Have you ever been jealous when some friend or acquaintance bragged to you about all the famous and/or noble people he had found hanging from his family tree (so to speak)? No need. Odds are, you too have a notable ancestor hiding among the foliage of your family tree! After all, if it could be true for Brooke Shields, it could be true for anyone.
"Actress Brooke Shields has a pretty impressive pedigree — hanging from her family tree are Catherine de Medici and Lucrezia Borgia, Charlemagne and El Cid, William the Conqueror and King Harold II, vanquished by William at the Battle of Hastings.
"Shields also descends from five popes, a whole mess of early New England settlers, and the royal houses of virtually every European country. She counts Renaissance pundit Niccolo Machiavelli and conquistador Hernando Cortes as ancestors.
What is it about Brooke Shields? Well, nothing special — at least genealogically.
"Even without a documented connection to a notable forebear, experts say, the odds are virtually 100 percent that every person on Earth is descended from one royal personage or another."
(Nod to E-Skojec.com for the link.)
How cool! This, I think, calls for My First Meme:
1. Which famous person would you most like to learn that you are descended from? Pope John Paul II (collaterally, of course). Hey, if Brooke Shields can be descended from five popes, then I can have one of the greatest among them as an indirect ancestor.
2. Which famous person would you hate to learn that you are descended from? Brigham Young. Although with some fifty wives and over fifty known children (source), he’s likely to have a multitude of direct and collateral descendants here in the U.S.
3. If you could be ancestor to any living famous person, who would it be and why? Dan Brown. It would give me the chance to make sure there was some decent Christian catechesis in the family that might have molded him into not writing The Da Vinci Code (or, failing that, at least not writing it as it ended up being written).
4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be? Direct and collateral ancestors who fought on both sides of the American Civil War. The old adage that that war tore apart families is quite literally true.
5. Tag five others: My sister, Jimmy, Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B., the Curt Jester, Ten Reasons, and anyone else who wants to play on their own blogs or in the combox.
My generally red-haired family in Northern Italy, named Columbo, claims to be to be related to Christopher Columbus (the more Latin form of Columbo). As for proof, I have none, but I think it would be cool, nonetheless. But on the off-chance it is true (and even if it’s not), I take care to say a prayer or two for the esteemed gentleman on his holiday here, despite Native American protests of the celebration.
–Ann
1. Which famous person would you most like to learn you’re descended from? St. Thomas More
2. Which famous person would you hate to learn you’re descended from? Judas Iscariot
3. If you could be ancestor to any famoous living person, who would it be? Pope Benedict XVI
4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be? My grandfather
1. Which famous person would you most like to learn you’re descended from? JC. Hey since it’s public now about him and Mary Magdalene and if you’re dreaming of having a royal bloodline might as well have The Royal Bloodline.
2. Which famous person would you hate to learn you’re descended from? Adolf Hitler
3. If you could be ancestor to any famoous living person, who would it be? I would say tat Pope Benedict XVI would be a good answer, besides then we could say our Pope was descended from our redeemer. See #1 above.
4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be? My ancestors who came over the seas on the boats.
Ouch!
¡Mañana!
In other words, “I’ll get to it.”
The famousest person I know I’m related to is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
My family is all from Utah on my Dad’s side(and Mormon) I’m not Mormon. This means I COULD be related to Joseph Smith or Brigham Young?!?
I better check this out!!
Wait!
I’ve just reread this post.
Did you invent this meme, Jimmy?
Fr. Stephanos, I created the meme.
I have always thought it’d be cool to be related to Cortez. Or Wong Fei-Hung.
Which famous person would you most like to learn that you are descended from?
Leonardo Da Vinci. That way, I could refute Dan Brown with a little authority.
Which famous person would you hate to learn that you are descended from?
Stalin.
If you could be ancestor to any living famous person, who would it be and why?
George Bush. As his ancestor, I would’ve passed on the Catholic Faith to him.
If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be?
My Irish ancestors. I believe they were the first in my family tree to convert to the Catholic Faith. I’d like to thank them.
then I can have one of the greatest among them as an indirect ancestor.
Groan.
Which famous person would you most like to learn that you are descended from?
St. Olaf Haraldsson, king and patron saint of Norway for ever.
Which famous person would you hate to learn that you are descended from?
Adof Hitler. It is impossible since I trace all family lines beyond his birth, but my grandfather was Bavarian so it is possible there is a family connection. Also possible with B16 and that would be much better.
If you could be ancestor to any living famous person, who would it be and why?
I have to go with Pope Benedict too.
If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be?
Some of these are not 100% certain, but here it goes.
Sir Edrik de Stodlege, Norman knight under King William the Conqueror, fought in the battle of Hastings, recieved land in Somerset, England where there is still a Stoodley castle, Stoodley forest, Stoodley abbey (now a hotel of something) etc.
Another Stoodley (likely and uncle or something not a direct ancestor) who was exhiled from England for participation in the Monmouth rebellion to Barbados where he apparently became the ancestory of all the black Stoodleys there. I’d like some armed protection from him though in case he wants to kill be for being a papist.
A Dutch sailor by with the last name Galabrant who was kicked off Henry Hudson’s ship in the Hudson valley for plotting mutiny and married a Lenape (Delaware) woman, becoming the ancestor of my maternal grandmother’s family.
That Lenape woman, who an uncredible legend calls Rebecca Lightfoot.
My great-great Grandparents who were Russian Jews who fled the Pogroms to England.
My great-great grandfather who was an apostate Menonite, and his parents.
My great-great grandmother, an Irish Catholic who married this man who was still a puritanical protestant, and her parents who immigrated from Ireland.
My banjo-playing body-building artist English great-grandfather who married an Jew.
My ultraconservative Norwegian fisherman great-grandfather who married a premeturely white-haired, 20 year old crazy half-Irish nominally Catholic flapper from Brooklyn who bosted all her life of having visited every speakeasy in Manhattan at least once.
Their wives, my great-grandmothers. I knew both of them before they died but I would liked to have met them when they were young, especially the flapper one.
My great-grandfather on the Galabrant side who everyone sings the praises of.
And I almost forgot, if they existed, the Gypsy ancestors that my great-grandfather Stoodley told my grandfather and father we had though we havn’t been able to figure out how.
I forgot, also the ancient Irish King who supposedly my Irish line is descended from.
And Charlemagne, who my great-Aunt insists we are descended from, via a French side of the family.
Also my ancestors who fought on both sides of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Everybody has:
2 parents (1 gen, ca. 25 years back)
4 grandparents (2 gen, ca. 50 years back)
8 great-grandparents (3 gen, ca. 75 years back)
16 2nd great-grandparents (4 gen, ca. 100 years back)
32 3rd great-grandparents (5 gen, ca. 125 years back)
or, to be mathematical about it,
if you go back N generations, or about N*25 years,
you have 2 to the N power (N-5) great grandparents,
and a total of 2 to the (N+1) minus 2 direct ancestors.
If you go back to 800, when Charlemagne was around,
roughly 1200 years, or 48 generations,
you would have 560 trillion direct ancestors,
if people did not marry distant cousins,
(and sometimes not so distant),
as is necessarily the case.
Given that the population of all of Europe in AD 600
was just about 6 million,
it is probable that anybody alive today,
of European ancestry, is related to just about
everybody alive in Europe in AD 800,
in some way or another.
It is also the case that descendants of leaders
are more likely to be documented than
descendants of the poor fellow cleaning out the stables.
But anyone alive today of European descent has
an equal probability of being related to both
kings and slaves in 8th century Europe.
It is just that you will not have the latter
relationship documented.
On the plus side, Bl. Brother Andre Bessette is my gr-gr-gr-gr uncle, and St. Marguerite D’Youville also appears on my family tree. I wish I could could go back in time to meet both of them.
On the minus side, Jimmy Carter also appears on my tree. He ranks right up there among those to whom I would least like to find a relation.
I would love to discover St. Francis de Sales and William Wallace as ancestors.
“If you go back to 800, when Charlemagne was around,
roughly 1200 years, or 48 generations,
you would have 560 trillion direct ancestors . . . ”
Am I missing something here? There have been no more than 110 billion living on the earth since the beginning of time.
Off-topic comment removed for a second time by the editor. The anonymous commenter is warned not to re-post it again. –MLA
Zach,
Nobody has a “full tree” of distinct ancestors.
For example, if Jack and Jill have a common pair of 3rd great grandparents, making them 4th cousins,
nobody would mind if they married.
Their children would have much less than a “full tree”
of distinct ancestors.
Marriage among cousins of varying degrees, with common ancestors say, 4 or 5 generations back, is not uncommon, and results in much smaller counts of direct ancestors.
The most famous guy in our family tree is Adam.
Ed Peters, you reminded me, due to my Jewish ancestry, I’ll add Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah.
Hmm, only quasi-famous person we’ve been close to being able to connect ourselves to (think we’re missing one link as proof) is (tell me how depressing THIS is) Oliver Cromwell’s personal secretary. Of course, it did make for an interesting analogy, since when we found that out I also was the assistant to a crazed workaholic with a bad hairstyle (although hers resembled The Heatmiser more than a Roundhead)…
Is Adam more famous than Noah?
bro cadf: Ouch!