Do you have any notorious/famous branches in your family tree?

[VeIouria]

I'll start -

My many times great uncle on my mother's side was Robert Coates, an infamous actor who was well known for being so bad he was good. Lord Byron was a fan and wrote about him in letters to friends and he was a bit of a celeb.

Anyone interesting in your tree?

Yes. Infamous, in living memory. And the main reason I changed my name when I got married.

My father's side of the family is as rough as badgers and very poor. But my great grandfather was brought up in a rich family. They had a large house, servants and a private tutor come in every day to teach them, rather than go to school. His father had a large factory and a range of shops. I doubt they approved of my grandfather's marriage.

Great great grandfather on mums side was a gypsy who was widowed at 25, then later married my g g grandmother who was found dead 12 months later in a marl pool. I've often wondered if he murdered both his wives. Not famous but mysterious

Matilda, Queen of England - not through her marriages to Kings but through her third marriage, a love marriage, to the Count of Flanders.

Isn't it estimated that a quarter of us are related to William the Conqueror?

My cousin is in a hugely successful rock band. They were particularly massive in the 80s but still tour and play stadiums worldwide.

We're related to the famous Sock Family but due to a family disagreement over who owned the darning wool the TwoRightSocks legged it (!) abroad with the wool and has never set foot in this country again. The thieving heels. Ever since then we became known as the
TwoLeftSocksWithHoles.

I have several (female) ancestors who were servants for the royal family. Lots of family rumours about affairs and secretly being descended from royalty, but as far as I know that's just wishful thinking!

What a fascinating (and very talented) family!

I have a cousin who resides at Her Majesty's leisure for (amongst other crimes) burgling Thatcher just after she became an MP.

I have an indirect ancestor who helped Charles II escape. Also links to the Nightingales of Derbyshire (Florence Nightingale’s ancestors).

On my mother's side, Field Marshall French from Ww1. Most of the others I find interesting although they weren't famous at all, just disreputable -a lady from a very minor Irish aristocratic family who was a kleptomaniac whose husband divorced her and then emigrated to Canada because of the shame, the great grandfather who had 22 children with his two wives and when he died they discovered a mistress with another few children round the corner; the great grandmother whose husband turned out to be a heavy drinking womaniser. She had the courage to LTB in 1896, became a live in housekeeper for a blacksmith who fathered my grandfather, although they couldn't marry until later once the first husband died. (His birth certificate gives her husband's name as the father but has his real father's occupation instead). On my father's side, supposedly we're descended from Redmond O'Hanlon, but I'm not convinced - my grandmother also took a romantic view of life. My grandfather on that side was the illegitimate son of a chambermaid who was born in the workhouse but worked his way up to be a very successful political agent before ww2.

Well, apart from an Oscar-winning brother, my maternal great-grandfather inadvertently caused the Northallerton to Thirsk Great Train Disaster of 1892.

it really wasn’t his fault, and while he was found guilty he was released on his own recognisances - and given a job back on the railways!

He was helped by Edith Nesbit’s husband Hubert Bland, and in the book (not the film) of The Railway Children there’s a chapter based on his story - mixed with an unrelated incident that Bland put on the same page of his newspaper.

Also in my Mum’s side there’s a possible illegitimate connection to a 17th century bishop who got expelled from Cambridge for playing the fiddle, walked to Southampton, and became a pirate.

On my father’s side there’s a (possibly mythical) Native American.

On my fathers side - Albert Pierrepoint.

Me too! But since all of Cook's offspring died, thought it must be through his sister's offspring.
My Grandfather remembers visiting his Great Aunts Cook.
Would love to know more but can't see how to pm you. 😊

On my mother's side, quite a while before his ancestor moved to Virginia, Robert E. Lee (Confederate general)

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Three of my very distant great grandmothers were mistresses of James V of Scotland. They had very complicated love lives!

I'm related to Arthur Guiness.

On one side we have the ancestors of the man who started the bank of England and on a rather lovely magazine owner who's public disagreements with family members tend to make the nationals.

Absolutely no-one - they were all agricultural labourers, servants, farmers and one branch was itinerant (Romany gypsies).

Considering how many descendants a famous person from e.g. the 17th century would have now I'm half surprised I have no-one. Then again it shows how hard it was to move out of your class.

It must have been a very big piece of paper if this thread is anything to go by.

I have a famous Judge who became a bit of a media whore on my father's side

My GGGGG Grandad, William Hopkinson in 1842, tried to blow up what is now called the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet in Sheffield. He went to York Prison because of that.

None of my descendants signed Charles the first death warrant!

My ancestors are mud & died young.