Seems to me that we have a very eclectic bunch here at CycleFish and given my love for history I was curious as to those that have famous ancestors.  My maternal grandmother passed a few years back but before she did she had researched our heritage all the way back to the first supply ship to come to the USA(1606 A.D. I believe).  In reading her research I came across a couple well known names.

Jedediah Smith
Early 1800's Explorer, fur trader, trapper

Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President of the USA
Only president to be injured in the Civil War

Tell me about your's

Lord Admiral Enlow of the British Navy (that's where I get my "Swave") & Jesse James (the outlaw not the bike builder.... That's where I get my attitude !!!)

On my mother's side of the family, Stuart, we can trace back to Mary, Queen of Scots. Although royal blood flows, minimally, through my veins, I am still an American but a proud Scot!

My Grand-father.

 John Joseph (Sean) Liddy (1890 – 1965) was an Irish politician and founder member of the Garda Síochána (the police force of the Republic of Ireland). On his retirement, he also founded and became the first President of the Garda Pensioners Association (1961–1966), later to be renamed the Garda Síochána Retired Members Association(GSRMA).

Alongside lifelong friend Michael Collins, he was a prominent veteran of the Irish War of Independence. Subsequently, he served as a Teachta Dála (TD), Army Officer and Garda Chief Superintendent.

In the 1921 elections, he was elected unopposed to the 2nd Dáil as a Sinn Féin TD for the constituency of Clare. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted in favour of it. He was re-elected unopposed as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TD at the 1922 general election. He resigned as a TD on 18 December 1922.

He died as a result of a motor accident in March 1965.

The Liddy Medal – the Garda Veterans Injury Award – is named in his memory. The medal is presented to retired Gardaí who were injured in the line of duty while in the Force.^[1]

I can not trace back to men so grand as you guys. I am descended from the bastard children of Kit Carson on one side and Jesse James on the other! My Dad alway told me I never had a chance being born outlaw all the way around!

I've got a lot of them....................most were executed by the British for rebellion, and those that weren't were jailed by them.

Funny story here. During the Irish civil war 1920-22 my granduncle was captured by the army, and sentenced to 10 years hard labour in Limerick prison, which is about 60 miles away from Cork. He was given a one man escort on the train. His escort was his brother!!!!! who took the opposite side in the war. Anyway it took them 2 weeks to get to Limerick prison, my grandad always said the only way to get to Limerick without passing a pub, was to go into them all. Looks like they did. When they got to Limerick my granduncle "escaped", and his poor brother was given a month in detention for dereliction of duty.They never found out that they were brothers. My granuncle then managed to get to America, where he joined the Navy, and was killed on Omaha beach in 1944 aged 41, his son was later killed in Korea...crazy world

My grand dad was the only one who lived to a ripe old age, the rest kept getting executed for their political beliefs.

The struggle for a free Ireland is one of the reasons we can sometimes have a dark sense of humuor. When you are a nation that has been occupied for over 800 years, you laugh at everything and nothing is is sacred because that sense of humour is all we had as a nation to keep us going.
And no we have been an independent state since 1922 we have retained this dark humour and to outsiders it can seem harsh.

Roy / Dyna I got to say you two blokes are the coolest dude's I 've known. Damn it I want to sit and drink beer and bend your ear for an entire night. I shit you not I have never throught about Ireland much, and now I find myself wanting to go there more than anything. I fear you would drink me under the table pretty quickly. You would probably end up standing me in a corner and continue to party all night long.
Danm it one of these days I will see you guys, and we shall drink and tell lies until we drop.
Dragon

I am related on my moms side to Hanna Moore,wife of Andrew "Stone Wall" Jackson, and on my dads to a banker who got robber by Jesse James in Joplin,Missouri...he was on the posse that went after him but he got away.

So, it's a good thing our families are not still on the opposite sides of the fence, eh?

Damn Claudia, Jesse James!! Guess that makes us what...... cousins !!!!!!!!   

Cool stuff everyone.
My great great grandfather was a colonel in the civil war. A book was written about him being the commander of the "19th Iron Brigade." He was killed in the chest by a direct hit of a canon ball in 1864!
We have his Epaulettes, Buttons, Boots, Bayonet, Many other things. I have a gold stick pin with a 1/4ct diamond in it that my grandmother gave me about 30 years ago. Men wore these then.


Cool link to his page.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6038269 />

You know what is really scary....I am a spit-ten image of him all but the beard and my hair has not receded that far.....yet.

Nope! Nutnin' but rednecks all the way down.

texas jack, my uncle, a gambler by trade, rode a bull from mcallen, texas to the worlds fair in new york on a bet.

Sgt York, the most decorated soldier in WWI. Gary Cooper played him in a famous movie.

Marcelle Ledbetter

How many time removed do you think?

That is why Irish pubs have coat hangers, when you are too drunk to stand we just hang each other up on the wall and continue on

Dennis Leary, the comedian once said he thought he had a drink problem until he came to Ireland but realized after his visit that he was close to being Tee-totaler!

Knowing where you came from is important as it gives you a sense of tradition and belonging, which gives great confidence in the way you approach the world.
Those of you here who can trace back to outlaws give you a sense of independence and wildness. In the case of rory and myself, we come from a long line of fighters for freedom and justice so it makes us resilient and confident.  These are the kind of traits while we may not think important are what we pass on to our kids to prepare them for the world.

That is exactly why I brought this topic up, sometimes a look into the past can give us some insight into our present and future.  I feel a lot of each individuals spirit is genetic.

I'm quite Infamous myself, the first person in the History of Martin County Florida to get arrested for sales and posession of marijuana..........


Oh!....... Ancestors........... Robert Goulet and Mom are cousins, she played piano for him singing at all the family functions when they was kids, he just passed away a couple years ago.