Eamon de Valera escape from Lincoln jail on Feb 3rd 1919.
Some of the party stayed overnight at my grandfather’s house in Sheffield before fleeing to America shortly afterward.
My grandfather wasn’t very happy about the situation, having left Ireland to escape any involvement in the Civil War, but didn’t really have much choice.
My dad was nearly 3 at the time and remembered the unexpected visit, but had no idea of it’s significance ’till much later.

Another one of my dad’s relatives was the first manager of the Odeon Cinema on Oxford Road in Manchester in the 1930’s.

Another colourful charachter who’d fled Ireland in disgrace after his business (“Ocaldo soapflakes, they wash whiter” 🙂 ) had gone all runny.

My late grandparents used to live next door to the policeman that arrested Brady and Hindley. Does that count?

HTS, talking of murder, my cousin is in durham jail for murdering a bloke over a drugs thing 8 yrs ago
and my mums cousin is in prison somewhere for suffocating his wife.

also, my grandma’s grandfather came from iceland, and worked for scott of the antartic in his preperation for his final adventure.

My great grandad worked for sir anthony eden. Somewhere these’s some very old cine film of sir anthony chasing my grandpa (aged about7) round the garden.

On the other side of the family we’re apparently related some the group that got bonny prince charlie out of exile.

sc-xc – Member

<keeps quiet about great uncle surfmat>

😆

On my dad’s side we are allegedly related by marriage to Oliver Cromwell. 😯

If you are French, you will remember Yann Piat who my mother shared a nanny with in St Raphael as a little girl. Assinated in 1994, supposedly over her battles against organised crime, but all whilst being a high profile French National Front politician.

Not great with the family connections here then. 😳

Oh, I thought of a good one!

Falklands fans, my (sadly now deceased) second cousin Sam:

Top bloke, spoke with the most amazing recieved pronunciation. How I imagine Captain Flasheart talks. 😆

My Granny’s cousin was murdered by Dr. Crippen.
Also her Great uncle was James Watt (unit of power).

How I imagine Captain Flasheart talks.

Sorry to disappoint but he’s all “Yachi Da” and “alright boyo”.

Dad’s side – his father owned a chain of booky shops in ayrshire and southern ireland, he also owned a dog track and most of the dogs that ran in it.
A friendly rogue who had the old bill in his pocket and would be tipped off on raids of his shops.
Prior to the bookies he owned a national haulage firm which as a sideline during the war smuggled sausages and nylons from Ireland.
THe family even made it into the newspapers when his mother sued him for half the haulage firm.
Great great granny alegedly had a thing with a member of royalty as well, but little is known about it.

I am related to a former prime minister.

I am related to John Rolfe… and so to Pocahontas. Which is probably why she looks so annoyed.

Slight hijack but I once met Dominic Behan, after whom I got one of my middle names as my father was a fan, ….and he did’t believe me.

🙂

.. just been googling sausages in nylons..

My dad was Fred west and my mum was Myra hindley.

🙂 @ Julian!

I once asked my Y6 class if anyone had any famous relatives:
Got the usual “My grandad was in the war” etc, then Adam (so thick he couldn’t spell his own name, usually spelling it Ells instead of Ellis) piped up, “My aunty was the last women to be hung in England!”

Look at the back of your hands.
Are they harier than the average persons?
Conduct a discreet survey tomorrow if you must…

If you find that your hands are harier than 90% of people… I hate to break it to you, but… you’re probably related to me.

There was a genealogy thread a while back, but to reiterate, an ancestor was someone to be proud of, via my grandmother on my father’s side:
http://www.btinternet.com/~palmiped/Drake.htm

The Birkenhead was a maritime disaster, that established the principle of women and children first:
http://www.btinternet.com/~palmiped/Birkenhead.htm

Bugger all here.

My mum’s uncle or grandad or something was principal tenor of Manchester Cathedral Choir, apparently, and her mum ran a shop in the building which was and still is the oldest house in York. Was a wool shop then, an ice cream parlour 15 or so years ago when she went back to check it out and last year when we went it was a crystal/trinket shop. Does make you wonder what else it’s been over the 600 years or so 🙂

My Dad’s second cousin was some semi-famous darts player. Not quite a household name but he was on the telly in tournaments. You’d have heard of him if you were into darts.

On my mum’s side, it’s all knights and high office in India from my English grandfather and shady horse farming from my Scottish grandmother.

On my dad’s side, my German greatgrandparents were victims of Stalin in Ukraine, while my grandfather escaped and made his way to Canada.

No criminals in my past, alas.

One of my great great Grandfathers from the early 1800’s was lord mayor of York for several years. The same man also bred stagecoach horses and had a horse run in The Derby. Our family also owned a few dozen pubs in York in the late 1800’s but somehow they were all lost gambling!

My grandad was a part-time scout for the baggies, and my dad went out with ann diamond. should i collect my trophy, or will it be delivered?

and for years the family boast was that one of ours invented the crumpet, ’till it turned out my nan was talking tosh (again).

(we had us a delusional murderer (finally caught trying to sacrifice a boy to “appease the vampires” or somesuch), but he was married in and i can’t find it in the internet to prove it (ended up down oxford way, seventies or eighties sometime)so doesn’t count.)

Randomly my mum did some research (via some of her family) to investigate my dads history. They were pretty good at it and built a full blown genealogy of my history!

Like Saxonrider I have some family history in the high office of India and Prussia, however one line can be traced back 18 generations to 1373. Along the way you have several knights and MPs (mainly in Nottingham), one guy beheaded on tower green, the commander of the Royal Army, and a member of the order of Bath. The best one is one of my distant relatives was called John, was an MP for Nottingham and at one point was the Sheriff of Nottingham. All during the time that “Robin” could have been alive! There is also a First World War VC winner in my dads distant family past!

On my mums side we have a current TV personality as a distant cousin, a MSP as an Uncle.