It was quite an eye opening day, and has given me much more to delve into in my family history. It seems I don't just have James Murrell in my family tree but I have 5 other pretty famous people in there too - albeit distant distant cousins - and that's pretty neat, I think.
Family Search, the genealogy site linked to the LDS Church (who have the biggest repository of births/death/marriage in the world) notified me of the connections.
Through my mother's side of the family, 11 generations, and Judy Garland's Henry Brawner (born in 1600) was the brother of my line's Mary Brawner (1609-1681). Their parents died in Willesborough, Kent. That was a surprise but not the only one.
I've always liked her as an actress. She was one of the starlets in the Zeigfeld Girl and Ziegfeld Follies movies, in the 1940s. 2 of my fave movies from that era. Sadly, MGM Studios, which produced the movies, was one of those that gave the actresses uppers to get them up bright and early to shoot their scenes, and downers to help them sleep, which began the addiction that followed her all through her life.
On my father's side, I have the connections to the other 4.
Amazingly enough, one of those was also one of Zeigfeld's "girls" and a brilliant actress and businesswoman, in her own right, and later a comedienne. Another that I have loved and admired most of my life. Lucille Ball. WOW, that was a def "I wish I'd known this 40 odd years ago".She is my 13th cousin once removed.
In her case, we're separated by 13 generations, through John King (1540-1583) on my side and his sister, Mary (1555-1653) who died in Little Baddow near Chelmsford.
Even wilder than that is that Elvis Presley is my 13th cousin once removed.To think of all of his songs that I sang along to growing up and I had no clue. Even neater is that we share a "Lady" as a however-many-times-great-grandmother. Lady Margaret Elisabeth Sytherhurst. Nobility in my genes ... is that why my little finger sticks out when I drink from a cup?
Sir Peter Blake, the yachtsman who has won the America Cup twice, is my 12th cousin once removed.
Last, but def not least, one of the authors of "the classics" a lady who gave us insights into Victorian society and the lives of women during that time, Jane Austen. She's my 6th cousin 8 times removed.WOW! At first, she had to publish her books anonymously because writing was considered a man's arena, and her first novel, "Sense and Sensibility", was published as authored "By A Lady".
