Originally Posted By goodgirl My Uncle Joe would probably be it for our family. When he read about the Wright Brothers flight as a young boy he became fascinated with planes and flying. A poor farm boy in Oreogn, at a young age he built his own plane and was ready to fly it. The whole town came out, except for my grandmother who was afraid he was going to die. It flew! When World War II came around, he joined the Air Force and flew many missions in Europe. His plane went down on one occasion. He passed away last year at the age of 92.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad Yes...many many I have several cousins that have served or are serving at the moment in Iraq. Heroes, the whole lot.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo If we're talking about that sort of thing - my Great Great Grandfather's fishing fleet helped rescue people (and the Wells Fargo gold reserve) during the Great Fire and Earthquake in San Francisco. My Great Grandmother was a female airplane mechanic during the 1st World War!
Originally Posted By TiggerPooh1973 Richard Chamberlain. Not sure whether it's 100% true or not, but there were a group of our family (the Chamberlains) that moved out to California. They say he is part of that branch of our family tree. My father and Richard Chamberlain do look alot alike, but who knows. And now you know my maiden name, which I share with another LPer by the way. And this spelling with the lain isn't as common as lin.
Originally Posted By TiggerPooh1973 Oh and in case you were wondering, no relation to Wilt Chamberlain.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Like Labuda and a bunch of other people here, Daniel Boone is a cousin. I've never really paid attention to the exploits of my family. My husband's grandfather is in the Swimming Hall of Fame. He coached 6 Olympic Teams - Hungary, Italy, USA and Mexico. His Grandmoter was an Olympic Coach as well, and his mother swam in the Olympics.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF There's nobody famous or notable in my family that I know of. I share John Wayne's real surname (Marian Morrison), and my dad's side of the family has a history of men having predominantly feminine names. My dad is one of them. So, who knows, I could be related to Mr. Wayne somewhere down the line.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd On my Grandmothers side we are decended from the McGavocks of Tennessee. My Great X5 Uncle and My Great X4 (both named Randall McGavock) uncle were both mayor of Nashville. Great X5 Randall built Carnton Plantation which still can be toured and is owned by the historical society. This is the location of the McGavock Confederate Cemetary and Carrie McGavock was the basis of the recent best-selling book The Widow of the South. Randall McGavock (great uncle x4) was the Col who lead the Rebel Sons of Erin and was killed at the Battle of Raymond in the Vicksberg campeign. Someday I need to travel to Tennessee to visit these sites. The funny thing is that no matter how many other families we inter-marry with, the McGavock traits constantly end up prominent. I look back through generations of photos and many look just like me, just in different period clothing. I look like the twin of my great great grandmother Mabel. It's kind of freaky.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ ^ definitely go to Tennessee and see all these family sites! We have places in Kentucky that are related to our family. I got to visit some of them when I was on a business trip and my parents took a vacation just to see them all.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 << no one that I can think of. I think it's time to actually read the stuff my cousins send me about our family
Originally Posted By ETicket34 Meriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame on my Mothers side. Mac Davis..70's country singer on my Dad's side.
Originally Posted By Ursula Well, there's me! (Don't you know who I am?) Samuel Chase signed the Declaration of Independence. He is our (999haunts & me) something X grandfather or great uncle. I forget which. Also, somewhere along the lines we are related to the Chase Manhattan Bank people. (But do they send cash? NO!)
Originally Posted By bloona Im not sure if you will have heard of him in America, but Big Daddy (real name Shirly Crabtree)the wrestler was my husband's,grandad's cousin.
Originally Posted By MomofPrincess My mom's first cousin, Luther Youngdahl, was a supreme court judge and served two terms as Governor of Minnesota: <a href="http://www.mnhs.org/people/governors/gov/gov_29.htm" target="_blank">http://www.mnhs.org/people/gov ernors/gov/gov_29.htm</a> Also, apparently my husband is the great-great-great-great grandson (or something like that!) of Robert E. Lee. (That's his mom's maiden name -- Lee.)
Originally Posted By alexbook Somewhere back several centuries we are supposedly descended from a Polish nobleman who proclaimed himself king for a brief time. There's no actual evidence of this, of course. In more recent times, we've had several successful lawyers, authors, doctors, and musicians, but nobody really famous.
