It's All Relative

           My church has a cool new online gizmo that can tell you everyone famous you’re related to.  You just plug in your name, and find out you’re related to Jesse James (in my case) or Bill Gates (not in my case.  Dang.)

People are even having parties where they find out if they’re related to their friends, neighbors, and church members-- often with surprising results. Granted, many of the names you find will say 6^th cousin twice removed, but sometimes you get a direct hit.  It’s called Relative Finder, and anybody who has joined Family Search can use it. 

          Imagine my surprise to learn I am related to more than a dozen U.S. Presidents!  In no particular order, I can claim Adams, Arthur, Harrison, Fillmore, both Roosevelts, Truman, Ford, LBJ, Kennedy, Nixon, Coolidge, Garfield, and Buchanan.  And even more presidents’ wives.

          The English royalty in my line includes Mary Stuart (my 12^th great great aunt), George III, James II, and Queen Victoria.

Some other famous folks I unearthed on my tree are John D. Rockefeller, Buster Keaton, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Charles Lindburgh, Susan B. Anthony, Walt Disney, and Orville (but apparently not Wilbur?) Wright.  Plus several signers of the Declaration of Independence and of the U.S. Constitution.

As a Latter-day Saint, I was particularly excited to learn I’m connected to dozens of Mormon leaders and historical figures, including the Prophet Joseph Smith, as well as many early pioneers and members of the Mormon Battalion.

There were no Salem Witch Trial folks, which was mildly disappointing.  But remember, I do have Jesse James, just to liven things up.  And now you have a brand new party game to try out.

Entertain your guests with another super idea: Show them some of my YouTube Mom videos!

Talk About Your Famous Relatives

          Quick—name the fastest growing hobby in the world.  If you said, “Genealogy,” you’d be right.  There is something deliciously addictive in putting together the puzzle of our ancestry.  

         And now, with so many free online search sites, you can unearth both hooligans and heroes, filling your family tree with the most colorful characters you can imagine. 

Helen Keller once said, "There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his." Coolest of all is that everyone can claim Adam and Eve as common ancestors, which makes us all related in the biggest, most dysfunctional, hilarious, and often loving family. 

I wrote about the rival revolutionary war generals I found in my family and in St. Bob's here.  Even more interesting is that my tree contains a madam, for whom neighbors actually burned an effigy, in 19th Century England.  I can only imagine her contributions to the community.

But you’ll never believe what happened this week.  I was poking around on Family Tree, looking for Bob's connections to Norse kings, to show Nicole that she actually has heritage from Norway, where she just spent 18 months on a mission.  I was pretty sure I could remember a Beldeg, an Odin, and a Borg or somebody, King of the Norse. 

Only this time I took a new turn on Bob’s tree, and ended up with King Louis IV of France, a Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, and Julius Caesar.  I kept clicking on new branches and found Saxons and Goths, and eventually people with nicknames such as “the Bald,” and “the Fat.”  Soon I saw the king of Troy in 1500 BC, then Solomon and David.

And I then I realized what was happening.  This line was headed straight for Abraham, Noah and Methusaleh.  That could only mean one thing—I had traced my husband’s line all the way back to Adam!  Sure enough, just a few clicks later I saw, “Adam, the First Man and Eve, the First Woman, 4000 BC.”  Holy history chart! 

The incredible thing is that we could all do this, if we had complete records.  But it’s possible I’m the only person who has gone back to both Adam and Madam.  And somehow, in light of my latest book, I think it’s appropriate that these two discoveries rhyme.

Check out my LDS Nursery Rhymes book here—and give them as gifts to all your Mormon friends.  If you don’t have any, make some—they’ll probably help you with your family tree and get you all the way back to Adam!