Which pseudonymous author are you most closely connected to?

Question

This week we're featuring authors who are best known by their pen names in the Connection Finder, beginning with Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

Featured in the Connection Finder alongside him are other authors who used a nom de plume:

• François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
• Mary Anne Cross (George Eliot)
• Amij Geertruida de Leeuw (Geertruida Carelsen)
• Mary Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock)
• Hans Bötticher (Joachim Ringelnatz)
• Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
• Marguerite Johnson (Maya Angelou)
• Ethel Robertson (Henry Handel Richardson)
• Helen Goff Travers (PL Travers)
• Eric Blair (George Orwell)

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 23,404,000 of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them? Your Relationship Finder Quick Links page (see your profile pull-down menu under "Relationships") has quick links for several notable groups.

New special feature: Check out how you're connected to other authors by searching the authors category and the various subcategories like featured authors, famous authors of the nineteenth century, and Pulitzer Prize winners using the green MyConnections button in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Let us know how you're related below! If you want to share your connection on social media with cousins and friends, click the "get shareable image" below the results, e.g. Mark Twain and George Orwell. Then just upload it along with the URL of your direct connection. (Please refrain from sharing your connection on the featured profiles themselves, though. It clutters conversations on research and collaboration. Thanks!)

P.S. Help us choose and improve profiles for next week's feature on Famous Firsts!

Comments

Just a note - Ethel Robertson was known as "Henry Handel Richardson", not simply "Henry Handel".

Henry Handel Richardson

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Thanks; I updated it, Melanie.

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Danke!  

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I'm ,17 degrees from Samuel Clemens, wow!

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Since the old featured connections have been done away with, I shall need to wait until Wikitree does the calculations for me.  The Bunsen Burner we used at school was not named after the man in the list, but after Robert Bunsen, about whom no details are given.

When doctors were featured, my closest was Edward Jenner.  For an Australian, an Englishman would be natural but he was only one degree closer than Henry VIII.

One feature that this list shows up is the number of women authors who took male pseudonyms.  I was reading about a musical family, where a daughter who showed promise as a composer was not allowed to develop it simply because she was a woman.

Somewhere today, I saw a "Matthew Webb" mentioned. I think he was in England. To us in Bendigo, the name is that of a former pharmacist who appeared in his own childish commercials. A hairdresser new to the city hoped that he wasn't the only one!  I was able to reassure her on that.

(I am becoming garrulous, and must fight the tendency.)

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The Bunsen Burner we used at school was not named after the man in the list, but after Robert Bunsen, about whom no details are given.

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What man in the list?

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Since the old featured connections have been done away with, I shall need to wait until Wikitree does the calculations for me.  

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All your connections to those featured are at the bottom of your profile.  If you're looking for relationships, then you need to work a little harder for it, and add the ID#s (or click through the  steps to get to the relationship finder).

Doug is 22 degrees from Matthew Webb, 22 degrees from Amelia Earhart, 42 degrees from Leifur Eiríksson, 20 degrees from Edmund Hillary, 26 degrees from Neil Armstrong, 33 degrees from Roald Amundsen, 26 degrees from Clara Bruce, 19 degrees from Harold Clark, 35 degrees from Alexandra David-Néel, 22 degrees from Margaret Thatcher, 15 degrees from Bert Hinkler and 25 degrees from Scott McClain 

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Thanks, Melanie.  I was expecting my links to be on my Navigation page.  Bert Hinkler (from Queensland)  is my closest. The Matthew Webb I was thinking of is the first person on the list.  (My short-term memory is hopeless nowadays.  Every profile I touch, I mess up.  I was thinking of giving genealogy away, but it is the only activity I have left.)The Bunsen I referred to is way down the list of notables. He is [[Bunsen-2|Ernst Christian Ludwig (Bunsen) von Bunsen (1819-1903)]]. The Robert Bunsen who invented the burner was [[Bunsen-8|Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (1811-1899)]].

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Which list of Notables, Doug?  (There are many!)

Please don't give up on genealogy.  There's nothing we can mess up that can't be fixed. (I can't tell you the number of errors I find myself making -- some of which actually get through to profiles.  *sigh*  Hopefully, though, I catch most of them pretty soon - before anyone else sees them!)

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Doug -- sadly bunsen-burner Bunsen won't be a featured Connection unless and until someone manages to actually Connect him.  

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Thanks, Melanie.  Frankly I was surprised even to find him on Wikitree.  My wife's grandmother was an American of German extraction, but that is no help here.  Even his dates weren't given on Wikipedia. Re your earlierpost "Which list?", that is half the fun of Wikitree. We are always told to look up a different page, but there is no URL or other way to find it.  Even those who want to add a ship cannot find Margaret's convenient central place for requests (I gave up and bookmarked it,) so they post here.

Maybe I am too negative, but nowadays I follow a quote I found, from a Russian novelist (Turgenev) "I agree with no man's opinions.  I have some of my own."  Among other things, that is fundamental to democracy.

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Melanie is 21 degrees from Harold Clark; 22 degrees from Bert Hinkler; 22 degrees from Edmund Hillary; 24 degrees from Amelia Earhart; 25 degrees from Clara Bruce; 25 degrees from Margaret Thatcher; 25 degrees from Neil Armstrong; 28 degrees from Matthew Webb; 28 degrees from Roald Amundsen; 36 degrees from Alexandra David-Néel; 40 degrees from Leifur Eiríksson; 25 degrees from Scott McClain; and 19 degrees from Doug Laidlaw (by way of the Doctor and the Judge).  

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Interesting that there is a Judge in the loop.  There was an early tradition that I had a Judge as an ancestor. This turned out to be confusion between [[Boykett-4|Thomas Hebbert Boykett (1805-1857)]] and Justice Bowkett of NSW.  He was a registered Huguenot, and that detail seems to have become attached to Boykett-4 as well.

Answer 1

I am most closely connected to Samuel Clemens at 18 degrees of separation.

• 18 degrees from Samuel Clemens
• 22 degrees from Mary Murfree
• 25 27 degrees from Eric Blair
• 25 26 degrees from Charles Dodgson
• 26 27 degrees from Pamela Travers
• 27 28 degrees from Maya Angelou
• 27 29 degrees from Ethel Robertson
• 28 29 degrees from François-Marie Arouet
• 33 35 degrees from Amy de Leeuw
• 40 42 degrees from Hans Bötticher
• 41 degrees from Mary Cross

Answer 2

I am most closely connected to Mark Twain at 23 degrees.

Answer 3

15 degrees from Mark Twain and 9th cousins 5x removed.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) and Alexis (Lovelace) Nelson are both descendants of Janet Gray (1470-1539).

Answer 4

16 degrees to Samuel Clemens.  He seems to be closest for many people.  He's also a 6th cousin 5 times removed.  We each had a couple of generations of ancestors in New Hampshire.

Answer 5

15 degrees from Samuel Clemens (17th cousins, 4x removed)
17 degrees from Mary Murfree
21 degrees from François-Marie Arouet
21 degrees from Charles Dodgson (12th cousins, 5x removed)
23 degrees from Eric Blair (9th cousins, 5x removed)
24 degrees from Pamela Travers (14th cousins, 5x removed)
26 degrees from Ethel Robertson
28 degrees from Maya Angelou
30 degrees from Amy de Leeuw
39 degrees from Mary Cross
41 degrees from Hans Bötticher

Answer 6

I am most closely related to Samuel Clemens - 13 degrees; also 14C 4XR.

Answer 7

You are 19 degrees from Samuel Clemens, 24 degrees from François-Marie Arouet, 41 degrees from Mary Cross, 22 degrees from Eric Blair, 28 degrees from Maya Angelou, 24 degrees from Charles Dodgson, 31 degrees from Amy de Leeuw, 22 degrees from Mary Murfree, 40 degrees from Hans Bötticher, 27 degrees from Ethel Robertson, 24 degrees from Pamela Travers

Comments

I'm thrilled to be so close to Voltaire.  Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds!

Answer 8

15 degrees from Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). 10th cousin 4 times removed. MRCA Elizabeth (Scott) Henderson (abt 1519 - abt 1547). Some uncertainty on both ends.

26 degrees from Francois-Marie Arquet (Voltaire).

39 degrees from Mary Cross (George Elliot).

31 degrees from Amy de Leeuw.

17 degrees from Mary Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock).

40 degrees from Hans Botticher (Joachim Ringelnatz).

20 degrees from Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). 10th cousin 4 times removed. MRCA Margaret (Whetenhall) Roydon (abt 1494 - 1576).

27 degrees from Margaret Johnson (Maya Angelou).

24 degrees from Ethel Robertson (Henry Handel Richardson).

24 degrees from Helen Goff Travers (Pamela Travers). 14th cousin once removed. MRCA Margaret (Lucombe) Moyle (1405 - 1493).

20 degrees from Eric Blair (George Orwell). 12th cousin 4 times removed. MRCA Margaret (Fenne) Neville (1444 - 1485).

Answer 9

16 degrees from  Samuel Clemons , 26 degrees from  François-Marie Arouet , 36 degrees from  Mary Cross , 20 degrees from  Eric Blair , 26 degrees from  Maya Angelou , 22 degrees from  Charles Dodgson , 30 degrees from  Amy de Leeuw , 16 degrees from  Mary Murfree , 38 degrees from  Hans Bötticher , 26 degrees from  Ethel Robertson , 23 degrees from  Pamela Travers , 

Answer 10

I used to think I was not related to anyone famous. WikiTree has helped me see that I am related to many famous people. Not necessarily closely related, but related nevertheless. I love this weekly feature where we examine our relationships and connections to those who are notable. Not only is it interesting to read the biographies of the featured notables, but I also like to read about our common ancestors. Thank you to all who contribute!

This week, I am most closely related to Samuel L. "Mark Twain" Clemens. We are 12th cousins, 6x removed. Our most recent common ancestor was Elizabeth (Wemyss) Gray, daughter of Sir John Wemyss.

Comments

I am having fun writing about kinship connections on our family facebook page. Last week, we found out we were kin to Robert Goddard, the father of Modern Rocketry.

As my cousin said " So there IS a Rocket Scientist in the family tree!"

Answer 11

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) at 13 degrees.  

Not surprising, considering I had a number of ancestors living within 20 miles of his birthplace in the 1840s.

Answer 12

19 degrees from Samuel Clemens.

Answer 13

It looks like I have a relationship connection to Samuel Clemens as 7th cousins 6x removed.

Answer 14

13 Degrees to Samuel Clemens. 4th cousin 4xR. His brother (Orion) and himself lived in Keokuk, where I am originally from. My son's name is Orion.

Answer 15

I'm closest related to Eric Blair/George Orwell, 10th cousin, 6x removed, and Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll, 12th cousin, 3x removed.

Degree wise, I'm closest to Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, at 17 degrees and Voltaire at 19 degrees.

Answer 16

I'm 14 degrees from Samuel Clemens and his 9th cousin, 7 times removed,

Answer 17

I am 16 degree separation to Samuel L. Clemens

(Mark Twain)

Answer 18

Samuel Clemens is 20 degrees from me!

Answer 19

12 degrees from Samuel Clemmons - aka Mark Twain.  He was my 4th cousin 3x removed - we are connected through our shared great grandfather - Samuel's 3rd great and my 6th great - William Lampton.  Lampton-35

Samuel Clemmons middle name is actually Lampton - he was named after his uncle Samuel Lampton.  At some point, for reasons unknown, his middle name starting showing up as Langhorne.

Answer 20

I had to laugh when I discovered that I am 16 degrees from Samuel Clements (Mark Twain).  I grew up hearing a great deal about his from his great niece, who was a close friend of my mother.