Who has a surprise connection to an historical figure?

[BenRalph]

My great great grandmother was good friends with Stan Laurel. They spoke and wrote to each other regularly, and I was lucky enough to discover copies of the many letters he sent her at this website! www.lettersfromstan.com

I would love to have seen the letters she wrote to him, but no copies exist.

Brilliant stuff. As a huge fan of the Boys I have looked at that site many, many times since it opened about 5 years ago.

[DianaCanada]

My grandfather’s first cousin, Joseph Ford, was listed as a butler on the 1939 register for Windsor castle to Clive Wigram, Former Private Secretary to George V.
  Baron Wigram also served in some capacity to Edward VIII but apparently quit due to the abdication crisis.  On the 1939 he is “lieutenant-governor, Windsor Castle”.
On the maternal side, my grandmother’s half first cousin’s young husband was killed in a hit and run near Windsor (coincidentally) in 1927 and the driver that killed him was the heir to the American  Reynolds Tobacco fortune.  That young man spent a year in jail but no mention of that in his Wikipedia entry! The 19 year old widow got a nice settlement, equal to what her husband would have likely earned had he lived a normal lifespan. The amount was not disclosed in the papers.  Mary Jeff Graham remarried soon afterward.

[brigidmac]

94 years ago my grandfather couldn't accompany his wife to hospital for birth of his first child because he was on guard duty at the residence of Elizabeth Bowes-lyon while she was giving birth to a famous living person .

So glad my aunt told me that  on her 94th birthday
She never boasted of it before .

[pharmaT]

A butler at Windsor Castle is a really cool connection to have. 

I have quite a few.

My 5x Great Grandfather was friends with Robert Burns and was involved in getting the poem The Jolly Beggars printed.  My daughter's ancestor on her Dad's side is quoted in a book where he claims that he was the plough boy with Burns when the mouse's nest was turned over.

My Great Grandpa's first cousin, so my 1st cousin 4x removed was involved in making the Queen's wedding cake.

The obituary of my daughter's 6x Great Grandfather claimed that he was the second cousin of Thomas Carlyle.  I have not successfully proven the grandparents of either of them so I cannot say that this true but neither have I disproven it.

In my Great Great Grandfather's will one of the people who was listed as owing him money at the time of his death was Sir William Edmonstone, the father of The Alice Keppel.

One of my directs worked on the country estate of the Tarmac Macadams.

That's just a few of them.

[coombs]

My ancestor Peter Cartwright mentioned his good friend Henry Cromwell in his 1597 will. Probably a relative of Ollie. I think Peter originated in Warrington as he mentions it in his will, but lived in King's Lynn and St Ives in later life, as well as London.

[Finley 1]

I had never pushed my Fradd (Cornwall) line very far ... until just this last few weeks.. and now I have a collection of Royalists and all kinds of interesting folk...
It seems the world is connected to them all..  

so will enjoy researching them.. but due to so many plastered all over Ancestry the hints are fast and furious.

Keigwins.. Trevathens .. Jeffreys..  Carminows  .. Tallerkerns ... right up to 1400's  and lots of tales on Google.. so yes... busy on this lot but want facts... which is a little difficult...    Google search is not now as it once was... ------ whereby you could type in a name and area and have REAL facts... now its often from some imaginary tree with the odd fact .. and no decent pics.. but am I just being picccccky    

Xin related to the world.. it seems

[IgorStrav]

The husband of my Gx3 Aunt, Mary Ann Morris (1842-1912) was George Alfred Andrews (sometimes Morgan, he was born ahead of his mother's marriage) 8th June 1838-10th July 1924.  Both were born in Kent (Willesborough/Minster respectively) and married there in 1861.

George was firstly in the police, serving as a Police Constable in Kensington, London, and then in the 1891 he is shown as a House Steward in Freshwater, IoW. 

By 1901 he and Mary are in what appears to be the extensive estate, Limner's Lease, Compton, Guildford, of painter George F Watts "Painter and Sculptor, member of Royal Academy of Arts".  George Andrews is shown as Estate Steward.

He and Mary are still there in 1911, with George a police pensioner and estate steward, although the painter G F Watts had died in 1904.

The lovely thing is that George was painted by his employer G F Watts, I think probably in the late 1890's (I don't know precisely when he became Estate Steward), and in researching the family I was kindly sent an image of the portrait.

I only wish that my own relative, Mary Ann Morris, had been included!

[Annie65115]

One of my family lines contains a lot of influential people of the 19th and early 20th centuries - - politicians, journalists, sportsmen etc. Eg Alfred Cooper Rawson holds the record for the greatest parliamentary majority in the UK (he was MP for Brighton with a majority of 62000!)  and is a distant cousin of mine.

But that's a bit boring. My favourite famous (actually infamous) connection is in a different line. One of the perpetrators of the Cato St conspiracy, Richard Tidd, was the brother of my 5gt grandfather John Tidd. Vive la revolution!

[Eyesee]

I've always enjoyed the novels of Jane Austen and would love to find a family connection no matter how distant.....sadly I never have!

Just wondering if any of you have found a unexpected family connection to a well known figure from the past that you have admired?

Not a family connection to Jane Austen, but my g-g-g-grandfather Edward Daniel Clarke's older brother James Stanier Clarke did correspond with her for a while and is supposed to have painted a portrait of her.

Ian C