Famous Relatives

When delving into your family history, you may be curious as to whether you bear any relationship to a famous person from the past. Though sharing a surname with someone else does not guarantee that you are related to them, it can be intriguing to consider the possibility. However, to find out the truth, you must dig deeply into history.

Surnames are often descriptive. Often the name indicates the geographical location where a person was born or it could indicate the profession they were in. Surnames are not always an indication of blood relationship.

Are Fame and Notoriety in Your Family’s Past?

To determine whether you are related to a famous person, you may need to go back several generations prior to the time of that individual’s birth. You might have a common ancestor who was this famous person’s great-great grandfather, for example. To make this determination, you will need to follow the same steps you follow in other genealogical research.

You can look at biographies about the famous person and find out details about the names of his or her family. Then, you track those names in the same manner you do in other family histories.

Resources for Scouting Famous Relatives

When conducting your research, you should look at vital records (i.e. birth, death and marriage records). Many of these vital records can be accessed by the specific state’s department of health and vital records. Depending upon where your relative was born, married, and died, you may need to look into different states to access all of the vital records. If the state search does not provide sufficient information, you can also look into the specific county clerk’s office.

To begin your search, you can start with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that provides resources to each state’s records and how you can obtain vital records.

You may also want to look into divorce records, as well as court records. These documents can shed further light on your relatives, and you can check with the state or county’s superior courts to access these documents. Depending on the state, you may also find this information at the county clerk’s office.

If you are looking for an ancestor from more than 70 years ago, census records are a great resource to provide you with untold information about your distant relative. Try the National Archives for this type of information.

Mining the Data

To create the most interesting family histories, you need to mine the rich data resources available to you. Armed with vital records and census documents, you can begin to reveal all the information you could ever dream of finding about your ancestors. To make the family tree more interesting, include a smattering of information about the society and the time period in which your ancestors lived. And, if you have a famous person in your line, be sure to highlight that point and find out everything you can about them and their connection to your family.