Who do you think you are?

[trousers]

Anyone else have any famous direct descendants? (i.e. same bloodline)

 

Last night I managed to find a direct connection to William The Conquerer, Jane Seymour and the speaker of the house of commons some time in the 16th century.

 

Anyone else?

 

(no points for Keith Chegwin I'm afraid)

[Swansea_Saint]

Due to my mother being adopted at a young age and never knowing my father I can trace my family line to my mum and thats it!!

[Doctoroncall]

A distant descendant was a Sheriff of London (tax collector)... it's been downhill ever since!!!

[Sheaf Saint]

Not me personally, but my girlfriend is a direct descendant of James Watt's business partner Matthew Boulton.

[Spudders]

I was directly called a cu nt by little britain's Matt Lucas, does that count?

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

No, but all my descendants are ascendants of me.

[Saint-scooby]

My Great great great grand father invented Tipex..

[Wurzel]

I was directly called a cu nt by little britain's Matt Lucas, does that count?

 

Your confusing "descendant" with "condescending"

 

 

My Great great great grand father invented Tipex..

Always thought the mother of one of The Monkees done that

[buctootim]

Due to my mother being adopted at a young age and never knowing my father I can trace my family line to my mum and thats it!!

 

Lucky sod! I would kill for a simplified family like that

[Clapham Saint]

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

 

Great Grandfather

[buctootim]

If your family has been in Britain since 1900 then you are probably at least distantly related to Henry Vlll or any one of the people alive in 1500s and before. You go back enough generations and everyone is linked to everyone else.

[Hatch]

Lord Horatio Nelson and Durley_Fos

[Gemmel]

. You go back enough generations and everyone is linked to everyone else.

 

If you go to portsmouth everyone is linked to everyone else

[revolution saint]

If your family has been in Britain since 1900 then you are probably at least distantly related to Henry Vlll or any one of the people alive in 1500s and before. You go back enough generations and everyone is linked to everyone else.

 

Unless you live in Pompey where everyone is closely related to each other without needing to go back any generations.

[alpine_saint]

All 4 lines going back from my grandparents appear to be broken by adoptions, sadly...

[anothersaintinsouthsea]

If your family has been in Britain since 1900 then you are probably at least distantly related to Henry Vlll or any one of the people alive in 1500s and before. You go back enough generations and everyone is linked to everyone else.

 

Yep, not surprising when you think about it. Everyone has: 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 gg grandparents, 32 ggg grandparents, 64 gggg grandparents, 128 ggggg grandparents, 256 gggggg grandparents, 512 ggggggg grandparents, 1024 gggggggg grandparents and so. If you were born in 1980 and you have 30 years for each generation then you only need to go back to 1710 and you'd have around a thousand ancestors. Each time you go back another generation this doubles - the chances of having someone pretty notable in there at some point is very high.

[buctootim]

Yep, not surprising when you think about it. Everyone has: 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 gg grandparents, 32 ggg grandparents, 64 gggg grandparents, 128 ggggg grandparents, 256 gggggg grandparents, 512 ggggggg grandparents, 1024 gggggggg grandparents and so. If you were born in 1980 and you have 30 years for each generation then you only need to go back to 1710 and you'd have around a thousand ancestors. Each time you go back another generation this doubles - the chances of having someone pretty notable in there at some point is very high.

 

Exactly - and for descendents its even more than that. If one person had three children in 1500 and their children each had 3 children and each generation repeated every 25 years (these figures are actually pretty low compared to historical norms) by the year 2000 that person would have over 1 billion descendants.

Edited 20 January, 2012 by buctootim

[trousers]

That's it. P1ss on by bonfire why don't you....and there was me thinking I was special..... ;-)

[buctootim]

That's it. P1ss on by bonfire why don't you....and there was me thinking I was special..... ;-)

 

Look on the bright side Trousers, you're probably related to me

[Marsdinho]

I'm related to this chap...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell But I guess maybe there are quite a few of us dotted around the UK !!!

 

This makes interesting reading http://www.rkwest.com/personal/mycousins/?page_id=10

[SuperMikey]

My great-great-great-grandfather was an admiral in the Swedish navy, had his own ship and everything. We've got a picture up in our house of it. My grandfather was a Major in the Black Watch regiment during the war as well...

[Jonnyboy]

If you go to portsmouth everyone is linked to everyone else

 

Like some gigantic human centipede.

[badgerx16]

Adam and Eve.

[CB Saint]

I am descended from a long line of peasants and agricultural workers, going as far back as the 1500's

[pap]

I've been doing some research into my own heritage.

 

The trick is getting decent history up until 1911, the last available census on public record. I ended up ordering birth certificates for a couple of my great-grandparents. Whatever you do, just go straight to the government's site and order the 10-business day version. Ten quid each, as opposed to 30 quid that some ancestry sites will charge you.

 

I've been using ancestry.co.uk - once I got the names of my great-great-grandparents, everything became a lot easier. For starters, official records are easier to turn up. The other thing that happens is that you end up running into other people's family trees. In less than 3 weeks, have managed to get back into the 1700s along my mum's maternal line.

 

My uncle already did my dad's side of the family, so I'm getting a pretty complete picture of my roots in the last 300 years.

 

Have to say, it's very very humbling to see all the different strands that ultimately result in you. Huge parts of my family are from Lancashire and Yorkshire way, while there's a massive southern influence too. Very difficult to consider yourself a true southerner when you see it all laid out.

[bridge too far]

My brother is in to this in a big way. He phoned me (on Burns' night) to tell me that, on my mother's side, we are descendants of Robert the Bruce!

[Dr Who?]

A friend of mine, great great grandad invented the cats eyes. Not the one for cats but the ones for the road, or so he has told me about 15,000 times!

[buctootim]

I am descended from a long line of peasants and agricultural workers, going as far back as the 1500's

 

Pretty much this for me on my mums side - farm labourers around Wareham in Dorset. Only slight claim to fame on her side is my grandad once took all 10 wickets in an innings for Somerset.

Edited 5 February, 2012 by buctootim

[moonraker]

My Great great great grand father invented Tipex..

 

He may have invented a correction fluid I doubt it was tipex which was launched by a german company in 1965. If he is your twice great granddad even assuming you are young he would in all likely hood have been very old in the 1960's my twice great granddad would have been over 150 in the 60's.

[moonraker]

once you go back beyond the 18th century we are all related to each other

[mcjwills]

I am related to William John Wills of the Burke and Wills expedition that was to help open up Australia.

[dune]

My great great grand dad was a blacksmith. This picture was taken of him in 1930 and it was used on the cherry blossom shoe polish tins.

 

 

Another great great grand dad was a wealthy auctioneer who bought a large house (mansion) off Lord Lonsdale (famous for the Lonsdale belt and his yellow cars etc one of which was driven by pop larkin in the darling buds of may).

[TheVicar]

I'd guess I'm from a whole bunch of nobodies, and if not I want to know why not.