Weird ancestors is Create's April theme. What did your weird ancestors do?

These famous people had sometimes embarrassing ancestors. They make good family stories.

1. You'd think US presidents would be more varied, but no. Two father-and-son sets have been president, and one pair of distant cousins. Give the three names of these office hogs. Adams, Bush, and Roosevelt.
2. Another US president, Jimmy Carter, shares an ancestor with a king. What celebrity is Jimmy distantly related to through an obscure German immigrant? Elvis Presley.
3. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch has some embarrassing ancestors. How did they make their money? As slaveholding plantation owners in the West Indies.
4. Cherie Blair is a distant cousin of an infamous US actor from the 19th Century. What did this relative do that might make her husband a bit nervous? He shot Abraham Lincoln. (John Wilkes Booth.)
5. Actor George Clooney shares an ancestor with an iconic figure from US history: maybe he should have played him rather than Daniel Day-Lewis. Who was Clooney's half-first cousin five times removed? Abraham Lincoln.
6. For an unconscionably long time, the Commonwealth (state) of Virginia had laws defining the 'race' of its citizens. What special law would exempt extremely prominent people – such as former US president George W Bush – from being labeled 'not white'? The Pocahontas Exemption. (Lots of FFV (First Families of Virginia) were related to the Rolfe family, and Pocahontas (Matoaka) was Powhatan.
7. Bing Crosby, a famous Catholic, had a famous Puritan ancestor. The first religious leader in Plymouth Colony, William Brewster, had four children. Their names were Patience, Fear, Love, and what?
   
   • Wrestling
8. Alan Shepard was the first American in space. But an ancestor of his made 'first contact'. With whom? Native Americans. (It was a first for the Pilgrims.)
9. The Baldwin Brothers, actors, had an ancestor aboard the Mayflower. (He was an indentured servant.) What remarkably embarrassing thing did John Howland do on the voyage to New England? Fell overboard. (They fished him out.)
10. Businessman and sometime TV personality Donald Trump is running for US president. What was his father's unusual middle name? Christ.

We didn't make these up. You can't make things like this up. Tell us about your embarrassing ancestors.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

04.04.16 Front Page

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