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* So, I’ve been hearing for several years that I’m somehow related to the late, great Johnny Cash on my father’s side of the family. I’m also related to Thomas Jefferson on my mother’s side. Johnny Cash and Thomas Jefferson - that’s pretty darned cool if you ask me (and you didn’t).
My Aunt Janet traced the lineage back to Jefferson years ago, but for whatever reason I never really asked about the Cash thing until this past weekend, when I pressed my dad for details during Father’s Day brunch at a Gilman truck stop. (And, no, I’m not kidding about the truck stop. That’s where he wanted to meet. Yes, i have a blue collar background. And, yes, the food was mighty tasty.)
According to Dad, my great-great uncle was Johnny Cash’s great-grandfather. Apparently, the man left Kentucky one step ahead of the law. Family lore has it that he shot somebody (although probably not in Reno).
Anyway, I have no proof of this, just family oral history. But let’s celebrate with a video. I love this tune…
Then you took me to St. Louis later on down the river
* Do you have any famous ancestors? Let’s hear about them.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:38 am
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The folks in Kentuck are working on the lineage, hope to have it soon.
Comment by Dad Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:45 am
Apparently, distantly related to Jefferson Davis through the Irish side of my grandmother’s family. That pleased some of my latter-day Copperhead relatives in Southern Illinois, but this proud Unionist was never so happy about that connection …
Comment by vise77 Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:45 am
And, yes, the “Dad” commenter is, indeed, my dad.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:50 am
No famous ancestors that I can take seriously, but I’d say your Dad has good taste in truck stops.
Comment by Way Way Down Here Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:52 am
===but I’d say your Dad has good taste in truck stops. ===
Yep. That was one darned good breakfast, man.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:55 am
Martin Luther. Also Robert Bruce was excommunicated for murdering my ancestor (Robert’s cousin), John “the red” Comyn.
Comment by Excessively Rabid Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 9:56 am
I’m related to the publisher of Capitol Fax….but that would be infamous…not famous
Comment by Doug Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:04 am
Family lore can be quite interesting. One story has me related to Eddie Arnold on moms side.
Some of the better ones come from dads side. Rumors of a Japanese half brother, Dad who is long gone now was stationed with the occupation forces after WW2. Perhaps the best one though is the story of how my dads mothers first husband went hunting with my great grandfather and did not return with him. That was not the only interesting story about great grandaddy.
Comment by Bemused Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:06 am
Nixon was a cousin….I think the blood lines are pretty thin on that one though…
Comment by A.B. Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:06 am
William H Seward - member of Lincoln’s Cabinet and Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of state, who purchased Alaska, was an ancestor.
Jean Baptiste Ste Marie who was an early frontiersman in Canada, Illinois, and Indiana, and was a high ranking officer at Fort Wayne and was involved with the founding of Vincennes.
And a great X ? grandfather who held some sort of boxing title in England. Can’t remember the particulars but will have to go through the volumes of records my Mom accumulated on our family tree one day to find out.
Comment by Irish Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:15 am
Jefferson was a strange cat. He very likely allowed some of his own children to live as slaves.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:17 am
My wife and President Obama’s mom are both descended from Jefferson Davis; I tell folks that he’s “my cousin by marriage”. My wife is also related to Stephen A. Douglas.
Comment by Esteban Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:21 am
Word - That may well be but he was also a man of vision. In reading several accounts of the Lewis and Clark expeditions, I was impressed with the forward thinking that he did. And faced political repercussions for those decisions. Yet without them we might not be the country we are. I think his contributions beyond the early years of the Decaration of Indendence, et al. have been overlooked by history. He probably was the first conservationist we had in government. Some of his motivation was economical as he was looking for things that could become cash crops but he also was very interested in indentifying and documenting the flora and fauna of the early United States.
Comment by Irish Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:25 am
Richard the Lion-Hearted, a long time ago but still pretty cool
Comment by Political junkie Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:33 am
I’m related to Uncle Adam and Aunt Eve, but then again who isn’t?
Comment by Tommydanger Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:42 am
I am supposedly related to Meriwether Lewis through my father’s side. This same lineage makes us related to former Illinois State Treasurer and Speaker of the House Louis E. Lewis.
Also, may I humbly suggest that the Johnny Cash song, “The Road to Kaintuck” may be appropriate here as well? It’s an obscure number, but great nonetheless.
Comment by Old Shepherd Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:44 am
My American patriarch was Diggory, who is rumored to have killed a man in england and hoped the first boat to America the next morning as a stowaway. Not exactly a glorious history, but interesting to me nontheless.
I had two friends in high school, one descended from Ulysses S. Grant, another descended from Jefferson Davis. When they found out, they looked at each other and said “So, does this mean we have to fight now or something?”
Comment by Colossus Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:45 am
In the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware, there is a man in front breaking the ice, dressed in a tartan. That is my Scottish Kennedy ancestor.
Also, my spouse’s grandfather was the starting quarterback for Notre Dame the game where Rockne gave the Gipper speech. Yes, it really happened, but later they all realized that George Gipp (sp?) never would have said something that sentimental.
Comment by 32nd Ward Roscoe Village Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:56 am
My great great etc grandfather came here with Captain John Smith. He brought along his valet. That always makes me laugh. Obviously he had no clue what he had gotten himself in to. Not famous, but we’ve been here long enough to have married the arriviste Jeffersons, Randolphs, Washingtons, etct. The Carters Harrison were distant relatives.
Comment by Cheryl44 Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 10:59 am
My Mom’s first cousin was engaged to Sinatra’s daughter (I don’t know which one)… does that count for something?
Comment by Just Observing Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 11:00 am
I am a direct descendant of the man who invented the patent still and thus modernized the distillation of whiskey in early 19th century Ireland.
So next time you raise a glass of Jameson Rich you can thank my family.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 11:02 am
Does being something like the 12th in line to an Irish peerage (Earl) count? No? Fine, then I’ve got nothing.
Comment by Thoughts... Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 11:18 am
Johnny Cash? Highly unusual for a left wing, bearded, long haired leaping gnome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W77Kwh6f0TE
Comment by House of Pain Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 11:21 am
My Dad’s much older brother played harmonica and violin in Al Capone’s favorite party band in Cicero.
Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 11:34 am
Governor John Wood & William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Comment by Highland, Il Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 12:31 pm
Sorry. Hinky Dink Kenna
Comment by old soil Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 12:37 pm
Depends on how you define famous …
Other than one great-father who almost single-handedly funded the construction of a Catholic church and a grandfather who founded a union local, nothing in my family tree … but I think the family name was changed from Germany to here to protect the guilty …
The wife’s side is a different story. A musical prodigy, some well known horse breeders, one infamous (but not very smart) murderer, and one signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas McKean.
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 1:51 pm
=Yep. That was one darned good breakfast, man.=
Whenever we were on the road, my son and I used to like going to truck stops for lunch. Met some very kind, hardworking, and interesting people there. They made you proud to be an American.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 2:21 pm
13th Greatgrand father was William Brewster, signer of the Mayflower Compact.
Casmir Pulaski is a cousin.
Sarah Biddle Barrows - The Mayflower Madam is a cousin.
Comment by Huh? Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 2:37 pm
It must of been a while since Rich has eaten in a truck stop as he totally missed the words “breakfast skillet” on the menu and he had to envy and eye my superior menu choice.
Comment by Devin Miller Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 7:28 pm
zatoichi: Did he play them both at the same time? I’m impressed!!
But I have no famous nor infamous ancestors. Some of us are just ordinary, I suppose.
Comment by JorgXMcKie Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 8:07 pm
Devin, I ate at a truck stop during Derby weekend. And I’ll probably never hear the end if it.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 19, 12 @ 11:46 pm