Ancestral brushes with the rich or famous

[MarieC]

My ggrandmother Camilla Bentley (nee Denham) was the sister of a Premier of Queensland, Digby Denham.

And my ggrandfather Hall was a Member of the Legislative Council in Queensland, before a Labor government abolished it.  He used to wear a pith helmet, in true colonial style!!!  

MarieC

[chloed]

when charlie chaplin was a little boy living in lambeth with his mother and brother my great grandparents were his neighbors, mrs chaplain was not very well at that time and charlie and his brother would often be given a hot meal at night by them and sent home with tea and bread for his mother

[astral14]

My Grandfather helped George Formby
move house, From Broughton.

My Grandfathers cousin was Belle Chrystall
actress who starred in 'The edge of the World'
directed by Michael Powell.

Jinks

My mother used to mention a Belle Chrystall and say she was related to us... Don't know if that is the case. What was her real name?

[jinks]

Belle Chrystall was her real name

Belle could have been short for Isabel, but it was
Ceratainly her REAL name.

Her Father was Alexander Chrystall and her Mother
was originally a Mercer.
She lived for a time in Fleetwood.
The Mercers lived also in Lancashire near Chipping.

Does this help?

Jinks

[Kezlyn]

My ggg grandfather was a brick maker on a property in Western Victoria, that was owned by an man called Horatio Spencer Wills. Horatio's oldest son Tom, was the man who invented Australian Rules Football, as well as being a fine cricketer and the man who escorted the first Australian cricket team to tour England (an Aboriginal team). The story goes that Tom, as a child at Lexington Station (the property), played a game with the local Aboriginal children and the station staff's children with an inflated pig's bladder, and that was where he got the idea for Aussie Rules.

Anyway, my ggg grandfather, Emanuel Wilde, lived on the station making bricks for the homestead, with his wife and 10 or so children. One of those kids was my gg grandather John Alexander Wilde. He was around the same age as Tom Wills and I like to think he ran around the property playing boot the pig's bladder with Tom and the others. Therefore making him one of the very first people on the planet to play Australian Rules football. Hey, if you're from Melbourne, where footy is a religion, this is hot stuff!! 

Okay, so I'm not exactly related to Horatio and Tom Wills, and this nowhere near tops all the brushes with royalty of the previous posts, but there is a rumour that the "Spencer" in Horation Spencer Wills was because he was the illegitimate son of the Earl Spencer.....!

Apparently the great cricketer Bill Ponsford is in the tree somewhere, by marriage, but I'm yet to find him. My husband would die of pleasure if it were true 

Kez

[MarieC]

Go Kez!  Find Bill Ponsford!!!!  As another cricket fanatic, I'm interested in this!

MarieC

[behindthefrogs]

I have an ancestor who is mentioned a number of times in Samuel Pepys' diary.  He was at Cambridge with Samuel and used to meet with him in various Inns and Coffee Houses as well as the homes of other notable gentry.

Unfortunately the more interesting entries are rather lewd and cannot be repeated in any family history or here.

If you have ancestors who lived in London around that time it is well worth looking at the index to Pepys' diary.

David

[Kezlyn]

Hi Marie

Got as far as his wife's name, which doesn't ring a bell. Will look for his sibs now. I bet if there is a link it will be that one of his sibs married a rellie of mine.

Shoulda laid a claim to a piece of the Ponsford Stand before they pulled it down 

Kez

[familysearcher]

my husband's family are related to the Wedgwoods (josiah and his lot!!!)

other brushes:

I went to school with Robin Cousins

When i was about 14 my dad almost bought Cary Grant's mother's house in Bristol!!!

Sue