You May Call Me Tsarina

I've been playing around quite a bit with Ancestry.com during these last several weeks of illness/bad weather. I've made much more progress on my family tree and somewhat less progress on Jim's.

One of the most fascinating things I've learned is that Jim's mother and my mother are distantly related! Weird. They are each descendants from different branches of the New England Pierce family. I knew from some of my past research that our moms had ancestors from the same general area, but I confirmed the actual connection this week. They're probably second cousins nine times removed or something like that. I wonder how common an occurrence that is?

The other fun thing I've done is run the "famous relatives" finder. Now, you have to take these relationships with a big grain of salt until they are proven accurate. For example, I know that I'm related to Isaac Eaton, a Mayflower pilgrim, because my mother's cousin has proven the connection to the Mayflower Society. So I'm confident that the Plymouth ancestors are accurate. I'm also fairly certain, based on my research, that my father's connection to the Scottish Earl of Redcastle is accurate.

The finder program gives you both direct and indirect relatives. It does permit you to review the lineage to make sure it's at least facially accurate. I ruled out several connections just based on the fact that birth and death dates made the connection impossible. The other ones are interesting, but too distant for me to bother researching. You might find them amusing, though, so here they are!

Direct Ancestors Through My Father:

Several Scottish peers including the Earl of Redcastle
Tsar Peter Alekseyevich
Catherine the Great

(don't let these go to your head, Dad!)

Direct Ancestors Through My Mother:

Mayflower Pilgrims, including Isaac Eaton and Thomas Billington (first man hanged for a crime in the Plymouth Colony)
Sir Walter Raleigh

Jim's Direct Descendants Through His Mother:

Sir Thomas More

Sadly, I don't have enough information yet about Jim's father's ancestors to find anyone famous in that line.

Much more amusing, however, are the indirect ancestors that they find for you. I've organized them by category here:

Authors/Poets:

Louisa May Alcott, T.S. Eliot, Alfred Tennyson, E.E. Cummings (all through Jim's mother)

Robert Louis Stevenson, D.H. Lawrence, John Milton, Nathaniel Hawthorne (all through my mother)

John Steinbeck, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry David Thoreau (ancestors in common)

Presidents and First Ladies:

James Garfield, Gerald Ford (Jim's mother)

William Taft, Benjamin Harrison, Chester Arthur, Franklin Pierce (my mother)

Ellen Wilson, Mamie Eisenhower (Jim's mother)

Grace Coolidge, Elizabeth Monroe (my mother)

In common: Jane Pierce

Entertainment Industry

Lucille Ball and her children, Walt Disney (Jim's mother)

Bob Hope and Bette Davis (my mother)

Inventors

Samuel Morse, Humphrey Davy, Eli Whitney (Jim's mother)

Wernher von Braun (my mother)

Robert Goddard (in common)

Outlaws

Tom Ketchum (Jim's mother)

Wild Bill Hickock and Ned Kelly (my mother)

Gun Manufacturers

Daniel Wesson (Jim's mother)

William and Oliver Winchester (my mother)

I guess you can thank our two families for almost single handedly supplying weapons to America.