Thursday, June 16, 2016

Famous Cousins - Bogart, Shepard, Williams, Earhart, Dudley and Bradstreet

On this week's Genealogy Roadshow from Boston, D. Joshua Taylor told one of the subjects that he was related to Humphrey Bogart, Alan Shepard, Tennesese Williams and Amelia Earhart, plus Josh himself, and also Thomas Dudley and Ann (Dudley) Bradstreet too.  The subject loved it.  Since the relationships all seemed to have New England ancestry, so I was curious to see if I am related to them too.

I entered their names on both Geni.com and WikiTree, and sure enough, there were relationships for all of them to me.  But Geni.com's relationships were different than WikiTree's.

1)  For instance, here is the Geni.com relationship chart for me and Bogart:


But I see an error I haven't corrected in Geni.com - my William Cutter's mother was not Mary Pike, but Mercy Kelsey.

The WikiTree relationship page for Humphrey Bogart (Bogart-6) and me (Seaver-15) is (two screens):



Hmmm, the common ancestor is Humphrey Kirby (1592-1620) through daughter Jane Kirby (1615-1650) who married Richard Kirby (1603-1688).  I don't have Jane as a Kirby because there seem to be no reliable records with the surname.  I'll pass on this one.

2)  I'll use WikiTree for my relationship with Alan Shepard (Shepard-1194).  Here is the top of my relationship chart with Alan:

:
This is a Mayflower line to Richard and Elizabeth (Walker) Warren, and I am fairly confident that Alan's line is correct and I'm very confident that my line is correct.  Alan Shepard and I are 10th cousins according to the chart, but we are really 8th cousins twice removed.  There are 318 common ancestors within 25 generations on the site.

3)  I'll use WikiTree for my relationship with Amelia Earhart (Earhart-1) also.  Here is the top of the chart 


This is also a Mayflower line to Richard and Elizabeth (Walker) Warren, and I'm very confident in my line.  So Amelia Earhart and I are 9th cousins twice removed also.

4)  Lastly, let's look at my relationship to Tennessee Williams (Williams-9016).  Here is the top of the page:


I recognize the line back to the common ancestors John Stanton and Mary Harndel, and have high confidence in my line.  Tennessee and I are 8th cousins twice removed.

5)  As I suspected, I seem to be related to all four of them, but Bogart may be a stretch.  I did not find Josh Taylor in the Geni.com or WikiTree files, probably because he is a living person.  After I die and someone enters my death date into Geni or WikiTree, he can perhaps blog about our relationship.

6)  The subject on Genealogy Roadshow this week was also a descendant of Thomas Dudley and Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet, as am I.

Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet (Dudley-318) is my 9th great-grandmother, and Thomas Dudley and his wife, Dorothy Yorke, are my 10th great-grandparents.

7)  Well, that was my fun for the day.  Are you related to these historical people?  Are you in WikiTree (free) or Geni (pay)?  They are both connected family trees.  

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm related to Bogey and Amelia too. Amelia is my 12th cousin and Bogey my 11th cousin 2x removed.