Who has famous literary figures in their lines?

Question

I have Geoffrey Chaucer as an in-law definitely, via his sister in law, Katherine Swynford. My great-grandmother also claimed the Australian poetess Dame Mary Gilmore as a "cousin" but we have not been able to prove this.

Answer 1

William Makepeace Thackeray and William Shakespeare (The bard) are both in there somewhere.

Answer 2

Many of us with Puritan ancestry have Hawthorne, Emerson, Longfellow & others in their lines.

Answer 3

My g-g-g-g-aunt is Sarah Pogson Smith.  I have not read any of her work yet - I am a terrible relation.

Answer 4

Harriet Beecher Stowe and I are fourth cousins, seven times removed.

Answer 5

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dodd-1580 is my second cousin twice-removed if a cartoonist is considered literary .  Who is that one asks?  There's a Wikipedia link on his profile!  :)

Comments

that's great, Vincent!!!!

Answer 6

Does Clarence Darrow count?

Or John Kilgallen or his daughter Dorothy Kilgallen?

Answer 7

I have Geoffrey Chaucer as an uncle by marriage.

Answer 8

My mother's maiden name is Heaney and the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney is from the same area as my grandfather's family.  I can't wait to get more research done to figure out where/if he fits into our Heaney relatives.