Found Anyone Famous

[Berlin-Bob]

Stick your tongue firmly in your left cheek and take a large pinch of salt.

Well, if we are including them, then I will repeat my "claim to fame"  (as posted in "are you related to royalty")

The legend is, that our family is descended from the Habsburgs, and from  King David (the biblical one !)

and NO !, I am not going to try and prove it  There are already mountains of literature on this subject.

If you don't know the story already, it's all here:
The Royal (Habsburg) Connection
Habsburg, Shmabsburg !   King David Rules, OK !


On the more mundane sides of the family, I am still struggling to get earlier then 1800 !!

Bob

[Jean McGurn]

I found an island sitting in the McKenzie River which is called McGERN ISLAND. When you say McGurn out loud it sounds like McGern so naturally tried to find out more about this island. 

All I could find was that there used to be a man named McGern connected with the island and presumably this is why the island is so called. 

Maybe some of our Canadian Rootschatters will know? I am very intrigued and as most McGurn's in the 19th C are connected to my line it would be nice to be able to say there is some land named after the family - even if it is spelt differently. 

Jean

[linmey]

I havnt found anyone yet in my tree who has any claims to fame, just lots of agricultural labourers and shepherds. My friend tried to cheer me up the other day by saying that I should be comforted by the fact that at least none of my forebears had exploited anyone.(only sheep).
    Linmey.

[stuizzy]

I'm not sure whether my ancestor is counted as famous, unless maybe you're from Stockton-on-Tees. My granny always used to brag about her grandfather, Joseph Dodds, who was the first MP for Stockton, as well as being Mayor there at one time. His name crops up all over the place as being on this board and that organization.

However, I discovered that he had to take the appointment of Steward of the Manor of Northstead and resign as an MP in 1888. He had been caught embezzling money from a lady who had given it to him for safekeeping!! That was a part of the story that Granny never told.

I guess politicians never change!!

Isobel

[ger_g]

Fellow Aussies will get more out of this than most, I fear... someone on my dad's side reportedly found a link to Kerry Packer (very rich but not the most appealing guy). Needless to say the 'ching ching gene' has not passed onto my little twig of the family tree LOL
Ger

[MarieC]

Ger,

As a long lost cousin, you couldn't work out some way of appealing to Kerry's family values (if they exist) and getting him to donate some of his largesse to you as a good cause? 

I'm sure he wouldn't miss a hundred thou or two!!  

Another Aussie,

MarieC

[PrueM]

Fellow Aussies, how could I forget my g-g-grandfather John Haynes?  Born 1850, he was the co-founder, along with Mr Archibald (he of Archibald Prize fame) of "The Bulletin" newspaper (now a magazine).  Granted, they were thrown in jail in 1882 for not paying court costs associated with a libel case brought against them, and he went bankrupt within a year or two and the Bulletin was sold on!! John went on to run another paper with his son in the late 1890s-early 1900s and was a long-serving and very prominent MLA in NSW for a total of 30-something years.  He seems to have been quite a rabble-rouser and famously almost single-handedly pressured the government to order an enquiry into some dodgy land deals in Sydney involving prominent local personalities.  He even made it into the Cyril Pearl book "Wild Men of Sydney"!  Must have been his Irish blood.

Here's JF Archibald (L) and John Haynes (R) while they were in Darlinghurst Jail!  Looks quite cushy. 

Prue

(picture courtesy of National Library of Australia)

[lizdb]

No-one has probably ever heard of her - but I was excited when I found it!

A will of an ancestor mentioned her daughter, 'Ellen Edmonds, but known as Nellie Elizabeth Hepburn in her profession as painters of miniatures'

I went to the library and ordered a book on painters of miniatures - and sure enough Nellie Elizabeth Hepburn was mentioned, and also the fact that she had a miniature painting in the V & A museum!!! I wrote to them, they were very helpful, though the picture was being moved into storage for some time during refurbishment work.

It made a nice change for a never ending line of Ag Labs! (that branch of the family actually managed to move up in world!)

But a lesson to all rootschatters - don't leave a stone unturned, you never know when you may find something interesting.

[kat2004]

What a great picture Prue! I think were all familiar with exaggerated tales of family heroics passed down as gospel! I love it! But why would my Forrests claim to be descendents of a murderer? its not something to brag about really! My New Years resolution for 2006 will be to prove or disprove this!