Famous ancestors
 

I'm doing my daughter in law's tree and have just added the Bronte sisters! Her 4x gt grandmother Charlotte Branwell was their aunt and I think it quite likely that Charlotte Bronte was named after her.

I have lots of famous names in my tree but sadly they're not the people that are famous:d but it has got me wondering how many of us are distantly related to someone of repute?

Mine are largely village Hampdens, guiltless of their country's blood.
Sorting through a mountain of paper cuttings, there are so many obituaries of people who meant something to my deceased friend, while I have heard of very few.
With a few exceptions, my ancestors were artisans and ag labs, only getting into the papers for misdemeanours. I have to go back to the Tudor period to find anyone remotely famous: would you count Sir Walter Raleigh's Aunty Joan?:)

No-one even remotely famous in any of my trees.

I have a Henry Moore who was a shoemaker, not a sculptor. A Diana Spencer who definitely wasn't the Princess of Wales 200 years ago. And whilst not famous in real life I have an Elizabeth Bennett and a Wickham who is sadly not George but William. I'm still waiting for Darcy....!

Okay, so I have a William Brown who was never introduced to a school cap.:d

Related by marriage to one of Shakespeare's daughters, and on another line related to George Eliot.

Mary Fitton (Shakespeare's Dark Lady?) was the sister of my 15 x great grandfather William Fitton. I think.

OC

I have Edward Jenner in my tree, but only because his great-niece (?) married one of my relatives.

For those who remember Horniman's Tea, my 4xg-aunt married the founder who became, by far, the richest person on my tree.

As for the people I was told I was related to - John James Sainsbury, Cyrus Clark (shoes) and Bombardier Billy Wells (J Arthur Rank) - nope, none of those!!

Well, Jane Seymour (Mrs Henry 8th) fell off my tree when I discovered my father was named after a Manchester grocer rather than Jane. And Alexander Graham Bell fell off it too, when I hit a brick wall with my illegitimate Thomas Bell.

My ancestors seem often to have been friends with someone famous in their lifetime but immediately forgotten once they were dead. My grandfather was at school with and in the trenches with a man who came home from WW1 and committed a motiveless murder. Infamous for a few months but completely forgotten now, so thoroughly that I can't remember his name and have to look it up.

OC

The only famous ancestor I have so far is the Reverend John Williams, who, after the Glorious Revolution, became personal chaplain to William and Mary. He was a Boyle lecturer and his sermons were published. In 1696 he was appointed Bishop of Chichester, which position he held until his death in 1709.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...432?pId=109291

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview..._2419?pId=2239

John William is my 8x-great-grandfather.