Do you have any famous, or potentially famous family members?
My niece posted this today. She gave me permission to repost it here. She’s an aspiring model. Ima thinkin’ she just might make it pretty big, if not all the way to the top.
Rick says, “She looks like Pocahontas.”
I said, “I know. And what’s funny is she doesn’t have any American Indian in her. You have more Indian in your bloodline than she does!” He does too, because he has a great grandmother who was Native American.
My first cousin in Seattle won 90 million dollars on a powerball ticket a year ago. She only got to keep 57 million of it, though. Sniff. The first thing she did was buy a boring car. But now it’s sunk in a bit, and they’re building a new house. The other day she offered to buy plane tickets for me and my husband when the house is done so we can see it. I am REALLY excited about going. Not just to see the house, but for Rick to see Washington State. He will swoon. And the fishing…..we might not come back~
Any famous peeps in your family?
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My niece just became a staff writer for Huffington Post and my nephew is a Nike Fitness model and has been on the cover of Men’s Fitness in the Middle East.
There are some very successful online gossip columnists (they prefer to be called “entertainment journalists”) who are well-known among people who follow such things. Personally, I couldn’t care less about celebrities and their lives, but many people do care. My brother-in-law is among the more famous and accomplished of those online writers.
His late grandmother thought he’d accomplished nothing and was very critical. She wanted him to become a “real” journalist and write about significant topics, not someone who reports that Madonna’s a jerk or that Lindsey Lohan’s back in rehab.
Oh yeah @Judi! You shared some of her work with us. Thank you!
My grandmother’s neice is an Oscar winner for make-up and is now a judge on the TV show Face Off.
Stunning girl your niece!
Isn’t she, though. Gosh, she posted one picture where she looked like she was 25, and she was only 16. I don’t like it at all! I’ll have to find that pic.
A great great great uncle. CSA General Albert Sydney Johnston.
My great aunt was a world renowned author and illustrator. My dad invented the machines that carry beer bottles around in factories pretty awesome in my mind anyway I have a sister who has performed with some BIG names in music. I did some engineering work that is being referenced in several trade journals.
We all have connections like this.
@Dutchess_III is your niece single by chance? :)
My little sister was women’s world windsurfing champion for five years in the 1980’s and made LIFE magazine. I am distantly related, on my maternal side, to Varina Howell Davis, the first lady of the Confederacy. My big brother got to say “Hi Mom” on NBC National News in a report during his second tour as a medic in Viet Nam, Christmas, 1969. My maternal grandfather, a fairly non-religious rancher and farmer from Texas, wrote a hymn that they still sing in the Baptist churches in the South.
My wife’s second cousin was Marilyn Monroe.
For me, about 4 generations back is a cousin named Robert Ford, who killed Jesse James. The dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard and laid poor Jesse in his grave.
Gailcalled’s grandfather invented the mechanism still used today that opens all umbrellas and the family still holds the patent.
I have very wealthy people in my family but none that are famous. I am far from poor, but in my family I am the poor one.
I am directly related to one of our living Presidents. I have an uncle and a cousin who are scholarly authors, and very renowned in their respective fields.
My (still living) uncle was one of the helicopter pilots who flew the attempted rescue of American hostages in Iran in 1980.
Angie Johnson is another aunt and uncle’s niece. She appeared on The Voice and is a touring performer.
Another uncle is editor-in-chief of the IEEE’s nuclear science journal.
The “near electrocution” referred to in this story refers to an event that happened one day in the mid-80s when my sister let go of the kite we were flying. We tracked it down to Broussard’s backyard, which was in our neighborhood. After we knocked on the door, Broussard took us to his backyard, climbed up the aluminum ladder for his pool slide, and used his aluminum-handled pool skimmer to attempt to knock our kite free of the power lines.
My nephew was a POW in Iraq, and he got quite a bit of media attention. He was a helicopter pilot, shot down and taken prisoner. He was held for about 3 weeks before a safe rescue. Since then, he’s been on a reality TV show and worked for the White House.
I dated this guy for a little while when I was 16.
A nerdy cousin who was annoying in our youth has grown into a caring, lovable member of the family. Despite his busy schedule, he has been able to work in annual family gatherings. He doesn’t talk about his work unless asked. Even then, he keeps it top-line and in layman’s terms as it is all is over our heads.
I once asked him exactly what he does. He explained, “I travel around the world to meet with IT companies to find out what their needs are 5–10 years down the road. Then I go back to my engineering team and we design it.”
He now has over 150 US patents with his name on it. For anyone who owns some version of cell phone, it probably runs on a creation he and his team invented. Maybe other things as well. It is still all over my head. I just continue to appreciate him for his devotion to the family.
The first woman elected to the United States Congress.
@Darth_Algar
Jeannette Rankin?
If you don’t mind me asking, what relation was she to you?
Yup. My understanding is that she was a somewhat distant cousin of my great-grandfather. My grandfather explained it to me once, but that’s been a long time ago, so I’ve forgotten the details.
My mom claims Allan Sherman as a distant cousin, but I haven’t asked her about this since I was a kid and didn’t even remember it until just now…so this must be verified. Will update.
So, it is apparently true: my second cousin’s wife’s second cousin is Allan Sherman. Sweet.
Oh God. Second cousin means…what? I get so confused! Second, third cousin once removed and all that…
Second cousins means that the closest ancestor between two people a great-grandparents.
Oh. Thanks. Now I have a headache.
Daniel Boone is my great great great something uncle. I’m also related to Jesse Chisholm.
…Read too fast. I thought the last part said, “I’m also related to Jesus Christ.”..... Double take!
Scarlet Rivera, my second cousin, played violin on Dylan’s “Hurricane”.
My brother the drummer toured with Olivia Newton-John in the 70’s, Dwight Twilley in the 80’s, Walter Trout in the 90’s, Erin Burdon in the 2000’s. He now has production studios in L.A. and Chicago.
posting from my phone, links later.
I have a grandfather who was a professional boxer.
Did he did in an outhouse?
Recently my sister and her husband got deep into geneology and traced my fathers side all the way back to Mary Morrell Folger, A.K.A. Benjamin Franklin’s Grandmother. That illustrator I mentioned above that I had been told we were related to… did not show up in the tree at all so someone made up that link years ago.
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