Who''s in your family?

[somethingshiny]

The google thread got me thinking about this.

Do you have any freaky, unusual, outstanding, remarkable members of your family?


In my extended family, there was rodeo cowboy who jumped trains to get from one event to the next (an actual hobo), a professional football player, a friend of Al Capone (his butcher, too!), and a KKK kook (no one knew that until after he died). My great-grandmother got a college degree (back in the 20's-so a bit unusual for a woman of that time).

eta- DH's family member wrote "Oh, Susanna"

 

[musey]

Hmm... my family is not all that interesting, the only person of note that I can think of is a man who worked with Walt Disney way back in the day. They were good friends, and Walt sent him to scout out the location for Disney World. He spent over a year (so I hear) traveling the US looking for the perfect spot (he almost chose a small town in coastal Texas!). So it is where it is thanks to this relative of mine

He also designed Disneyland.

It's sort of cool because in the "Main Street USA" section of the Magic Kingdom, there are names of people who were significant to the company during that time printed onto the "2nd floor" shop windows. We found his name on a trip there about 10 years ago.

 

[iheartscience]

Fun thread! Hmm...my cousin has a PhD from Yale and he does important stuff for a really well known (and awesome!) organization. He''s been in a couple of big articles and on a few TV specials, which I think is fun!

And my grandfather was a hobo in the Great Depression-he and his best friend ran away and hopped trains across the country to try to find work. I''ll try to think of some more-I have a lot of relatives so I''m sure there''s more cool stuff!

 

[Kaleigh]

Well my brother, he passed long ago was a magician.. He was in the Guiness Book of world records for breaking Houdini's record for getting out of a straight jacket. He did it hanging from a helicopter. I didn't get to see him do it. My parents weren't thrilled with it. But when he was on tour with the Guiness people, I got to meet Sandy Allen who at the time was the worlds tallest woman. He was on TV commercials also. I loved being able to call him and tell him I was switching the channel. Yes I was a brat, I was 6 years younger than him. But he was a lot of fun growing up. He did crazy magic tricks for my friends. And seances.... (SP) where you try to connect with the dead?? Yeah he was a trip.

Dh has a famous architect on his side, and I have one on mine.

That's it I think.

 

[musey]

Date: 1/15/2009 8:23:53 PM
Author: musey
Hmm... my family is not all that interesting, the only person of note that I can think of is a man who worked with Walt Disney way back in the day. They were good friends, and Walt sent him to scout out the location for Disney World. He spent over a year (so I hear) traveling the US looking for the perfect spot (he almost chose a small town in coastal Texas!). So it is where it is thanks to this relative of mine

He also designed Disneyland.


It''s sort of cool because in the ''Main Street USA'' section of the Magic Kingdom, there are names of people who were significant to the company during that time printed onto the ''2nd floor'' shop windows. We found his name on a trip there about 10 years ago.

Found him: Herbert Ryman

 

[joflier]

I have an ancestor that was supposed to have been a very famous boxing champion in the early 20th century.

 

[deegee]

In my family tree is a couple who lived in the 1800's who was (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) the world's tallest couple at the time, and they had a baby who (according to Wikipedia) is still listed as the wold's largest baby ever born. He weighed 24 pounds and was 30 inches long, but only lived 11 hours. A book was written about them several years ago when I was a kid, and their descendants were given a copy. I remember being totally fascinated with some of the memorabilia when I was a kid.

 

[Tuckins1]

Some members of my family came over on the Mayflower. My mother''s great grandmother was married to an Arapaho chief!

 

[somethingshiny]

Musey~ What does it take to impress you, woman? Not all that interesting, he only designed one of the biggest attractions in the Northern Hemisphere!

Thing~ Were you able to hear many train stories? I love when I get to sit and listen to the crazy stuff! It''s hard to believe what some of those guys did, isn''t it??

Kaleigh~ OMG! That IS remarkable!

joflier~ What''s his name? (if you don''t mind sharing)

deegee~ I remember reading about that baby when I went through my GWR phase as a kid. I remember getting out the tape measure and realizing that he was two and a half feet tall. Then, I remember reading that the shortest person at that time was smaller than the baby.

Tuckins~ I have a friend whose ancestors came on the Mayflower, you guys might be cousins!!

This is so interesting....

 

[musey]

Date: 1/15/2009 8:57:20 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Musey~ What does it take to impress you, woman? Not all that interesting, he only designed one of the biggest attractions in the Northern Hemisphere!

Haha! You''re right, I should give him more credit

I''m used to feeling like my ancestors are un-cool because I live in an area where everyone''s grandmother had relations with such-and-such big celebrity from the 1950s, or their uncle wrote all the music for the Lord of the Rings movies, or whatever.

Poor disney man pales in comparison!

 

[AmberGretchen]

These are such cool stories! I feel like mine aren''t that exciting in comparison, but I still think they are kind of cool, so I''ll share anyway...

My maternal grandfather was a cosmetic surgeon who helped pioneer the surgery to repair cleft palates in children, then helped make it available in developing countries. He also helped found what later became MediCal (Medicaid in California).

My mom was the first woman to get her PhD in her field from UC Berkeley, which I think is amazing. She was also one of the authors on the first paper published showing that women got AIDS.

I also have a cousin who is a semi-famous linguist who consults for the Democratic Party and has written a bunch of books and is on the radio regularly.

Mostly, though, my family are just too smart and over-educated for their own good...

 

[AmberGretchen]

Date: 1/15/2009 9:24:22 PM
Author: musey

Date: 1/15/2009 8:57:20 PM

Author: somethingshiny

Musey~ What does it take to impress you, woman? Not all that interesting, he only designed one of the biggest attractions in the Northern Hemisphere!

Haha! You''re right, I should give him more credit

I''m used to feeling like my ancestors are un-cool because I live in an area where everyone''s grandmother had relations with such-and-such big celebrity from the 1950s, or their uncle wrote all the music for the Lord of the Rings movies, or whatever.

Poor disney man pales in comparison!

I don''t think so at all - I think that is really cool!

 

[AprilBaby]

My son works on the White House Web page that will debut Tuesday at 12:01. My gfathers cousin was Erwin Rommel, my husbands gggfather crossed the Delaware on Christmas Eve with George Washington. Kitty Carlisle (remember To Tell the Truth) was a 2nd cousin of my gmother. I, on the other hand, am nobody!

 

[Lulie]

Let''s see....6 albino children in my side of the family, DH''s brother invented a drug for PHP
other than that. Good old ex-ordinary

 

[KimberlyH]

My great-great-great-great-Idon''tknowhowmanygreats uncle is James Wilkes Booth.

 

[niccia]

Cool thread! I loved reading the replies so far...

My grandfather (who was South African) was a colonial officer in East Africa and helped with water development for the local tribes (there is still a man-made lake there named after him ). He lived with the Masai tribe while in his 20''s and was circumcised by them as part of a ritual to become a "blood-brother"

 

[oobiecoo]

My uncle used to be a private pilot for various celebs inclusing Les Wexler (used to own The Limited companies) and Baryshnikov.
My grandparents lived in a named house. My dad found this antique book they used to have and gave it to me for my birthday this year... it has many famous homes and theirs is listed in it along with details.

I also have royal blood and am related to a very famous Crusader.

Hmmm... i think thats it

Oh... my ex cousin in law''s brother is in an up and coming band thats featured on MTV. He''s weird though so I don''t feel like I''m missing out on much after his sis divorced dh''s cousin.

 

[pennquaker09]

Hmm, my dad has put a lot of famous people under (he''s an anesthesiologist). There''s some other stuff, but I don''t think my dad would like me blabbering it on the internet though.

 

[somethingshiny]

AG~ Smart seems to be an understatement for your family! I think everyone you mentioned did something amazing for the world.

AB~ I never read up on Erwin Rommel until I read your post. It really is a fascinating history lesson. Congrats to your son.

Lulie~ 6 albino children, it seems nearly impossible! May I ask if any of them have any severe visual impairment? (I used to work for eye doctors and we had a few patients with albinism who were nearly blind due to the development of the retina and/or nerves)

Kimberly~ Glad I'm not the only one with a nutter in the family! I bet you could have had some interesting History papers.

niccia~

oobie~ I love that you have the book! That's so cool! I have an old plat book showing the "family" farms and I thought that was pretty neat...before now.

eta--Penn~ You're excused from blabbing, but hints are welcome!!

 

[redfaerythinker]

My family is super boring. I have an Irish great-grandfather who snuck over the border from Canada when the US wouldn''t let him in. And Jimmy Carter is a cousin of some sort.

 

[AdiS]

Well, my grandfather was one of the best known colonels in the army with numerous tank brigades under his command. He’s still kind of a celebrity in the military society. And he still drives his car which in turn still terrifies my grandma “You’re not in the tank anymore, darn it!”

Other than that, I have ancestors who were priests, revolutionaries, fought in different wars, and one lady who was a singer in a tavern (and there she met her husband, my great grandfather.)

 

[FrekeChild]

My dad's ancestors came over on the Mayflower (there are a lot of us who have that huh?).

According to the BBC my dad is a multimillionaire (as my mom said, "WHAT?! When was he going to tell me?!")

My dad has done all kinds of cool stuff. Not to toot his horn or anything. First this, first that, biggest this, oldest that. Among some of the stuff that won't readily give away his (or my) identity, he has graded bar exams, worked on celebrity divorces, and some other random stuff that I have to generalize about.

My SIL wrote a book about a common networking site.

My cousin was a professional ballerina for some major ballet company (I can't remember, I was little!) in the '80s.

 

[sunkist]

Oo, what a neat thread SomethingShiny! I love seeing everyone elses responses.

For me, Dwight D. Eisenhower is my great great uncle, or cousin, I can't remember. And I'm related to Pocahontas through marriage.

 

[cbs102]

We had a historian work with my uncle and did our family history... and i am pretty sure that there is a book somewhere. We are related to Miles Standish (the captain of the May Flower),Resolved White (the first baby born on the Mayflower) and Rebecca Nurse (the condemned witch from the crucible...)_

 

[got2goldens]

One of my ancestors was President of Mexico in the 40''s, and my Dad looks like Erik Estrada.

Kat

 

[Lynnie]

Awesome thread!

My uncle is in the army, he specializes in computer forensics and wrote 3 or 4 books on computer security.

Funny story... my brother and I have a pretty unusual last name (only 57 people in the Social security death index with our last name). Anyway, he gets this facebook message last week from a guy in the mid-west who has the same exact (first & last) name as him. The guy is trying to figure out if we''re all related, as his family is small, and so is ours. Turns out the guy is a millionaire! What does he do? He owns a sex empire!! Adult toys, games, lotions, you name it! LOL

Other than that, I can''t think of much. My great-great-great g-pop (I think) helped build the B & O Railroad. FI''s g-pop helped build the Lehigh Tunnel (a tunnel that goes through a mountain on I-78 in Pennsylvania).

That''s pretty cool that some of you guys have traced your families back so far... my mom does this as a hobby, and I think she''s traced back to the early 1800''s. Apparantly our roots trace to the south, and some of the people''s names are crazy!

 

[Erin]

My parents, being British and Polish, of course decided to give their children Irish names. We moved to my hometown when I was two and two years later I had a sister. We both had very Irish names but an English last name. When my Mother was pregnant with our brother we met another family in this town of 11,000 with two daughters that had the exact same names as us. One of their two brothers had the same name my Mother was going to name her son so she had to come up with a new one a month before he was due.

The girl with the same name as me went to the same school when she was in 4th grade, I was in 1st. When she was in 8th grade I went to that school as a fifth grader. In high school we were both there for a year. Later on my sister had her ''same name'' sister as a teacher, only the teacher had married and had a different last name now.

 

[Libster]

My cousin was one of the top male models in the late 80's/early 90's. His face was everywhere and he was in George Michael's "Freedom" video and Madonna's "Justify My Love" video...the one banned from MTV

 

[Clio]

Like many others, I have a few Mayflower ancestors (though some of my Virginia ancestors came even earlier). I have blood ties to several presidents, but they''re all very, very, very distant.

One of my ancestors was a (very minor) Civil War general. Confederate, natch. Another ancestor built a somewhat famous house that is now a museum. My mother has some of the furniture he bought for the house. He didn''t get to enjoy the place long, though; he died less than a year after it was finished.

She doesn''t really count as being in my family, but my cousins'' aunt on their dad''s side is a very successful advertising executive whose career is often studied in business schools. She''s a really nice person, too.

 

[gwendolyn]

In my ancestry on mom''s side, there are French pirates.