Are you related to historical figures?

[KS1800R]

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?

 

[bushmaster1313]

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

 

[2hawk]

Mom's side of the family:

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

 

[loutent]

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

 

[Snapping Twig]

Hannibal of Carthage.

No kidding.

 

[arjay]

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.

 

[bushmaster1313]

My wife traced her ancestry back to John & Priscilla (1600's)

Famous Pop Music singing duet from the 60's

 

[Ogandydancer]

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.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Adam and Eve.

 

[Taurus627]

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

 

[gregintenn]

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

 

[meaneyedcatz]

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.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

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.

 

[Peak53]

Remember the Alamo

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.

 

[rwsmith]

More like an INFAMOUS figure

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.

 

[boatme99]

Hannibal of Carthage.

No kidding.

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.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

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.

 

[walnutred]

Hannibal of Carthage.

No kidding.

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

 

[walnutred]

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.

 

[Wyatt p. Tato]

William Tecumseh Sherman.