GFRers! We need some connections made, QUICK!

Question

AJ's got something brewing, and if it is as exciting as the People magazine articles and yesterday's Buzzfeed craze, we need to jump in and get a few more notables connected. He's passed along a list to Eowyn, but is being a bit secretive about what these people have in common:

JRR Tolkien

Bill O'Reilly

Elvis Costello

Barbra Streisand

Napoleon Bonaparte 

and Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama who are already connected.

The only clue I have is that AJ must be meeting someone this week, because he asked if it would be possible to have these people connected by tomorrow. What do you think, GFRers? Can we do it? 

Comments

Bring it on! Woohoo! :D By the way, Napoleon Bonaparte is also already connected. 19 steps.

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Thanks, Lianne :) He wasn't showing as connected the other day when someone else asked me about him (Napoleon is a popular guy!) and I didn't check again. Whoops!

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Ha! Well, I'll spill the secret. It's that the Colbert Report is possibly interested in having me on to talk about crowdsourced genealogy and the Global Family Reunion. I thought if I could send the producer a chart of how Stephen is related to those people, she'd have a hard time turning us down.

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Given that our Canadian contingent is strong, It should help that Elvis Costello is married to Diana Krall, who's from British Columbia.  Her parents are listed on her Wikipedia entry

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Great minds, Kyle! I'm already working on it :)

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You were right about the Canadian connection, Kyle. The connecting points ended up being William Dobson and his wife Elizabeth Thompson of Nova Scotia, each 32 degrees from AJ. It was a surprise to end up there, because they are relatives of my husband's!

Here's the path from them to Elvis Costello:

William and Elizabeth's daughter Amelia Dobson

Her husband, Willis Heather

His brother, George Heather

His son, Victor Heather

His son, Aylmer Heather

His wife, Georgina Marsh

Her sister, Jean Marsh

Her son, Stephen Krall

His daughter, Diana Krall

Her husband Declan MacManus aka Elvis Costello, 42 steps from AJ.

There's probably a closer path, but this is what we've got for now. 

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That is amazing! Thank you all, and thank you Diana Krall for having Canadian connections.

Answer 1

I posted preliminary connections on the G+ forum to Tolkien and Streisand, both of which need to be verified.

Comments

David, I looked but didn't find your posting.  I amy be looking in the wrong place.  Can your post a link?  Thanks.

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https://plus.google.com/u/0/106973052473808009372/posts/UFgbCW1Dr3k?cfem=1

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Thanks.

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Haven’t been able to dig up much on Bill O’Reilly. The postscript of his book A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity has some family tree information. Part of the postscript can be found online: http://books.google.com/books?id=cXbepupvmooC&pg=PA255&lpg=PA255&dq=%22winifred+angela+drake%22&source=bl&ots=ce7HlAc-ki&sig=H_UUk5yXEPP0oCeRYA5eNX2yaBs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ohrYU4ihG7DKsQTRj4CwBg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22winifred%20angela%20drake%22&f=false

Bill O’Reilly’s father: William James O’Reilly (1924-1985) & Winifred Angela "Ann" Drake
William’s parents: John O’Reilly Jr. (b. 1893) & Gertrude McLaughlin
John’s parents: John O’Reilly (b. 1870, County Caven, Ireland) & Isabelle Sullivan
There’s also information about his mother’s family, but those pages aren’t online.

 

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I found a connection to Bill O'Reilly - his grandfather's sister Roselyn married a Nova Scotian, whose Grandfather was already in WikiTree. John Zinck is 30 steps away from AJ, meaning Bill O'Reilly will be 37 steps away.

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Thanks again, everyone. And just to explain more: Colbert LOVEs the LOTR books, he considers Bill O'Reilly his inspiration (calls him "Papa Bear") and Elvis Costello is his favorite singer. He's going to love this!

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Colbert was profiled on the PBS genealogy show, so I'm sure a connection to him will be doable

Answer 2

I know we're running short on time, but I posted some links on the G+ thread that I think finishes up Barbra Stresand.  Can someone please double check and input that info to her profile?  It's protected, so I can't, but I'm heading to Miami anyway.  Hope it all comes out alright!  Onward through the fog!

Comments

Thank you guys! Thank you for fighting through the fog!