Closest Celebrity Cousins

As I am prone to do while we are Networking Family History with Hollywood™, I often watch Turner Classic Movies and programs in search of interesting characters to lineage link into the vast network of family ties that is the Family Forest®.

Earlier this year TCM arranged with Disney to present some classic Disney content on TCM. The one that triggered fun memories that I hadn’t accessed in decades was Davy Crockett.

As a young boy in the 1950s, one of the biggest fads I remember was coonskin caps. No matter where you lived in America, if you didn’t have one, you certainly knew a number of boys who did.

The TCM introduction taught me something I didn’t know. Davy Crockett was the first (and only?) produced-for-television series that was repurposed into a hit theatrical movie.

Against staff recommendations that it be shot in less expensive black and white, since that was how the television audience would see it, visionary Walt Disney insisted that they shot it in color. After the huge popularity of the show, it was re-edited into a movie called “Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier”, and what people had already seen for free at home, they then paid to see at theaters.

So I made a note to look for the ancestors of the lead actor, Fess Parker, to see if I could network him into the Family Forest® (since before the end of the last century, the prime directive has been that no one gets into the Family Forest® unless they are related by birth, marriage, or adoption to someone who is already in).

Even though I do this all the time, there is no way I can guess in advance who someone’s closest celebrity cousins will be. In Fess Parker’s case, I was more surprised than usual.

So far in the Family Forest®, Fess Parker’s two closest celebrity cousins are a former Disney Mouseketeer and a President of the United States, Britney Spears (sixth cousin twice removed, 6C2R) and President Obama (7C2R).

So how surprised might you and your family be to discover your closest celebrity cousins?

Now, after twenty years of strategic research and preparation, the Family Forest® can probably show you your closest celebrity cousins through our new connection service.

By the way, in the current issue (November/December 2015) of Cowboys & Indians – The Premier Magazine of the West, Fess Parker is said to be the catalyst for Kurt Russell’s GoGi Wines.

I wonder if Kurt Russell owned a coonskin cap when he was a boy?

New Portal Into Genealogical Entertainment

Many thanks to our friend Tom Nocera who has just created a fun resource that we would like to share with you.

It is a visual window into a decade and a half of short stories about surprising genealogical connections from the Family Forest® into probably some of your favorite Hollywood movies.

Just click on www.hotonfire.com and then click on whichever movies catch your attention.

Please follow some of the links within the stories, as they are often illuminating enhancements.

Enjoy!

Niall of the Nine Hostages to Russell Crowe

Because my on-line time is usually limited to less than 15 minutes per day, I rely heavily on my long time friend Tom Nocera to keep me informed about key and trending items relating to the Family Forest® that I should be aware of.

Yesterday he told me that 23andMe had been talking about Niall of the Nine Hostages.

Niall, called the 126th monarch of Ireland, has been lineage-linked in the Family Forest® for years. So I checked to see how, according to the recorded history mapped out in the Family Forest®, he is related to our three lion’s share eBooks.

A Family Forest® relationship calculation reveals that King Duncan I of Scotland, the subject of the eBook that the Fisher House is receiving the lion’s share of, is a 20th great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

A Family Forest® relationship calculation reveals that King Edward III of England, the subject of the eBook that the DAR is receiving the lion’s share of, is a 29th great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

A Family Forest® relationship calculation reveals that Baron Anslach Turstain of Briquebec, the subject of the eBook that the Library of Congress is receiving the lion’s share of, has what I think is the most interesting relationship Niall of the Nine Hostages.

According to the recorded history mapped out in the Family Forest®, they are 76th cousins once removed (try to imagine the interconnected web of generation-by-generation family ties that had to be assembled to enable that digital calculation!), and their common ancestor is Noah.

Yes, the same Noah of the Ark, and the same Noah being portrayed by Russell Crowe in the movie that will be appearing in theatres next week.

Whether you believe The Bible or the math behind genetic migration over all those thousands of years, if Noah is an ancestor of anyone alive today, Noah is an ancestor of everyone alive today.

Think about it. When you are watching Russell Crowe in Noah, you will be seeing a portrayal of one of your own ancestors.

Family Forest® Videos

It’s quicker and makes so much more sense to see it instead of read about it. There are more than a dozen short videos via the links below. They range from how-to vidoes, to visions of the future. Please enjoy.

Family Forest how-to-videos at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/familyforestproject

Emperor Constantine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgmBzpKsKg8

Briquebec Castle: http://familyforest.com/products/94/descendants-of-baron-anslech-turstain-of-briquebec-ebook

Rome Reborn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuhTyCl-yA

Family Forest® Snippet Video: http://snippets3.homestead.com/

 Family Forest® is a registered trademark of Millisecond Publishing Company, Inc.

A People-Centered Approach to History® is a registered trademark of Millisecond Publishing Company, Inc.

Genealogy and the 84th Academy Awards

Will genetics be a factor in bringing home an Oscar this year?

It appears that it may have been at the Golden Globes this year. Michelle Williams won for Best Actress for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe.  Could her award-winning performance have been because they share ancestors?

When I ran a Family Forest kinship report [# 10] for Michelle, I discovered that according to the large web of ancestral history already mapped out in the Family Forest, Michelle and Marilyn are cousins.

According to recorded history, they are ninth cousins once removed through their Peabody/Paybody ancestors, and they both have a number of other entertainment cousins who are also descended from the early Peabody/Paybody family of Massachusetts.

Those cousins include Glenn Close (one of Michelle’s competitors at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards this year), Kyra Sedgwick, Halle Berry, Racquel Welch, Grace Slick, Mark Wahlberg, David Hyde Pierce, Orson Welles, Robert Lansing, and if you consider the political arena to be entertaining, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman.

Kristine and I will be tuning into ABC on Sunday Febraury 26^th to watch the 84th Academy Awards and see if Michelle wins the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of her cousin, Marilyn Monroe, or if one of her other cousins wins (Michelle is also a distant cousin of Meryl Streep).

From Ancient Rome to the 69th Annual Golden Globes

When you watch this short video, the “flying” chart you will see near the end comes to rest at the Emperor’s Palace in Ancient Rome in 320 A.D.

From that very specific place and time in history, generation-by-generation pathways lead forward to eight of the 69th Annual Golden Globes nominees  who are in the Family Forest® National Treasure.

Those eight nominees are all descended from the founder of Briquebec Castle in France, and their names can be found in the list of descendants. The Baron of Briquebec has four ancestral pathways to the Emperor’s Palace in the Family Forest® National Treasure.

So from an actress or actor in Albert Nobbs, Carnage, Cinema Verite, Enlightened, Iron Lady, Moneyball, 30 Rock, and Too Big To Fail, it is now possible for you to travel through a single web of generation-by-generation family ties from each of those eight movies or TV shows to each of the other seven.

The web of family ties in the Family Forest® connects actual ancestors in each European and U.K. country to Hollywood.

That’s why we say the Family Forest® Project is, along with numerous other edutainment objectives, Networking Family History with Hollywood™.

Enjoy the 69th Annual Golden Globes on NBC on Sunday January 15, 2012.

The Personal Property of John Wayne

Highly desirable items from “a time capsule of classic Hollywood and U.S. history“ are becoming available this Thursday and Friday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, and online.

This auction caught my attention not only because I’m one of the millions of John Wayne fans, but also because our Family Forest® Project is Networking Family History with Hollywood™ and U.S. history.

From my professional perspective, I wondered how many fans and bidders have family ties to John Wayne that they are still unaware of.

So I ran a Family Forest® kinship report for John Wayne to see how far the Family Forest has networked him through generation-by-generation pathways to his fans. You can see a summary of the results in this PDF report, and maybe spot a few of your own ancestors.

Does TV host Ellen Degeneres know that she shares ancestors with John Wayne?

Does radio host Don Imus know that he shares ancestors with John Wayne?

Does fellow cowboy actor Viggo Mortensen know that he shares ancestors with John Wayne?

Would some of John Wayne’s contemporaries, like Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, and Marjorie Merriweather Post, have been surprised to discover that they are distant cousins of this towering Hollywood icon?

Will you be surprised to discover that you share ancestors with Hollywood actors and historical figures?

The Family Forest® National Treasure Edition is the best digital central source to lead you to both classic Hollywood connections, and U.S. history connections.

Google Plus Family Forest®

For a wealth of free history lessons for you or your children, here’s the simple search formula. Google “Family Forest” + __________  = engaging stories from A People-Centered Approach To History®.

Of course we believe that these stories are much more fun and enriching if you have full access to the Family Forest® National Treasure to follow the curiosity these stories are sure to generate, but these stories are great history starters on their own.

For instance, if you are looking for stories about a history event, like the 4th of July, try Googling “Family Forest” (in quotes) + signer. Or substitute in place of signer a word or phrase such as american revolution, or declaration, or independence, or tea party, or ticonderoga, or inventor.

Other history event suggestions are “Family Forest” (in quotes) + alamo, civil war, gettysburg, world war, world war II, pearl harbor, or flight.

As you can see in the previous examples, you can search for specific places. Try Googling “Family Forest” (in quotes) + a place such as hawaii, hi, texas, tx (or any of the other state names or their two-digit postal abbreviation), america, england, ireland, rome (or many other country names), jamestown, plymouth, big bear, boston, or many other key American and European cities.

You can search for specific historical figures. Try Googling “Family Forest” (in quotes) + constantine, charlemagne, milesius, solomon, longshanks, robert I, wright brothers, rockefeller, george washington, adams, jefferson, abraham lincoln, general grant, kaiulani, macarthur, patton, etc.

You can search for general themes. try Googling “Family Forest” (in quotes) + ancestors, ancestral, ancestry, ancestral history, maps, explore, genealogy, charts, cousins, progeny, heros, veterans, baseball, texas ranger, bible, senator, governor, mayflower, first lady, white house, celebrity, history, congress, obama, kerry, bush, sarah palin, royal, royalty, king, queen, prince william, kate middleton, bill gates, etc.

You can search for Hollywood and entertainment related history. Try Googling “Family Forest” (in quotes) + a word or name such as television, tv, radio, movie, gunsmoke, hollywood, oscar, golden globes, academy awards, saturday night live, tcm, brooke shields, sarah jessica parker, wdytya, ted danson, meryl streep, braveheart, star trek, john adams, tom hanks, tudors, ken burns, marilyn monroe, paris hilton, britney spears, kevin bacon, susan sarandon, julia child, madonna, buffett, etc.

There are also corporate starters to history. Try Googling “Family Forest” (in quotes) + google, yahoo, disney, microsoft, tnt, amazon.com, hbo, cbs, nbc, or imdb.

Every parent who wants to inspire their children to be smarter and do better in school should give them full access to the Family Forest® National Treasure.

The Family Forest® is also inspirational and enriching for the whole family. Here’s a link to some short videos to show some of the possibilities.

Hint: If you do not want to spend time searching use this page http://familyforest.com/archives.html as a starting point, then follow the links in these stories.

A Christmas Story to The White House

In real life, the actor who played little Ralphie, the central character of A Christmas Story  has family ties to The White House, according to the vast network of ancestral pathways mapped out in the Family Forest®.

Through their Crabtree ancestors, Peter Billingsley and President Obama are ninth cousins.

Also through this same line, President Obama is also a cousin of Glenn Billingsley. Glenn’s wife Barbara is best known as June Cleaver, Oprah’s childhood television heroine and Wally and Beaver’s mother on Leave It To Beaver.

Thus the First Family has family ties to not only one of the most popular Christmas movies of the last two decades, but also to one of the most popular TV families of the twentieth century.

Among other objectives, the Family Forest® Project is Networking Family History with Hollywood™. Find your family’s connection to Hollywood in the Family Forest® National Treasure Edition.

Journey Back to Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941

Let us never forget what happened on this day 69 years ago at Pearl Harbor. Some of us can only remember it from the history books, the stories we have heard of heroes, and the movies we have seen. For some of our parents and grandparents, it is still a very vivid memory that changed their lives.

Now with the grand opening dedication of the new Pearl Harbor Visitors Center on the 69^th Anniversary of the attack, this December 7^th 2010 we have another way of honoring these men and women. We can visit there, take a journey back in time with the latest in digital technology, and reflect on what happened on that day in history. 

If you plan to attend here is a listing of the events: http://pacificislandparks.com/2010/11/30/remember-pearl-harbor-events/ 

Watch Pearl Harbor the movie and see how it relates to you. 

Volunteer at the New Visitors center at:http://the-military-guide.com/2010/11/29/construction-tour-of-the-new-uss-arizona-memorial-museums/

Discover a captivating book about individual World War II soldiers and their stories at Everytown USA