Infamous Ancestors and Relatives

[Grumpy Cat]

There is already a thread on famous relatives... but does anyone have infamous ancestors or relatives? I mean controversial politicians, criminals, or people who just stirred the pot.

I'll start. Lucien Bouchard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bouchard).

(I just found this out today. lol)

[Tabiti]

The first cousin of my maternal grandmother was a general on high post and took part in organizing a take-over of the government and dethroning the then main secretary of the ruling communistic party. He was thrown in jail for that.

[Grey]

Robert Ritter.

Also, this doesn't apply to me personally, but a friend of mine is the grandchild of an infamous Guatemalan communist (name withheld for obvious reasons).

[Electronic God-Man]

If just relatives rather than direct ancestors are counting I have plenty...



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3I_MsAGX584/SX9RN_mkriI/AAAAAAAAD0k/gIqrNkQuSBM/s400/george-bush-middle-finger.jpg

[Cato]

Related via marriage to Abraham Lincoln.

[Svanhild]

Most male members of my family were Wehrmacht soldiers and/or Nazis/members of the NSDAP. Infamous as it gets, huh? :wink

[The Black Prince]

Just one of many infamous ancestors.

5e kruistocht (1217): De legers van Christenen en Saracenen staan tegenover elkaar. Een Moorse prins van ongekend grote afmetingen daagt vol verwaande trots de dapperste Christen tot een tweestrijd uit. De moedige Fries Roorda van Genum neemt de uitdaging aan, en weet de Moor te doden. Met het afgehouwen hoofd van de prins op de punt van zijn zwaard keert hij weer in het Christenleger. Om deze kloeke daad wordt hij tot ridder geslagen en krijgt hij toestemming een Moriaans hoofd in zijn wapen te voeren.

During the 5th Crusade a huge Moorish prince challenged the Crusader army for a duel with their most brave and devout Christian warrior. A Frisian with the name of Roorda accepted the challenge and slew the Moor. With his decapitated head he returned to the Christian army. For this deed he was knighted an allowed to carry a Moor's head as his coat of arms.

http://i40.tinypic.com/15mgtp1.jpg

[Eldritch]

Legend has it a very distant ancestor of mine was a Tavastian tribesman who shot an arrow into the eye of the leader of a Viking raiding party.

[Jarl]

For this deed he was knighted an allowed to carry a Moor's head as his coat of arms.

http://i40.tinypic.com/15mgtp1.jpg


That is interesting! There is a very similar coat of arms in Poland called "Wczele".

[Bloodeagle]

John Wesley Hardin

http://www.lathamtrading.com/catalog/images/wphardin.jpg

[Cato]

A non-lineal descendant of Gorm Gamli.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorm_the_Old

[Loddfafner]

I have a common ancestor with George Bush in the seventeenth century. A more distant near-ancestor tried to bring the Inquisition to Sweden (you did not expect the Swedish Inquisition? The not-so comfy Gustavian chair! The fluffy Ikea pillow!).

Anyways, I've got some major Communists, and, going further back, some standard Wild West notoriety including murderous cowboys. More recently, a suspect for the Zodiac killer.

[Bloodeagle]

My paternal grandmothers first cousin was Liz Renay.

Liz Renay, née Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins (April 14, 1926 - January 22, 2007) was an American (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) author (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author), actress (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actress) and convicted felon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony), who appeared in John Waters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Waters_%28filmmaker%29)' film Desperate Living (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Living) (1977 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_in_film)).
She was born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins on April 16, 1926 in Chandler, Arizona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler,_Arizona) to "evangelical parents."
Renay was mobster Mickey Cohen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Cohen)'s girlfriend. Renay was convicted of perjury (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury) and served 27 months at Terminal Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_Terminal_Island) .[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Renay#cite_note-smith-0)
In her book, My First 2,000 Men, she claimed flings with Joe DiMaggio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_DiMaggio), Regis Philbin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Philbin), and Cary Grant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Grant) among many other male celebrities. She and her daughter, Brenda, toured with a striptease act. The act ended when Brenda committed suicide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide) on her 39th birthday in 1982.
Renay's other books include My Face for the World to See and Staying Young (Lyle Stuart, 1982). My Face for the World to See was reissued in 2002, headlined "A Cult Classic," with a foreword by John Waters.
John Waters integrated the title of Renay's book My Face for the World to See into the dialogue of his film Female Trouble (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_Trouble) (1974 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_in_film)), prior to beginning the film he did with Renay.
Renay died at age 80 on January 22, 2007, in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_metropolitan_area), Nevada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada), from cardiac arrest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_arrest) and gastric bleeding (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_bleeding).[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Renay#cite_note-nytobit-1) She was survived by a son, John McLain, from her second marriage.
She was married a total of seven times, being divorced five times and widowed twice.
http://s11.acephotos.org/images/orig/q/z/qzioe1t44hj2zqoh.jpg
http://www.art247.com/images/large/MIRRORPIX/MP/MP_1065995.jpghttp://lh5.ggpht.com/miguelandrade100/SPbnGX_VvMI/AAAAAAAADNc/J5s-YtAFQPA/s800/How-To-Attract-Men.jpg

[Æscwyn]

I recently solved a family mystery surrounding the parentage of one of my great grandfathers (who was born out of wedlock). It turns out his father was a married Scottish doctor who got several young women pregnant and attempted illegal abortions on them. He was caught and prosecuted.

That'd be right. The bad apple in my tree is a bloody Scot! :p

[Cato]

I recently solved a family mystery surrounding the parentage of one of my great grandfathers (who was born out of wedlock). It turns out his father was a married Scottish doctor who got several young women pregnant and attempted illegal abortions on them. He was caught and prosecuted.

That'd be right. The bad apple in my tree is a bloody Scot! :p

ACH LASSY!

[MagnaLaurentia]

There is already a thread on famous relatives... but does anyone have infamous ancestors or relatives? I mean controversial politicians, criminals, or people who just stirred the pot.

I'll start. Lucien Bouchard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bouchard).

(I just found this out today. lol)

Oh come on! Lucien Bouchard infamous? In your part of country maybe! :rolleyes:

Infamous because he's a separatist? :rolleyes:

[Gamera]

Well, I don't know for sure, but my family thinks we might be related to this Croatian convicted war criminal called Branimir Glavaš (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branimir_Glava%C5%A1):

http://gdb.rferl.org/2A33EAB8-EDA5-40F1-94EE-1758689272D8_mw800_mh600.jpg

And I guess we will never know. :D

[antonio]

John Wesley Hardin

http://www.lathamtrading.com/catalog/images/wphardin.jpg

He sounds me vaguely. After consulting wikipedia just by the facts exposed I have to conclude he was a good man. And I find curious that at that time life of a Black valued more than a White's one on Southern states (that measure reminds me current laws of Spanish socialist goverment by which Men ones are less valuable than Women's) . Anycase seem to be our racial problems have a long distant run.


From my part, Im with 100% degree of certainty distantly related with some well-known Spanish figures, although directly (not thru marriages) just with one: I'm (or maybe my father) a third-degree cousin of a relevant singer and sex-symbol(at least second term came after first)...of course, I'm just exposing the debatable criteria of the masses: IMHO she has no special merits from neither.

More value for me has the 80-90% degree of certainty I have of being direct descendant of some really relevant figures of XI-XII centuries Aragon kingdom (at XVth family lost their power after a dinastic dispute where they follow the more native branch finally defeated), being the main probes my mother's surname and the insightful location (very close of an important centre of that monarchy at XIIth) of the lands of her family.

[Bloodeagle]

He sounds me vaguely. After consulting wikipedia just by the facts exposed I have to conclude he was a good man. And I find curious that at that time life of a Black valued more than a White's one on Southern states (that measure reminds me current laws of Spanish socialist goverment by which Men ones are less valuable than Women's) . Anycase seem to be our racial problems have a long distant run.


If you got in his way he would kill you! :)
He even shot and killed a man for snoring.

[antonio]

But he was drunk. Moreover, when I'm sober, and trying to concentrate whilst suffering the awful dance music from cars at the streets (as strange as it seems for a citizen of a civilized country ) I would not hesitate to fire a machine-gun against them if it were available to me. Indeed I respect specially people fond of silence.

[Turkophagos]

Kyriakos Mavromichalis:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vMY2ebICqo0/SxQY2j30VnI/AAAAAAAABDU/RZ_I6joCE1U/s400/Kiriakoulis1.jpg

Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis (Greek: Κυριακούλης Μαυρομιχάλης) was a Greek revolutionary who fought in the Greek War of Independence. Born in Mani, the son of Pierros Mavromichalis and baby brother of Petrobey, when the Greek War of Independence broke out he organised a band of young Maniates into a fighting force.

Kyriakoulis fought at Kalamata, Methoni, Koroni and was present at the Siege of Tripolitsa operation as commander-in-charge of the Valtetsi headquarters in the incipient revolutionary army. He heroically and successfully defended the camp, twice, in the Battle of Valtetsi, leading a far inferior force to strengthen their positions, allowing new reinforcements to succeed in repelling the Turkish attack.

With the war against Ali Pasha over, the Souliotes - who had sided with the Albanians against the Ottomans - were in mortal danger because of Hursid Pasha's constant attacks and siege. To deal with this, an inexpert commander Alexandros Mavrokordatos, who was not a soldier but a politician and future statesman, chose Kyriakoulis to command an expedition to bring relief and reinforcements.

On his way to the city of Kiafa, his expeditionary force met action with a Turkish avant garde near the seaside village of Mourtou, completely defeating their foes and taking a large number of prisoners.

His decision to take his captives to imprisonment in the Peloponnesus rather than to massacre them, as was then common, showed his military ethics, but at the same time weakened his already small regiment composed by 500 Maniots plus some Philhellenes, mostly former Bonapartist French soldiers and young romantic Italian revolutionaries.

In his effort against a stronger and much more compact force under Omer Vryonis, but with the overall leadership of an excellent skillful commander like Hursid, who was an expert against guerrilla warfare, Kyriakoulis' band was at last defeated but showing the same Thermopylae spirit as their Spartan ancestors fighting to the last man.

Maniot tradition and folk songs, show how his younger brother's death strongly hurt the brave Petrobey's soul:

"Petrobey was lying in the highlands of Petrovouni wiping his eyes with a golden kerchief. What's happening to you Bey, that you're so sad and black tears fall from your eyes? Since you're asking Kyriakaina (Kyriakoulis' wife) and you want to know ... Tonight I got news from Mesolonghi ... Kyriakoulis was killed, the main captain. This is why my eyes are full with black tears."

Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis was finally killed at Kiafa in Souli on July 4, 1822 and was buried with honours in Mesolonghi. He was the grandfather of Kyriakos-Petros Mavromichalis, the politician and later Prime Minister but above all, for the Peloponnesians in general and for the Maniots in particular he became the icon of the sacrifice made in behalf of the freedom of Greece.

[Turkophagos]

Elias Mavromichalis:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vMY2ebICqo0/SxQYyJ0a3MI/AAAAAAAABDM/DJmI7R7i2Eo/s1600/ilias_mavromihalis.jpg

Elias Mavromichalis was a Greek revolutionary who fought in the War of Independence (1821-1829). Mavromichalis was born in Mani, in 1795, the eldest son of Petrobey Mavromichalis. In the Greek War of Independence, Mavromichalis fought at the Siege of Tripolis and the Battle of Valtetsi under his uncle Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis. On January 5, 1822, Mavromichalis was sent to Euboea to further the cause of the revolt on that island. On 12, Junary 1822 on the hill of Kokkinomilos, nort-west of Styra, one of the most dramatic pages in modern Greek history was written. Elias Mavromichalis and a few brave men entrenched inside a wind-mill, the ruins of which still remain, were besieged by the Ottoman hordes of Omer Bey of Karystos, and suffered a martyr’ death. A monument was erected to act as a local reminder of the sacrifice of the Maniot warlord and his fellow fighters.

[FuzzyPeaches52]

I am directly related to a member of the infamous Einsatzgruppen and a Captain who was in the 1st Waffen-SS. i think this is as infamous as it gets... oh yeah and also one of my great grandfathers was a welsh paratrooper who was captured and tossed into the wehrmacht....

[1304]

http://www.nic.fi/~jaakkoil/history.htm

Finnish trader in the 1500s, best known for Jaako's War or the Cudgel War in Finland

[Vasconcelos]

Miguel de Vasconcelos
Not necessarily a direct ancestor, but also part of the Vasconcelos family. "cousin".

http://espectivas.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/a-queda-de-vasconcelos.jpg?w=253&h=383



Miguel de Vasconcelos (or Vasconcellos*) e Brito (c. 1590 - Lisbon, 1 December 1640) was the last Secretary of State (Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Portugal, during the Iberian Union, in which both kingdoms of Portugal and Spain remained separated but united by the same king and foreign policy. He was in office from 1635 to 1640, serving under the Vice-Queen of Portugal, Margarita of Savoy, the Duchess of Mantua, a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of Portuguese ancestry.

He was probably the most hated collaborator with the Spanish, considered a traitor during the last years of the Iberian Union, especially after the revolts of 1637. On the morning of 1 December 1640, a group of Portuguese noblemen who wanted to restore full independence started a revolution, immediately supported by the people. After entering the palace, the conspirators sought Miguel de Vasconcelos, but saw no sign of him. They would eventually find Miguel de Vasconcelos hidden in a closet with a gun. His movements within the small closet and the rustling of papers inside gave away his position. He was shot to death and defenestrated, leaving his corpse to the angry public.



*Archaic spelling






Traitor :(

[mvbeleg]

When my father was a boy, his mother' side of the family told him about their family heritage. They claimed descent from Dietrich von Ompteda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Heinrich_Ludwig_von_Ompteda). I have not been able to confirm him being in our family tree.

My father speculates that his father is a relative of Bedřich Smetana.



Edit: I misread the thread. It would hard to make a case for either of these persons being infamous.

[shortskirtlongjacket]

*sigh* George W. Bush is, according to Ancestry.com, my 9th cousin, once removed (on his mother's side).

My own research reveals that another 9th cousin was David Carradine (same base ancestor as GWB, actually).

[Raskolnikov]

John Wilkes (literary pornographer, oft unliked radical)
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6939/statueofjohnwilkes.jpg

Junius Brutus Booth
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/8310/juniusbrutusbooth.jpg


In 1835, Booth wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson, demanding he pardon two pirates. In the letter, he threatened to kill the President. The letter was believed to be a hoax, until a handwriting analysis of a letter written some days after the threat concluded that the letter was, in fact, written by Booth.[5] Decades later, Booth’s son, John Wilkes Booth, later assassinated president Abraham Lincoln.[6] The senior Booth apologized to Jackson for his threat.[7]


The Booths (one asssinated Lincoln, the other saved Lincoln's boy)
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/752/boothscaesar.jpg

From thereon the name was damaged goods, sort of.

Ogarita Booth Henderson
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/8972/406pxogaritawilkesinmar.jpg

Izola Forrester
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/3320/izolaforrester1898.jpg

[Bari]

Nik Leka.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4092/nikleka3545.jpg

The Kelmendi is the most powerful tribe of this district. There are 6000 fighting men, all armed with Martini-Henry rifles, stolen from the Turks. Their chieftain, Nik Leka, to whom the boulim-bashi was to escort us, is the hero of the Scutarine Christians. The timid townspeople of the Latin faith, unarmed as they are by law, live in fear of the Mohammedan population, who have more than once fallen on and massacred them. It is to the armed Arnauts of the hills, their fellow-Christians, that they look for protection, for these are better warriors than the Mussulmen themselves, never have been a subject race, but stalk, bristling with arms, through the bazaars of the cities on market- days, as erect and haughty as the most blue- blooded young Mohammedan emir of them all.

This Nik Leka had a little adventure recently in the bazaar of Scutari. He was discussing some matter with a young Mussulman of rank, who had three retainers with him. A quarrel ensued. The other called the Arnaut chief a dog of a Christian. Nik Leka is a man of few words. He whipped out his yataghan with his right hand, seized his enemy by the little tail of hair which the faithful leave on their closely-shaven heads to give Mahomet something to lay hold on when he pulls them into Paradise, and the next moment there was a flash of bright steel, and the Arnaut held up a bleeding head, while the body fell into the foul gutter below. The man's retainers fell upon Nik Leka, but the wiry highlander was too much for the effeminate townsmen. He slew two of them, the third escaped; then he picked up the three heads with a grim smile, tucked them under his arms, and marched off to his mountains, where he exhibited the ghastly trophies to the tribesmen.

The missionaries spoke very highly of the Christian highlanders. " Ah ! they have many virtues," they said. " Good friends, good fathers, good husbands ; kind to each other, truthful, hospitable, never treacherous; they are a noble people. But," continued Luigi with a sigh, '' they are such savages, so utterly indifferent to human life. They have but one absorbing vice, and that is their love of murder."

Source: Albania: A Narrative of Recent Travel - Edward Frederick Knight (1880)

[Beorn]

Doing my family tree has turned up some surprises, but the two ancestors I have pertinent to this thread are: William the Bastard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I_of_England) and Richard "Strongbow" de Clare. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_de_Clare,_2nd_Earl_of_Pembroke)

[morski]

A direct ancestor of mine organized the FF structure in his hometown. Another direct acestor, as part of his extended family, struck a deal with the monks of the local monastery to protect them from muslim bandits in exchange for part of the monastery estate, which sounds a bit like racketeering to me.

So, yeah, dark Balkanian types.;)

[Thor2009]

Oh man, I just found this out today. My paternal line has been traced back to this rowdy fellow, Christoffel "Kit" Davids.


Kit was a local Character and friend of the Indians and a general hell raiser. Much has been written about him and he was developed into a folk lore hero.

Christoffel Davids, often called "Kit Davids", was born in 1615 or 1616 in England. He settled in New Netherland and married first Cornelia de Vos.

Kit was a colorful character. In 1653, he was accused of selling brandy to Indians against the wishes of the leaders of both the Dutch and the Indians. In 1657, he sued for the rent of house but refused to pay on the grounds that he has was drunk at the time he signed the contract. In 1658, he was twice accused in court-once for striking a man and challenging him to fight (there was insufficient proof) and once for telling Esopus Indians that the Dutch planned to kill them, causing the Indians to take prisoners (Kit denied involvement and produced two witnesses). In 1665, Jacob Joosten, the court messenger of Kingston, was removed from his position because he had refused to summon Kit without an armed guard! In 1668/9, Kit started an argument with Eduward Whittakaer over a piece of land. Whittikaer drew his sword and Kit fought back with a cane that had a sword blade in it.

In another instance in a tavern, "Kit Davids hit Ryck in the head with a post, then hit Jan van Bremen in the head with a beer stein, and beat another man black and blue, while Jacob Flodder was busy using a beer stein on the head of Poulus the Norwegian."

"It would seem that there were problems with the local Indians and fire water (I note that everyone in the community seemed to be a heavy drinker). Kit promised that he would not sell liquor to the Indians, but you guessed it he did. Turns out the Indians massacred his wifes in-laws in a drunken rage that could be traced to his little liquor enterprise."

[Anglojew]

If just relatives rather than direct ancestors are counting I have plenty...



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3I_MsAGX584/SX9RN_mkriI/AAAAAAAAD0k/gIqrNkQuSBM/s400/george-bush-middle-finger.jpg

Are you related to Bush? That's great. He's a personal hero of mine.

[larali]

*sigh* George W. Bush is, according to Ancestry.com, my 9th cousin, once removed (on his mother's side).

My own research reveals that another 9th cousin was David Carradine (same base ancestor as GWB, actually).


Oh he is my 9th cousin too, also according to ancestry.com :) Hmmm... Maybe we are related too?