Comedic Relatives ~ Comedy Connections

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 33 (COMEDY)


When I discovered that I am the 11th cousin of Princess Diana through my mother's line friends laughed at how excited I was for such a distant cousin. They also commented if you look hard enough we are all related to everyone.


This week's prompt, comedy, left me wondering if I am related to any famous comedians. Thinking about the belief that we are all related I thought I would have a long list to share in this blog.


I visited FamousKin.com to search for in common matches with myself & Robin Williams.


Turns out that we aren't all related. 


I looked to see if I could find a way to connect Robin Williams to my tree. Robin Williams is my all time favourite comedic actor. I watched him first in Mork & Mindy, and have been a fan ever since. I was very sad when he passed away in 2014. 


I am not related to Robin Williams. 


After I found no connection to Robin Williams I started searching for other famous Comedians. 

I spent hours searching through the in-common relatives I had with famous folks on the FamousKin.com website, and found only three.


They nicely fit this week's prompt because they are Comedians & it really is comedic just how distantly related we are. Yet I can still claim then as kin by marriage since they fit into my family tree.


In alphabetical order I present my comedic relations below.

********

JIM CARREY

4th cousin 6x removed of husband of my 5th cousin 6x removed

James Eugene (Jim) Carrey

BIRTH 17 JAN 1962 • Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

DEATH Living

***

CHEVY CHASE

8th great-nephew of wife of my 1st cousin 9x removed

Cornelius Crane (Chevy) Chase

BIRTH 8 OCT 1943 • Lower Manhatten, New York, USA

DEATH Living

***

ELLEN DeGENERES

2nd cousin 12x removed of husband of my 2nd cousin 9x removed

Ellen Lee DeGeneres

BIRTH 26 JAN 1958 • Metairie, Louisiana, USA

DEATH Living

***

I was very disappointed to not be related to Robin Williams, but being related to Ellen DeGeneres, Chevy Chase, and Jim Carrey is a very nice consolation. I am definitely a fan of all three who I now know I am related to. My family line connection is through my mother's paternal BAYES married MERRILL line. My mother passed away before I found this connected line. She would have taken great delight in her famous relatives.


When I first began researching my family tree it was because I knew very little beyond my immediate family. I had discovered that what I thought I knew wasn't accurate. 


6 years ago I started this blog, and wrote this introduction at the top:

This is my space to share my quest to collect as many broken branches as I can in my fractured family tree which resembles a bramble bush more then a proper tree. As I go forward in this blogging journey I hope to share how I have searched far & wide for family - with no regard for where they come from or if I should really want them. 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know! 

Blood, marriage, adoption, attachment - all are included in my tree!




This is why I search - 



Cause ... 





You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!















***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***



Sources:


FamousKin.com, Jim Carrey, Retrieved August 14th 2019 from 
https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=95438+jim+carrey&ahnum=1

FamousKin.com, Chevy Chase, Retrieved August 14th 2019 from 
https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=42906

FamousKin.com, Ellen DeGeneres, Retrieved August 14th 2019
https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=43480

FamousKin.com, Robin Williams, Retrieved August 14th 2019
https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=29131

Google Images, Retrieved August 14th 2019 from
https://www.google.ca/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&authuser=0&ogbl


Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

***

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

This lady in waiting --- too late to meet my famous cousin

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 4 (I'd Like to Meet)

Growing up I had a very small family circle. I didn't have very many extended family members. Anytime I wondered why I was told that my ancestors didn't stay connected to their families or they came from a small family. It wasn't until I started searching that I realized the lack of family connections was because I descend from at least 3 black-sheep lines.

My grandmother was born Bayes. This family line is not a black-sheep line. As far back as I knew it was a proper English line. For this reason I didn't bother searching. I thought I already knew the line was boring. 

The only exciting part of that line that I knew was that I was related to the actress Nora Bayes. This famous relative was paraded out at all family gatherings. When I first started researching I discovered Nora Bayes' birth name was Rachel Eleanora Goldberg. My Bayes family line is not related to Nora Bayes. I have told my grandmother we aren't related to Nora Bayes many times. The last time she mentioned it again, I smiled & said how exciting that was. I realized that I wan't responsible for altering my senior grandmother's reality.
Family lore is interesting. 

What would have been way more exciting to parade out at all our family gatherings is that THIS particular Bayes line includes Princess Diana. Princess Diana is my 11th cousin.  Her 10th great grandparents are also my 10th great grandparents.
The grandparents we have in common are:

Thomas Ford

BIRTH 1587 • Bridport, Dorset, England

DEATH 9 NOV 1676 • Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America
and

Elizabeth Charde

BIRTH 1589 • Thorncombe, Bridgeport, Dorsetshire, England

DEATH 18 APR 1643 • Windsor, Hartford, Colony of Connecticut, British Colonial America

I am the 10th great granddaughter of Thomas & Elizabeth through their daugher Hepzibah, and Diana is their 10th great granddaughter through their daughter Abigail.  I was delighted when I opened the library book with Princess Diana's genealogy to find my ancestors. If I was being honest I would have to admit that I really was searching for famous folks in my family tree. Through this line I found the genealogy jackpot.

To find a royal relative was beyond anything I had imagined. Until I took a moment to realize I am related to Diana through HER black-sheep line (her mom's branch of the family tree). One more black-sheep line found.

I would love to have met Diana. Not only because she was a princess, but because she was an amazing person who accomplished amazing things.

My mother passed away about a year before I discovered the family connection to Diana. Mom would have loved knowing she was related to a princess.

Have to admit I was shocked when my invitation to Harry & Megan's wedding never arrived. I guess they didn't want to invite the Canadian cousins.

This lady in waiting is watching the mailbox for the invite to the baby shower!

Diana circa 1992

Can you see the family resemblance?

Me circa 1984

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of to the blog post***

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

If I were a man and wore a cowboy hat.

Recently a coworker (for privacy sake lets call her Kelly) emailed me letting me know that if I were a man and wore a cowboy hat I would look just like Clint Walker as he appeared on the front of the tv series Cheyenne Season 1.  


I promptly ordered in season 1 of the tv series from my library, and realized she is right.  

The why and wherefores of the mystery of my paternal grandfather is too big for just one blog entry. For this entry I will share that there is a missing 10 years from the time he left his family in Saskatchewan (with name #1) and when he met my grandmother in Calgary (with name #2).


If there was no mystery surrounding this one relative I might not be left wondering if I could be related to this actor. But since I know this, and many other mysteries, I am left truly wondering - could we be related.  


My grandfather would have only been 17 when Norman Eugene Walker (better known as Clint Walker) was born, but the time of his birth fits into the missing 10 years. My quick online research reveals a twin sister, but no mention of other siblings or parents.

Then again - the library copy has shortened the cover and Clint Walker doesn't actually look like the cowboy on the front of the dvd cover either. I think we can call this mystery resolved - I am not a man, I don't own a cowboy hat, and this is not my relative.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047720/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!