Thought this might be an interesting thread here. I'm all about history and am easily intrigued by everything about it. Anyway, I thought I'd see where this thread goes.

Being a gun forum, I thought it'd be interesting to note that I'm actually a descendant of a wild west figure. Unfortunately, it's on the part of the criminal element; which thankfully, I inherited none of such mindset! Lol...That of whom is John Wesley Hardin. I'm related to him on my mother's side, which is all Hardin. I have always wanted to find an old Colt Lightning just for the historical connection (Colt Lightning was one of his preferred pistols). Unfortunately I can also attest to my draw being nowhere near his reputed quick draw!

Anybody else have interesting relations on down the line in their own right?

Yes.
All of my ancestors were born before I was.

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Mom's side of the family:

Richard Stockton (Continental Congressman) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

My wife traced her ancestry back to John & Priscilla (1600's) - my peeps came over from Italy & Poland in the late 1800's & early 1900's so it's pretty difficult to find more before that

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Lou

Hannibal of Carthage.

No kidding.

Mine have been traced back to the 1830s on both sides,just regular people.There was an older 1/2 brother of my father's that is a bit of a mystery though,died as a young man,never talked about.Took me several days to remember his first name and weeks to come up with a last name.So far Ive come up with nothing on him.

Famous Pop Music singing duet from the 60's

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On my Dads mothers side of the family Andy Griffith. My ancestry can be traced back to three brothers who settled in the Patrick Co Va/Stokes Co NC area in the early 1700's.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

Adam and Eve.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

My mothers maiden name is Dewey as in the Dewey decimal system used in libraries. Also, had a relative, Thomas Dewey, run for potus, he lost to Truman.

Dewey Decimal Classification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas E. Dewey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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NRA Life member

I'm a direct descendant of John and John Quincey Adams.

My brother traced our mothers side back the 1400 or 1500's France. Nothing but regular people.

Oh well, better than a passel of scallywags.

My long gone paternal grandmother said she was related to Martin Van Buren, my mother thought she was a great-neice or something like that.
I started doing a little family history research lately, found a website for those of us with German ancestry, I was able to find some information on my paternal grandfather-gone long before I was born-on a website which referenced a WPA project in the 1930s to identify veterans graves.
I knew his first name, my mother said he had been a Marine, sure enough, there he was. And finally learned my paternal grandmother's first name.

William John Lightfoot, Corporal, of Kentucky,died March 6, 1836 at age 31, having lived in Texas since 1830. The Lightfoots didn't make it back to San Antonio until my grandfather came from Kentucky in about 1911. At that time he interviewed "survivors" of the Battle of the Alamo, apparently children of Mexican women attached to the garrison. Unfortunately, those recorded notes were lost sometime after my sister saw them in the 1960s.

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

Lydia Smith Stone Crews, known as the 'Queen of the Okefenokee Swamp' was a rough, tough gal who got rich selling timber to the railroads for ties. If the men she hired couldn't handle getting the timber out of the swamp, Lydia would show them how it was done. Everybody knew not to mess with Lydia. Later in life she married a 25 year old guy she called "Baby Doll". Well, Baby Doll ended up in jail so she went and paid off the sheriff to let him out. The first thing she did was to make her first stop at the bank to cancel the check she wrote the sheriff. I've got a book on her life.

PS She lived her later life quietly and donated the land that became the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Well, I lived in Carthage, Tennessee and knew some of the Hannibals.
They lived so far back up the hollow, they had to pump sunshine in, just so they could pump moonshine out.
They went to family reunions to find dates.
They gave their sisters Mothers Day presents.
They could trace their family tree to a broomstick.
There was no filter in their gene pool.
In a county with a population of 35,000 there are 4 last names.
And everybody swears they're not related.

Seriously, that's pretty cool.

On my mother's side, I share a (great+) grandfather with Neil Armstong - first man to walk on the moon.

On my father's side, I'm related to Stephen Hopkins who came over on the Mayflower in 1620 and was a signatory of the Mayflower Compact. The only passenger on that ship who had been to the New World previously.

Other than that, a whole bunch of dirt farmers from Denmark and Germany.

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

That's interesting. I enjoyed Silence of the Lambs but thought it was fiction. ;-D

Helen Keller was my paternal grandmothers cousin and one of my moms cousins won the Heisman Trophy back in the late 50s. Not to speak ill of the dead but a lot of my family didn't think much of Helen Keller when she was alive. Ms Keller was an admitted Socialist when Socialism was not as popular as it is today.

William Tecumseh Sherman.

Edward Gove, the fomenter of Gove's Rebellion in 1683... He spent 3 years in the Tower of London for high treason after getting drunk and riding into Exeter where he recruited a dozen men to the cause of overthrowing the royal governor of New Hampshire.

Hey, we're related!!!!

My great grandmother played the grand piano in a marching band.
Great grandfather didn't mess with her much.
olcop

My wife's uncle was involved in inventing the Milwaukee Brace for scoliosis patients.
My cousin's grandson is the center on the Dallas Cowboys.
Go Cowboys

Yes... Thomas Edison

My wife has done a tremendous about of genealogy work on my family line and traced back my Dutch heritage to 1670 in New York. I had a "many great" grandfather whose first name was Ida with my last name.

The Dutch system of naming often would name the first born male after the father in the fashion of "Bob's Son"... in this case it was "Ida Son" which became Idason and then later Edison. There was a pretty good "paper trail" that shows this.

She had me do the DNA match with the Edison family and it confirms the connection as well.

Now she wants to know why I didn't invent anything to make us rich.

Wow this is a good thread! I was surprised to see so many replies in such quick fashion!

My heritage was traced back ultimately to Scotland and France. And no, I'm not sporting the kilt....lol.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, Tecumseh is an Indian name is it not?

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

Yes. I believe he made lawnmower engines.

http://www.tecumsehpower.com/

My mother’s side of the family has been traced back as far as the early 1700s by my cousin (England)

Only about 20 years back I found out that many of the family took off to Canada during the revolution. They left from the Schoharie Valley area of upstate NY and snuck back after all the nastiness were over.

Long before that I knew that one of my long dead ancestors (General Thomas Gage) was a well know Brit General that got his butt kicked quite well during the revolution.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

My wifes' family is DAR/SAR and have a long line of upstanding citizens.

Several generations back, uncle Willy was a WW2 ace. He got 3 Spitfires, 2 Hurricanes, a Beaufort bomber and several others. We don't mention him often.

My paternal grandmother was a Busch (Bush and Busch are the same families long ago==one was Catholic and one was Protestant) and an Anhauser. Distantly related to George Bush (my grandma's spelling). Family goes back to defenders of Martin Luther in Austria.

Maternal grandmother is a Brady and a Kelly: Irish/Cherokee and Irish/Chickasaw. Kelly is the largest family/clan in Ireland and Brady is one of the five High Clans (We have our own Bean sidh (Pronounced "van-shee")). Related to Matthew Brady the photographer. According to Frank James, there were two Bradys who rode with Quantrill during the Border Wars (at least one was captured and hung). Numerous Kellys served under Stand Watie, the Cherokee General and who was the last Confederate general to surrender. Also, one great aunt, Almira, emigrated from Australia and was related to Ned Kelly, the Australian outlaw.

John W. "Bet a Million" Gates. Barbed wire, steel mills, railroads, Port Arthur, Texas and the reason the anti trust laws were written. A robber baron of the first water.
Notable People - John W. Gates

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Halfway and one more step

I'm related to the Jesse and Frank James.

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Soli Deo Gloria

I'm a direct descendant Of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. I may be a poet, but I just don't know it.

My maternal Great Grandmother was related ( first cousins) to both Frank and Jesse James as well as Bob Ford the killer of Jesse James. She was a James that married a Ford. My oldest Brother is into genealogy and has the roots traced back into the 1600s. It makes for some very interesting reading.

I might be related to the royal family of Monaco.
My wife is related to the Ingalls


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Am related to anyone with the same last name. Fore fathers were organ makers in England, them real big whole end of the church organs that ended up in several countries. A county in Texas also carries the family name.

I can't talk about most of my ancestors--it is impolite and dangerous.
However; I have traced the Close's back to about 1620 in the US of A .
Somewhere along the line I have a touch of sub-Saharan genes.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

The public ceremony in which my distinguished ancestor participated and at which the platform collapsed under him turned out to be a hanging.

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A gun has no brain.. use yours

King Robert the Bruce of Scotland by marriage. Does that count?

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Inconsistently consistent

Guiseppe Garibaldi, on my maternal grandmother's side.

Some info from Britannica online:

Giuseppe Garibaldi | biography - Italian revolutionary | Encyclopedia Britannica

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I'm with the banned ...

I look a lot like Buddha: Short, fat, and balding...

I had a grandfather with almost no formal education that came west in a wagon pulled by mules, and settled on 20 acres. He raised 8 children, was never in debt even through the Great Depression. His house was 2 bedrooms with 3 fireplaces. All 8 children grew up to be honest hard working adults that raised families. Everyone of his 30 grandchildren graduated from college, and several had advanced degrees. Not a single criminal or drug addict in the bunch. I doubt he ever had more than a hundred dollars in cash in his life.

So I consider him to be about as historical as it gets for this country. He did it all with hard work. He had no welfare, no food stamps, no minority rights, and no insurance. You will never see his name in any history books, but if you want to know what America could and should have become, you will think of men like him.

My family thinks we are related to John Billington from the Mayflower, my mom is working to confirm this. He was the first settler to be executed in Plymouth in 1630. His son accidently discharged a musket near a open barrel of gunpowder on the Mayflower during the boat ride over here. Things sure would have turned out different if the Mayflower would have blown up.

John Billington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Dr. Joseph Warren, died at Bunker Hill.
John Coulter, was on the Lewis and Clark expedition and discovered Yellowstone.

I'm related to John Howland, indentured servant on the Mayflower and Abraham Lincoln on his mother's side. My wife is related to Myles Standish and the Harrisons as in presidents and the Berkeley Hundred plantation in Virginia. Our kids couldn't understand why mom didn't still own it when we visited there years ago. Come to think of it I don't see how either .
Regards,
turnerriver
Won't mention the forebear who paid a young man to fight in his place during the Civil War...

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turnerriver

Wm Brewster Captain of the Mayflower is an ancestor as is Squire Boone, Dan'l Boones' older brother. I have both Green and Orange Irish and English roots trace through an ancestor who came over from Brittany with William the Conqueror.

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Front sight and squeeze

None that I know of but I have never traced my family roots. I should just for my children's sake.

People have told me that after a bad night I look like Frankenstein.

I have traced my linage back to pre-revolution (1670) and nobody famous has popped up. I did have an infamous shirt-tail relative back in Montana in the 1880's and '90's.
ExecutedToday.com * 1896: Bill Gay, prospector

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

My Great Grand Uncle, John Wesley Hillman discovered Crater Lake in Oregon and scouted for General Custer though he was not at the Little Big Horn. (Fortunate for him!)