It's all relative

I love genealogy – I’ve been formally tracking my family tree since 2008.  The best part of it is finding out that there are some famous nuts in our tree.  As a child, I was completely obsessed with Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables.  Imagine my joy at finding out I’m related (distantly, of course) to both the Ingalls family and Lucy Maude Montgomery, the author of the Green Gables series.  Laura Ingalls is my 9^thcousin, 4 times removed and the line is through my Mother’s side of the family.  Really!! 

It’s fun to find out about relatives of famous people that I didn’t know were related.  For example, did you know: 

·         Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

·         Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson are the children of Goldie Hawn.

·         Francis Ford Coppola is Nicholas Cage’s uncle.

·         Jenny McCarthy and Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly) are first cousins.

·         Liza Minelli’s mother was Judy Garland, who is also a relative: 9^th cousin twice removed on my Mother’s side.

·         Law & Order SVU’s Mariska Hargitay’s mother was Jayne Mansfield, the famous actress/playmate of the 50’s who was killed in an auto accident.

·         Bonnie Bedelia, the matriarch of the Parenthood series and the ‘Die Hard’ movies is aunt to the Culkin boys, Kieran, Rory and most famously, Macaulay.  Their father is her brother.

·         Sasha Alexander, the actress who plays Maura Isles on ‘Rizzoli & Isles’ – her mother-in-law is Sophia Loren!

I’m sure there are a lot more – random trivia is my specialty!   

My genealogy research has turned up some interesting things.  For example, a relative was accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials but was later exonerated.  Turns out, she was found to suffer from epilepsy!  Another relative – a man and his two sons – were passengers who perished when Titanic went down. 

In my research I ran across a list of actual requests received by the Family History Department of the LDS Church – they have AWESOME records.  These were the requests I found quite funny – the parenthesis are, of course, my smarty-pants response:

·         I would like to find out if I have any living relatives or dead relatives or ancestors in my family.  (I just hope she doesn’t have any children of her own.)

·         I am mailing you my Aunt and Uncle and three of their children.  (In a box, so open it as SOON as you get it!)

·         Will you please send me the name of my first wife?  I have forgotten her name.  (Seriously?!?)

It’s 2012….do YOU know where your great great great great grandparents are??  I bet I do!