OT: Your family claim to fame
So I wanna hear what your family can make as their claim to fame? I have 3 things. My great-grandpa was offered a contract by the New York Yankees. He sported a 96 mph fastball (it didn't get passed down) but he never made MLB. Also, i am related to Conway Twitty (he is my grandmas cousin. her last name was Jenkins. go look up his real last name). She was also related to Richard Burton. So technically, I was related to Elizabeth Taylor by marriage. How about your families, Mgobloggers? Let's here it.
My cousin is Clint Hurdle, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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<br>That's all I have sports wise.
My uncle is Jon Scieszka, he's a famous children's book author. His two most notable books were "The Stinky Cheese Man" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs." He has a million other books but those are the two most famous. He actually was also selected to be the first ambassador of the Library of Congress for children's books. I was a pretty popular kid when I told the kids in elementary school who my uncle was.
Awww I had both of those. Hilarious books. Stinky Cheese Man is a rascal.
I could go on and on here, but keeping it local (so to speak), I have two siblings that played varsity sports at UMich.
My Uncle Rico (back in '82) could throw the pigskin a quarter mile.
(Sorry if already posted hundreds of times.)
Other than the fact I used to bullseye whomp rats in my T-16 back home, I've got nothing.
My friend's dad, however, used to be a lawyer in the Navy, and A Few Good Men is based on him.
Another friend's dad saved Lil' Wayne's life when he shot himself as a kid, and he's referenced in a song.
My family's pretty boring, though. I've never looked up to see if there's anything interesting.. Y'all know an easy way to do that?
Go to Ancestry.com and sign up for the free trial. My daughter and I did it for a class project of hers and within two nights we had traced some relatives back to 1600. All you need to know is a couple of generations and you will probably find other people's family trees that you are connected to.
It was funny because my daughter sat at one computer tracing my mom's family while I sat at another tracing my dad's. In one night she made over 150 connections while I made about ten.
We ended up printing the results and sharing them with the family at Christmas and it was a big hit. Once your tree is large enough, they have a feature that will tell you famous people you are related to.
...how they measured your grandpa's fastball at 96 before they used radar guns?
Actually my first thought was that was absolutely not true, because no one threw 96 mph fastballs back then. My second thought was how they would have been able to track that without radar guns.
in Australia. He was a rower. He was part of a four w/out cox. If you watched the movie Social Network, when the two arrogant Harvard guys went to England to row in the Henley, they met Prince Albert, who's nephew, I believe was Jack Kelly, a famous rower. My dad says Jack Kelly never beat him head-to-head.
My dad has also won over 30 World University and Pan-Am Games gold medals. My dad is now 82 and held the record for the best singles time in the Masters division at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston for over 10 years, I believe.
Me, I have done nothing famous, except, I am my son's dad.
But seriously,
My Grandpa's uncle (I think that's how it goes) is Tigers Great Charlie Gehringer. (dad's side)
I am quite distantly related to Bill Clinton [not sure how it all works out]. (mom's side)
This 6'1" white dude guarded LeBron James in the 2002 State Semi-Finals and managed to hold him to 32 points... At least I held him to his average haha! (good to see he's an ass-hat now).
Family though marriage to the owners of the Chicago Blackhawks.
As long as he wasn't with your sister or mother that's cool
Proud to say that my Grandpa was a punter under Bennie Oosterbaan for 2 years back in the day. He broke is jaw on punt coverage and didn't play after that but still pretty cool - at least to me.
So I'm not sure who's going through and moderating every comment in this thread as "Offtopic," but if anyone in my family played under a great like Oosterbaan, Yost, Crisler, or Schembechler, I'd be so happy.
My Grandpa (dad's side) was the 2nd man down the (man-made) Huron River - he was in the back of the canoe, the topographer was in front. He also was a B-17 Gunner in WWII but never saw action. He enlisted at 17 and after he was done with training the war was over.
My Grandma is a Holocaust survivor - she left Berlin at age 7-9 in 1939, spent a year in Sweden and met up with her parents in London for the Blitz. Her whole nuclear family made it out just fine and she just celebrated her 83rd birthday. Her dad fought for Germany in WW1.
My "claim to fame" my freshman year of high school I played against (former Bruin and current Maple Leaf) Phil Kessel. It was probably the best game of my life I had made about 50 saves and my team had 4 shots (the Madison Capitals were damn good). With 3 minutes left in the game it was 0-0, and that team was undefeated on the year. Anyway at 3 minutes left their team got a penalty shot adn Kessel took it. The story would be great if I stopped him on a penalty shot, but he burned me. We lost 3-0, but years later it's cool that I played against an NHLer
Ancestry has a cool tool that shows you famous relatives
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Gerald Ford (1913-) |
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| Relationship: 8th Cousin 3 times removed |
| Sam Walton (1918-1992) | |
| Relationship: 9th Cousin 3 times removed |
Somehow I got left out of his will....
It doesn't have a date for the death of Gerald Ford. Very telling....
My great great grandfather was the Detroit City Planning Commissioner around the turn of the century. He wasn't the great one who built Detroit into the modern Metropolis in the 1920s, but the corrupt, shitless drunkard they had to clear out of the way so that guy could get in. He used to pal around with the Detroit Tigers as kind of a booster (except Ty Cobb -- none of them hung out with Cobb).
The older generation still tells Harry Prenzlauer stories once in awhile but the same stories are so different from each other I don't know what's fact or fiction anymore. What I do know is the box of stuff that's left from him is way less interesting than what you'd expect a dude who chummed around with Sam Crawford et al. to have. Like a champagne bottle that's just really old, and an old tobacco tin, and a boxing award there's no way was his.
There's another ancestor who built Port Huron. Way down the patrilineal line (follow the last name) there's a guy who might have been the first Fisher to come to America during the War of 1812 -- a British sailor who jumped ship in Sault Ste. Marie (where my grandpa's family was from).
"Myles Standish proud..." -REM
As a kid I always thought this was cool. Once you learn the history of the Mayflower, well, not exaclty a source of pride. Stupid historical facts.
I've got nothing right now, but I'm pretty sure my son will be president of the United States after an All-American football career at Michigan. Not sure if he'll win the Heisman yet.
The Team, The Team, The Team.
I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate but it makes us absolutely nothing.
In all seriousness I am related to the Arguello family line. Former Governor of California, kind of founder of Los Angeles and former owners of Rancho Tijuana until the Mexican government just kind of took it. So technically I guess my family owns Tijuana not that we'd actually want it back at this point.
- A Great Great Uncle of mine was a designer of the Titanic, but was held off of the voyage by a family commitment.
- My cousin is a prominent architect in Chicago (architecture manager for Alinea, and others I would assume :P )
- I know the Thompson family (of which Thompson street is named after)
I'm related to John and John Quincy Adams as well as the first Princess of Wales.
EDIT: Living in Texas I forgot this might mean something - Bob Evans was my cousin and one of the other founders of Bob Evans is my great uncle.
I have a cousin in Cleveland
Check and mate
Wilt the Stilt hit on my mom on a plane in the 70's. Much did he not know my dad was sitting behind her. It didn't work out so well for Wilt. Wilt was too lanky to handle my 6'3" dad, LOL. They didn't fight but I would put at least $3.50 on my dad. (Tree Fitty for the loch ness monsta)
My uncle intercepted a pass off Joe Namath in a high school game.
My uncle intercepted a pass off Joe Namath in a high school game.
Wasn't everybody in that era?
Nice one MWolverine! Touch with an "e" and an accent aigu!
My Dad was a child hood friend of "Bullet Bob Hayes" which is one of the reasons I started liking the Cowboys when I was really young. They also ran track together in high school at Gilbert High in Jacksonville,Fla. My dad was a very good football player but did not make it following injury. I would not have been around had he made it...so the world is a better place for it...
Will add more later as I confirm the other stories.
My Cousin is Madame Curie, she was my grandmother's first cousin.
at Polk High School?
My grandfather was an astrophysicist who worked on the first smart weapon in WW II, the proximity fuze.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze
Then, after looking at artillery craters for all of WW II, he went back to astronomy, and realized that the craters on the moon were caused by meteoritic impacts. Everyone thought he was a loon back then. Apollo 11's samplings on the moon proved he was right. Now he is considered the father of modern planetary geology and, until his death last year at age 98, the world's leading authority on the moon. As one of his peers said, he got "so much so right so early."
He played on the UM tennis team as an undergrad, has 4 degrees from UM (BS, MS, PhD and an honorary doctorate). He was a professor at Michigan, Penn and Northwestern.
He also endowed the first chair in UM's astronomy department.
http://www.giving.umich.edu/news/current/index.php?page=081108_baldwin
Most importantly, he attended at least one football game in Michigan Stadium every year from the year it opened until the year he died (he did not make it to a game in 2010).
http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?n=ralph-baldwin&pid=146322182
He's my own personal hero.
On my mom's side I am related to both Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. And though I don't admit it much these days, Al Gore is a distant cousin. We both have Tennessee roots and are related to the first governor of Tennessee John Sevier.
On my dad's side I can claim relation to Jim Henson through marriage.......MUPPETS!!!!!
your family for the invention of the Internets then
that Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett were related.
Do you know what their relationship to each other was, AF?
But they aren't related. I had my grandmother email me our family tree and they are from two distinct branches. In fact, if my history is correct, they never even met. Boone was around 50 years old when Crockett was born, and they always lived in different parts of the country.
My great-uncles started Lafayette and American Coney Islands in Detroit and basically started the Greek immigrant rush to Michigan.
My grandfather was a violinest in the DSO and was pretty well respected violen teacher after he retired. My uncle on the same side of the family went out to California to become an actor and had bit parts in Outbreak and The American President.
I'm not good with all that 2nd, 3rd cousins' uncle stuff. Played in the Golden Age of Baseball.
From Baseball Almanac...
When Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers were coming to Cincinnati for the first series of the 1948 season, Litwhiler, then in his seventh big league season, was called into the office of Warren Giles, president of the Reds.
Remembering the meeting with Giles, Litwhiler explained, "I'm wondering, 'What happened?' You don't get called upstairs unless you're getting traded or sold, or something like that. When I got there, the mayor of Cincinnati and a representative of B'nai B'rith were also there.
"Mr. Giles said, 'You are a college graduate, and I believe you will agree that Jackie Robinson should play major league baseball.'
"I said, 'Yeah, if he can play baseball, that's fine. I wouldn't want to see anyone come in just for reasons of color or race. But if he can play, let him play.'
"Giles said, 'We thought you'd feel that way. We want you to pose for a picture with Jackie, who's coming a day early. That will let people know the Cincinnati Reds welcome him.'
"I agreed to have the picture taken, and the photo ran in the papers the day before the first Dodger game. We got to be friends after that.
The photo shows Litwhiler and Robinson smiling and looking at a poster sponsored by the Mayor's Friendly Relations Committee. The poster shows several white boys and one black youth, with the batter saying, "What's his race got to do with it? Can he can pitch?"
Given his Pennsylvania Dutch upbringing, his basic sense of fairness, and his educational background,Litwhiler, who admitted taking "a lot of flack from a few of the players over the picture," had no qualms about his friendship with Robinson.
He played 11-1/2 years in the bigs and coached several college teams among them Florida State and (unfortunately) Michigan State. In the hall of fame at Bloomsburg University, Florida State, and MSU.