Famous-ish GRMers

I'm a direct descendant of 5 of the original Mayflower settlers and my great grandfather was Senator John Armstrong. I have a photo somewhere of him talking with JFK.

I was the bad example in my Boy Scout troop. It was sponsored by Mormons. I'm not Mormon and I drank caffeinated drinks and swore. Those are the worst things I did.

I've never even been a runner up for Say What.

Apis Mellifera wrote: I created one of the He-Man action figures in the 80s. I was in a group of three that pioneered the reduction of honeybees size as a means to promote disease resistance. My uncle invented the plastic sealant that is used to seal teeth. My G,g,g-grandfather was the 37th Governor of Virginia. I invented a device for acoustic guitars. My wife was on Conan O'brien.

No way you can drop that info and not tell us which He-Man character it was! So...???

Family history is a little different then haha. On my mom's side, if you go back a generation or two, you find crazy Joey Gallo, that took on the 5 families by himself, unsuccessfully.

On my dad's side, would have been my great aunt Marge, her first husband in the 1970s was Warren Buffett. My great uncle Anson, whom I don't know much about, was friends with Andy Warhol, and sold a painting of a hootus Andy had given him for a pretty penny when he died.

Neither family has a history pre Ellis island that I've been able to dig up. But you know how old Italians are.

There is a family with our name on the west coast. Home builders, very very well to do.seriously, Google maps has the hill their mansion is on NAMED after the family. As far as we've ever found we're not related, yet were the only families with our surname pretty much anywhere so not sure how that works. I've met the members around my age, they don't look like us.

Type Q wrote: ...I am a decedent of this guy. George Clinton

Please understand my disappointment when your link did not lead to Parliament Funkadelic.

Still interesting, just not AS interesting.

Through my mothers side I'm a related to the dude currently on the $20 bill.....from my French side I can't really tell you much other than we do have a coat of arms.

The only notable relative I know of is my mother's uncle, John Randall. He made his money digging canals, water mains and sewers in NYC and Long Island. He went on to develop much of Freeport and has a park named for him. He ended up getting into a pissing contest with town planers and built a spite house so they couldn't layout the town in a grid. Freeport spite house

I used to bag Ernie Irvans groceries back in high school so I am sort of famous in the Harris Teeter realm.

On a more serious note, I'm a direct descendant of Devil Anse Hatfield. He's my first cousin (3 times removed). I'm a Hatfield and when people jokingly ask if I'm related to the fueding Hatfields, I say yes and they don't believe me.

I am a twelfth generation New Englander. I'm directly descended from actual Puritans. I'm pretty sure that I would have been a great disappointment to them.

In reply to Woody:

This is gonna sound weird, but me too. Same number of generations too. Do you know anything about when and where your family came over?

Oooo, Oooo, Oooo- Wouldn't it be exciting to learn we came over on the same boat, or attended the same witch hunt, or something!! Is there such thing as a 50 Shades of Grey- Puritan Edition?? Are we kin? Creepy, huh??

Pretty sure one of my ancestors just rolled over in his grave (but they probably do that a lot with me!)....

In reply to Woody and SVreX: Newcomers! 17th generation here

Uncle finally moved out of Plymouth a few years back. We didn't go far until recently. (Or accumulate any big holdings of land or money either unfortunately)

In reply to SVreX:

He came over on the William & Francis in 1632 and settled in the Roxbury section of Boston. Later he was one of the founders of Hartford.

KyAllroad wrote: In reply to Woody and SVreX: Newcomers! 17th generation here

You know, it's closed minded One-Percenters like you who are keeping us out of the Mayflower Society.

In reply to KyAllroad:

Not to mention the fact that you guys managed to squeeze an extra four generations out of a slim twelve year head start...

On moms side we've got a direct link to the mayflower, as well as Lord Baltimores Catholics.

Dads side is pretty young, I don't think anyone came over before 1900.

SVreX wrote: In reply to Woody: This is gonna sound weird..... Is there such thing as a 50 Shades of Grey- Puritan Edition??....Creepy, huh??

You might be pretty famous if you do something with the 50 Shades of Grey Puritan Edition idea... but...

Ancestors too hey?

Mayflower defendants. Pah, late comers. My wife's family, the Tourtellotte brothers arrived in the 1,500s before the puritan's they were Hugonots who were wealthy merchants who owned their own ships. Apparently one of them married someone from the Mayflower. Her great great uncle was a silver minor and founded Aspen colorado. he died in a cave in and there's still a Tourtellotte park there and a small monument to him. He also donated the land to build the University of Colorado in Boulder.

There was also a civil war general from Thompson Connecticut. We have a book called 'Thompson's Tourtellottes and the civil war'. The is Tourtellotte high school there too.

The family used to have their own Pullman to take the around the country. Unfortunately the money is long gone after her grandfather had the water rights to their ranch in Montana sold out from under them. The rest of it was lost when the family bet against those new fangled automobiles and bought up a series of coach works LaCrosse Wisconsin.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Who let you in?

Woody wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: In reply to Woody and SVreX: Newcomers! 17th generation here

You know, it's closed minded One-Percenters like you who are keeping us out of the Mayflower Society.

LOL!

My name is a verb in my local SCCA region.

Woody wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Who let you in?

You lot let me in

Notable ancestors are Daniel Boone and John C Calhoun. My grandmother's maiden name was Calhoun. Daniel Boone was a many great uncle

Spoolpigeon wrote: My name is a verb in my local SCCA region.

I've heard pigeoned used as a verb and it seemed horrific.

I have no famous ancestors, BUT, my great great great grandfather decided to leave Ireland with his boys to start a new life and send for the women later. Unfortunately this was during the time of Irish quotas so they were denied and headed to Canada instead. Eyes on the prize and comfortable traveling at night they snuck across the border and settled in Michigan.
America was truly and land of plenty and it was way easier (and probably more fun) to just pick up a new wife and stop writing to the old one.