Found Anyone Famous

[XPhile2868]

My favourite is my Great x24 Grandfather: William Marshal, reputedly the greatest knight that ever lived, who rose from obscurity to serve four kings and become one of the most powerful men in Europe, tournament legend, eventually appointed a Regent of England, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and bacame a Knight Templar on his deathbed, and is buried in the Temple Church in London, and clearly was quite a bloke! He had ten children and I am descended (as no doubt are many thousands) from his daughter Eva who married William de Braose, through my maternal great Grandmother's line.
Paul

I'm also a direct descendant of William, via his daughter Isabel - he's my 27x great grandfather. William has quite a lot of well-known descendants - Lord Byron is his 19x great grandson, the current US President Barack Obama is his 27th great grandson, Jane Austen is his 18th great granddaughter and Abraham Lincoln is his 20th great grandson. My link to him is via the Willis family on my dad's side of the family (my dad's mum's mum's mum's family), who seem to have a lot of links to famous people and the nobility, although my recent Willis ancestors were working-class.

I wish I knew as much about another William Marshall, though - the one who is my 5x great grandfather and was a school teacher in Leyland.

Stephen

[JillJ]

Hi Stephen,

That makes you a 'cousin' of mine too!  I'm actually related to William through three of his daughters, Eva, Isabel & Sybil.

Jill

[XPhile2868]

Hi Stephen,

That makes you a 'cousin' of mine too!  I'm actually related to William through three of his daughters, Eva, Isabel & Sybil.

Jill

According to this site - http://www.searchforancestors.com/utility/cousincalculator.html, we're 26th cousins 2 times removed.

I haven't found all of William's children's children yet, so I only know of the one related branch.

Stephen

[XPhile2868]

Yes it is great, even though I tend to read with a notebook alongside me!  When you find famous ancestors like these you also discover a mountain of books!  Alison Weir's 'Isabella', Ian Mortimer's 'Edward III', Alison Weir's 'Kathryn' are other recent reads of mine and I'm related to all of them!

My apologies too for the thread hijack but it isn't every day you meet a new cousin!

Jill

I actually have the book Katherine, by Anya Seton, which is about Katherine de Roet - my 22nd great grandmother. I descend from her and John of Gaunt via John Beaufort, whose daughter Joan married King James I of Scotland - the line goes into one of my Houghton branches and eventually into the Willis family. I think Katherine and John probably have hundreds of thousands of descendants all over the world by now.

Stephen

[JillJ]

Hi Stephen,

I think it is a well known fact that Edward III was 'father of the nation' - just about everybody is descended from him if they could just prove it!

I've read Anya Seton's book too, although that is a novel based on fact whereas Alison Weir's book is a biography, but they are both extremely interesting, especially to me because I live just down the road from Kathryn's home, Kettlethorpe Hall so I have the local as well as the family interest.

Paul and I have exchanged p.m.'s - he has a lot of information on William's children.

I'm going away for a couple of days now so forgive me if I don't respond to any further messages on the subject for a few days.

Jill

[XPhile2868]

Hi Stephen,

I think it is a well known fact that Edward III was 'father of the nation' - just about everybody is descended from him if they could just prove it!

I've read Anya Seton's book too, although that is a novel based on fact whereas Alison Weir's book is a biography, but they are both extremely interesting, especially to me because I live just down the road from Kathryn's home, Kettlethorpe Hall so I have the local as well as the family interest.

Paul and I have exchanged p.m.'s - he has a lot of information on William's children.

I'm going away for a couple of days now so forgive me if I don't respond to any further messages on the subject for a few days.

Jill

It's an interesting book.

I've just realised that I have his daughter Maud as a direct ancestor as well, I just haven't connected her to her parents in the family tree.  I had a Matilda as his daughter, who is the same person as Maud, though.

Stephen

[Annie65115]

If the above is true then I guess I must be related to all of you as well



OTOH my ancestors/relatives (Diana Spencer excepted  ) don't have well known names, but include:

2 mayors of Leicester
a Victorian Whig MP
the honorary treasurer for the London branch of the suffragettes
a brigadier in charge of troops in E Africa in WW2

and hordes and hordes of people who fought the odds and survived to reproduce no matter what poverty threw at them.

[pteverett001]

Yeah but they are not so interesting hahahaha! only kidding 

[Annie65115]

No, and I know this is about famous people, but the lives of our not-famous ancestors are endlessly interesting, aren't they!