Who's Your Coolest Ancestor?

[Stikibunn]

My family has some kickass aussie folk in our tree....

From my mum's side we have Mary Wade.

in 1778 she was 11 years old and the one of the youngest convicts on the First Fleet (Convicted of highway robbery which is a fancy way of saying she stole another girl's dress and threw it in a well as a joke... Her best friend who was a few months older was hung for it!)
Her claim to fame is that she ended up having 21 children. By the time she died in 1859 she had over 300 descendants.
It also makes me a distant relative of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
(more can be learned about her wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wade )

On my father's side we had the most badass dude in 1800's Victoria Ned Kelly.
This is just a rumour as it's impossible to confirm unfortunatly.

Ned Kelly was a famous bushranger who was infamous for his last stand where he donned a home made suit of armour and fought in a siege against the police.
He was also a revolutionary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_kelly

once again on my father's side, but my birth father not the one whom I call my father (my bio father)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Squire

James Squire, Convict, smuggler, first man to brew beer in australia!

 

[white_salad]

Well,my great grandfather was a boat captain, and he crashed on this island, so they put up a lighthouse in his name. I go there everynow and then, and pretend I own the joint.

And that's fuckin it.

 

[Ldude893]

No idea. You see, my grandparents secretly escaped to Hong Kong over the border during the cultural revolution in China, so any ideas of who my ancestors were are unclear.

My family has some kickass aussie folk in our tree....

From my mum's side we have Mary Wade.

in 1778 she was 11 years old and the one of the youngest convicts on the First Fleet (Convicted of highway robbery which is a fancy way of saying she stole another girl's dress and threw it in a well as a joke... Her best friend who was a few months older was hung for it!)
Her claim to fame is that she ended up having 21 children. By the time she died in 1859 she had over 300 descendants.
It also makes me a distant relative of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
(more can be learned about her wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wade )

On my father's side we had the most badass dude in 1800's Victoria Ned Kelly.
This is just a rumour as it's impossible to confirm unfortunatly.

Ned Kelly was a famous bushranger who was infamous for his last stand where he donned a home made suit of armour and fought in a siege against the police.
He was also a revolutionary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_kelly

once again on my father's side, but my birth father not the one whom I call my father (my bio father)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Squire

James Squire, Convict, smuggler, first man to brew beer in australia!

Damn.
That is some family tree you've got there.

 

[Mace Tulio]

My ancestors were Teutonic nobility during the Crusades. Land, Castle, the lot. After World War 1, my family couldn't afford to pay the taxes, and sold the land to flee to Australia. As far as I know the castle was demolished for farming.

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

I know my great Grandfather died because he jumped on a grenade to save his friend during WW1...

...That's kinda cool...

EDIT: Not really an ancestor but apparently my cousin is a 13th cousin of Ellen...
So that would make me a 14th cousin, right?

 

[Superior Mind]

I can't remember his name but he was the first negro lawyer and first negro knight in the Carribean or at least in Barbados. My grandmother has a picture of him.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

The ones that froze to death.

 

[trollnystan]

On my Irish side I had a great-uncle who had to leave Ireland because he was in the IRA, and he also fought in the Spanish civil war. And I think he was a priest... I'm a bit hazy on the details actually.

On my Swedish side one of my ancestors was a higher-up in the army and the King of Sweden spent the night once at his house. I can't remember when or what king though. That's all I can remember from what my grandmother told me.

My Irish side is a bit more exciting, yeah?

 

[Darth_Dude]

Well.....any ancestors past my grandparents were farmers....not very interesting I know, although one of my ancestors could have been an official in the Mughal Empire or something, you never know?

 

[Randomologist]

I'm thinking within the last two hundred or so years, as everyone can claim a relation to people like Charlemagne or Genghis Khan by virtue of the fast that the exponential growth going back over several hundred years of generations equals more than all the people who ever could have existed.

OT: Probably Edward Vickers, who founded Naylor Vickers and Co. in the late 1820s, which later made various ships, tanks and machine guns.

 

[Floppertje]

cool thread!
My mother's grandmother's family was apparently rich and they were often visited by prince Bernhard (I think it was him). apparently he was quite the ladies man and there are familie stories of how my grandmother is his illegal daughter. (or something like that, I forgot exactly which).
so that would make me royalty! But it's probably just a family story and thank god for that, I don't want to be king of idiotopia.

Other than that, and this is more certain, I'm related to an actor and radio guy who has his own wikipedia page ^^
My grandfather on father's side was an important guy at Philips (so, indirectly, my family is the cause of one of the most awesome cities in the country. look it up)

 

[Illesdan]

My great-great grandfather was a cartoonist for a San Fransisco newspaper at the turn of the century. I love his name: Winter Napoleon Knight.

My husband's uncle, however, wow. Talk about an interesting past! http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7k5SNm5NbXcARvhXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1NGxwMXQwBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1ZJUDA1NF8xODE-/SIG=126g739c5/EXP=1299090098/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curd_J%25C3%25BCrgens

 

[DanielBrown]

Nothing intresting in my ancestry that I know of. Have never been into researching it, but my grandmother is doing it. Hopefully she'll find something fun eventually!

On my mothers side they were mainly Swedish farmers. I also got some indian gypsy blood in me from my great grandfather.

On my fathers side I got some Belgian blood. He was a descendant of the Vallons, that Sweden imported to make weapons and stuff. I believe they were pretty much treated as slaves. Read a book about it once, but it was a damn long time ago.

 

[Rekh]

I'm related to Sir William Wallace, and according to what my grandparents have told me/sent me, the clan that my family is a part of is related to a king named Cnut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut

 

[Lord Beautiful]

General Robert E. Lee, apparently.

 

[Rhaff]

Eric the Red on one side and Eigil Skallagrimsson on the other.. guess where im from

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well from what I was told we are all gods children, so... my coolest ancestor is a deity, top that!

 

[General Vagueness]

Someone on my mom's side traced their family back to the 16th century but I don't have any real information on anyone on either side before my great-grandparents. I do know I'm 1/8 Cherokee, 1/8 French, 1/4 Polish, 1/8 Sicilian, and 1/8 Romani/Gypsy, and my mom insists we're related to English royalty somehow.