Famous People Ancestry

Have you ever seen the show Who Do you think you are? I really like it because people go on there and bear their past to all. It shows that often we never really know where we are from and in some senses it doesn’t matter on the surface but of course it can help us form our identity. The United States has especially been a country of immigration so many people end up completely surprised with some of their ancestry.

Famous People Ancestry

In fact President Obama was just visited Ireland. Whilst in Moneygall, Ireland he told the people about Falmouth Kearney who was a shoemaker in the town who emigrated to USA during the Great Famine of Ireland. Falmouth is one of Obama’s maternal great-great-great-grandfathers! Obama told the crowds “This little country that inspires the biggest things — Your best days are still ahead.”. Obama will be visiting Britain, France and Poland and you never know he may have a distant relative in each place he visits!

I have not been on the show I mentioned in the introduction but my mother did do some research on our family and found out we have Russian Jewish roots that we never knew about before. We all have Romany gypsy roots and a lot of Irish on the other side. Interesting indeed but what roots do some of the famous people you know have? Let’s take a look at some of them.

Barack Obama and Winston Churchill Are Distantly Related

It’s quite cool that Obama and Churchhill are distantly related through his mothers side. Oddly he is also related to George W. Bush and Brad Pitt somehow! I don’t know if that means Pitt and Bush are related to each other though!

Sarah Palin and Princess Diana

Palin is distantly related to Diana and her English roots also link her back to Rev. John Lothrop who came from England in 1634 and founded Barnstable, Massachusetts. She can also be traced back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Tom Hanks and Abraham Lincoln

I think Hanks would have done a decent job playing Lincoln even though he is a little too well filled (but he has lost immense amounts of weight for past roles) so it’s kind of cool that they are related. On his mothers side his family has Portuguese roots.
Hitler ‘had Jewish and African roots’, DNA tests show – according to the Telegraph

The Telegraph.co.uk claims that DNA research links Hitler genetically to 2 of the major groups he created hate campaigns against. This isn’t too surprising though really! The DNA tests were taken from some of Hitler’s living relatives and although not conclusive do bear for interesting thoughts.

Tim McGraw and Tug McGraw

In his teens country singer Tim McGraw found out that he had famous ancestry very close to him. He found out his biological father was pro baseball player Tug McGraw.

Alex Haley from Republic of Gambia

Alex Haley knew the importance of ancestry and wrote the book “Roots: The Saga of an American Family”. He had slave ancestry originating from the Republic of Gambia. They landed in Annapolis, MD.

Salem Witch Trials and Sarah Jessica Parker

Parker discovered her roots were actually British after thinking them German for most of her life. She also discovered her 10th Great Grandmother was accused of being a witch in the Salem Witch Trials.

Eva Longoria Parker and Yo-Yo Ma Share a Native American Ancestor

Eva found out through the show Faces of America that she was related to the Chinese-American Chello player Yo-Yo Ma through a common Native ancestor, very cool indeed!

Robert Pattinson, vampiric roots!

Pattinson found out that he was related to a real Count who partially inspired Bram Stoker’s original Vampire novel. He is related to Vlad the Impaler and also a distant cousin of Princes William and Harry.

Lionel Richie Civil Rights

Lionel Richie was one of the celebrities on the show “Who Do you think you are?”. He had a find to be proud of as he traced himself back to an old civil rights group of 1897 through his great grandfather.

Robert Duvall and Robert E. Lee

Duvall actually traced his ancestry to Robert E. Lee which is very fitting that he would play him in Gods and Generals, the prequel to the Gettysburg film.