To Whom Are You Related?

When I work on fiction set in the past, I invariably get more interested in my own family history. (You might’ve noticed.) So the novel I’m revising now I started more than ten years ago, and at that time I did a whole bunch of family history research, and I was a member of Ancestry.com. Do you know this site? If you’re doing family history research, it is Mecca.

So I re-upped my membership yesterday and poked around a bit. In the ten years since I’ve been on it, it’s come a long long way! What is particulary amazing is the one world tree, where everyone tries to connect to everyone else. They also are working with DNA.

Well, I was poking around yesterday and entered my dad’s name. Someone (whom I don’t know) has entered him into the one world tree. One of the really cool features of one world tree is you can see the famous people to whom you are related.

So, who am I related to? Can you believe it?

• Georgia O’Keefe (my father’s 6th cousin once removed)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (5th cousin 3x removed)
• Truman Capote (7th cousins 2x removed)
• Agatha Christie (5th cousin 6x removed)
• Isaac Newton (3rd cousin 10x removed)
• Julia Child (8th cousin)
• T.S. Eliot (8th cousin 1x removed)
• Ray Bradbury (8th cousin 1x removed)
• Jane Austen (6th cousin 7x removed)
• Bob Hope (8th cousin 4x removed)
• George Orwell (10th cousin 1x removed)
• Elizabeth Browning (9th cousin 4x removed)
• Audrey Hepburn (11th cousin 2x removed)

Isn’t that hilarious? Of course, this just confirms that everyone is related to everyone, but still. I find it fascinating. What I’m most proud of, of course, is being related to the writers: Capote, Austen, Eliot, Orwell, Emerson, Browning, Christi, Bradbury. And to be honest, Capote and Austen would be whom I’m most proud of. And Audrey Hepburn ~ I love Audrey Hepburn.

You know what would’ve been the absolute best? If I’d’ve been related both Hemingway and Woolf!

Questions of the Day: Whom would you like to be related to?