This week's famous cousin is Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). the noted author.
Here is the FamilySearch Family Tree Brief Life History biography:
"Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
"Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and 'Yankee' love of practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.
"He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Thoreau is sometimes cited as an anarchist. Though Civil Disobedience seems to call for improving rather than abolishing government — 'I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government' — the direction of this improvement points toward anarchism: 'That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.' Richard Drinnon partly blames Thoreau for the ambiguity, noting that Thoreau's 'sly satire, his liking for wide margins for his writing, and his fondness for paradox provided ammunition for widely divergent interpretations of Civil Disobedience."His Wikipedia entry is here.
The FamilySearch Family Tree indicates that I am his 5th cousin five times removed. Here is the closest relationship path:
My most recent common ancestors with cousin Henry David Thoreau are my 9th great-grandparents Richard Warren (1608-1668) and Elizabeth Warren (1616-1670).
My grandkids will be thrilled, I think. I am! My mother would have been too.
Are you related to Henry David Thoreau? Check it out on FamilySearch Family Tree by clicking the "View Relationship" link at the top of the page. Note that you have to be a profile connected to the FamilySearch Family Tree in order for this to work.
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