Which hero of World War II are you most closely connected to?

Question

This week in the Connection Finder, we're featuring Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, a noted veteran of both World War I and II, in honor of Veterans Day (known also as Remembrance and Armistice Day).

Featured alongside him are other World War II heroes:

• Dorie Miller
• Charlie Green
• Tom Derrick
• John Lavarack
• Edward Dunlop
• Philippe Leclerc
• Witold Pilecki
• Vivian Statham
• Daniel Cordier
• Charlie Brown

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 24 million 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.

Special feature: Check out how you're connected to other veterans by searching the Featured Military category and related categories like Tuskegee Airmen, World War II Heroes, and USA Died While Prisoners of War During World War II 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. Bernard Montgomery and Charlie Brown. 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!)

Help us with next week's feature: Extraordinary Elizabeths. Help us choose and improve profiles for it.

Comments

Charlie Brown..11 degrees 4th cousin 2x removed..through my Cunningham line

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I would include Audie Murphy in that list of WWII heroes.

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And James Stewart who flew countless bombing mission.

Ann

Answer 1

I am 18 degrees from Charlie Brown. No blood relationship but marriage brings me close.

Answer 2

18 steps from Bernard Montgomery and 15th cousins. But also 18 degrees from Charlie Green and Tom Derrick and 19 from Vivian. Some closer profiles this week.

Answer 3

me

20 degrees from Charlie Brown

33 degrees from Daniel Bouyjou-Cordier

26 degrees from Tom Derrick

20 degrees from Edward Dunlop

20 degrees from Charlie Green

25 degrees from John Lavarack

26 degrees from Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

38 degrees from Dorie Miller

20 degrees from Bernard Montgomery

32 Witold Pilecki

20 degrees from Vivian Stratham

Thank you Kenneth Evans for making four of these profiles and to Isabelle Martin for making two of them,  Bien joué and well done.

Comments

The profiles are fantastic. I enjoyed reading all of them as well.

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My pleasure. But thank you all the same. I simply enjoy honouring our veterans, and time is the one thing I have in abundance.

Answer 4

My closest is also Bernard Montgomery at 18 degrees.

Answer 5

18 degrees from Charlie Brown.

21 degrees from Bernard Montgomery. 11th cousin 4 times removed. MRCA Agnes (Moncreiffe) Scott (b. abt. 1525).

21 degrees from Charlie Green.

24 degrees from Edward Dunlop.

24 degrees from Philippe Leclerc.

25 degrees from John Lavarack.

25 degree from Vivian Statham.

26 degrees from Tom Derrick.

30 degrees from Dorie Miller.

33 degrees from Daniel Cordier.

33 degrees from Witold Pilecki.

Answer 6

18 degrees from Charlie Brown
22 degrees from Vivian Statham
22 degrees from Bernard Montgomery (17th cousins, 1x removed)
25 degrees from Charlie Green
25 degrees from Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
27 degrees from Edward Dunlop
28 degrees from John Lavarack
28 degrees from Tom Derrick
34 degrees from Dorie Miller
36 degrees from Witold Pilecki
36 degrees from Daniel Bouyjou-Cordier

Answer 7

• 19 degrees from Charles Lester Brown
• 21 Degrees from Bernard Law Montgomery - 19C
• 22 degrees from Vivian Bullwinkel
• 24 degrees from Thomas Currie Derrick
• 26 degrees from Philippe François Marie (Hauteclocque) Leclerc de Hauteclocque
• 26 degrees from Charles Hercules Green
• 27 degrees from Ernest Edward Dunlop
• 28 degrees from John Dudley Lavarack
• 35 degrees from Doris Miller
• 35 degrees from Witold Pilecki
• 37 degrees from Daniel Roger Pierre Bouyjou

Answer 8

I’m 17 degrees from Charlie Brown, 35 degrees from Daniel Bouyjou-Cordier, 30 degrees from Tom Derrick, 26 degrees from Edward Dunlop, 23 degrees from Charlie Green, 28 degrees from John Lavarack, 26 degrees from Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, 34 degrees from Dorie Miller, 22 degrees from Bernard Montgomery, 35 degrees from Witold Pilecki, 23 degrees from Vivian Statham and 20 degrees from P Kreutzer.

 

Answer 9

I have a connection to each of them, but am not directly related to anyone in the group.

Answer 10

I am most closely connected to Edward Dunlop and Vivian Statham at 24 degrees.

Answer 11

20 degrees from Charlie Brown and Bernard Montgomery.  Both are distant cousins.

If George C Marshall counted, I could bring that down to 11 degrees. His second wife was married to my 3rd cousin twice removed. 

Answer 12

18 from Charlie Brown! Thank goodness he was the closest. The second closest is someone I'd rather not be closest to. 

Answer 13

My closest connection is Bernard Law Montgomery.

We are 17 degrees apart and he is also my 17th cousin!!

Answer 14

Connected most closely to Charlie Green (14 degrees), followed by 'Weary' Dunlop (18), and Vivian Bullwinkel, 'Diver' Derrick and Sir John Lavarack (all 20).

Answer 15

I am most closely connected to Charlie Brown at 19 degrees of separation.

• 19 degrees from Charlie Brown • 19C
• 20 degrees from Bernard Montgomery • 16C
• 22 degrees from John Lavarack
• 24 degrees from Vivian Statham
• 26 degrees from Charlie Green
• 26 degrees from Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
• 28 degrees from Edward Dunlop
• 30 degrees from Tom Derrick
• 34 degrees from Dorie Miller
• 35 degrees from Daniel Bouyjou-Cordier
• 36 degrees from Witold Pilecki

Answer 16

I am 26 degrees from Johnnie David Hutchins (1922-1943). He is a WWII Medal of Honor recipient and was KIA in WWII.

Answer 17

I am 8 steps from Capt. Colin Purdie Kelly (1915-1941).  He is my 3rd cousin, 1x removed.  Capt. Kelly was a US Army pilot and a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point.  He was assigned to Clark Air Field in the Philippine Islands, flying B-17 bombers, and was among the first to respond when, on Dec. 10, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy began an invasion of the Philippine Islands.  He and his crew flew with no fighter escorts and only three bombs in the bomb bay.  But he and his crew were able to cripple a cruiser in the invading fleet before they turned back towards Clark Air Field.  The bomber was overtaken by the faster Japanese Zero fighters and fatally damaged.  Capt. Kelly held his B-17 bomber level in order for his crew to bail out of the plane but he didn't get out and died in the crash.  He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his skill and bravery in allowing his crew members to exit the doomed plane.  He was lionized at the time for his sacrifice in the Pacific War but his name is little remembered by today's generation.

Answer 18

Closest at 17 degrees to Bernard Montgomery.  He is also my 16th cousin.

Just one more cousin from this grouping:  Charlie Brown, who is a distant cousin--20th cousins, once removed.

Answer 19

I don’t know about the others, but one of the greatest hero’s of WWII was my father in law. James Russell Fitzgerald. USS Houston CA 30. Sunk off Java March 1942, Swim 15 miles to shore, Captured by Japanese Taken to Burma spent 3 1/2 years in and on the Bridge on the river Kawi. For 3 1/2 years he Was jamming Japanese equipment to slow down work on the rail road. Constantly getting beat by the Korean guards. One day he was on KP to make rice balls for Japanese Infantry battalion . Instead he made Mush of the rice. Another beating and kicked off KP. He made sure there was no other POW was around for the Japanese to blame.  He died 1999.

Answer 20

Charlie Brown and I are 8th cousins once removed and 18 degrees of separation.  This was a great find with a great military story.