Claiming a Famous Baseball Relative

[z28jd]

How far back can you go to claim a famous baseball player as a relative before it loses meaning? There's no right answer to that question I assume, but I wanted to share this from my family tree. I have cousins closely related to Dots Miller, which is much better than my claim. I know we have a grandson of the best pitcher of all-time here, which I can't compete with either, but I'll share anyway

I have been doing genealogy research recently and found a family line that has a lot of work already done going very far back. I'll keep this baseball related here, even though I've found some other cool relatives. I have been checking the trees of famous people for weeks and a large majority are misses obviously (unless you go back to the royal bloodlines from very long ago). I just found my first baseball player since I started checking them and came up with a pretty good name for this forum.

These people in the scan below are my ninth and tenth great-grandparents. The Hallock/Howell one is actually ninth two times, please don't ask how

This screenshot is from the family tree of Grover Cleveland Alexander. They are his eighth great-grandparents, making us distant cousins. It's interesting that the kids of these two got married on his tree, but my line where they cross meets up two generations closer, which is how these great-grandparents are different generations for me.

Between my cousin and I, we averaged 186.5 wins in the majors. I have none of his playing days cards (I have modern cards of him), which means I need one or many more now. So please share some cards of Grover Cleveland Alexander.

[Casey2296]

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Celebrate your GCA lineage!

[Balticfox]

Jimmie Foxx and Nellie Fox for me!

[oldjudge]

I once shared a taxi cab from the airport with Paul Blair. That has to be close to counting, isn’t it?

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

I once shared a taxi cab from the airport with Paul Blair. That has to be close to counting, isn’t it?

You told me you were related to Doggie Miller! Why did I pay extra for you to sign his card?

[jingram058]

My grandfather on my dad's side had a brother who unfortunately died of kidney issues at the age of 34. He was married to a nice lady named Ola, who I knew and liked as a child. Ola had a sister who married Bill Terry. By the time I came along, Bill Terry had long since retired from baseball, became a car dealership owner, and had moved to Florida. I never met him, but I heard the story often when I was a kid.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

I once shared a taxi cab from the airport with Paul Blair. That has to be close to counting, isn’t it?

Nice. I sat across from James Earl Jones in an airport. He was in a famous baseball movie. Does that count?

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Nice. I sat across from James Earl Jones in an airport. He was in a famous baseball movie. Does that count?

I recently watched FOD again, gives me goose bumps every time....my Aunt and Cora Rizutto were good friends. They went to the same beauty parlor and chatted it up. She got some good scoop on the Yanks. She would give my dad baseball cards of Phil.

[todeen]

My maternal-grandfather (Moore) was a cousin-removed of Tris Speaker. Speaker has a grandma Moore somewhere in his lineage that married out, and then he -Speaker - came along. My mom's uncle is Tris Speaker Moore, and he died in the Korean War. The two families didn't really talk as far as I know.

My wife is related to Enos "Country" Slaughter. Her grandma has a female relative Slaughter that married out of the line, and my wife's grandma became a Ramey. But by using the Slaughter lineage, my wife could become a daughter of the American Revolution.

Anyway, that's pretty decent lineage!

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[z28jd]

Originally Posted by todeen

My maternal-grandfather (Moore) was a cousin-removed of Tris Speaker. Speaker has a grandma Moore somewhere in his lineage that married out, and then he -Speaker - came along. My mom's uncle is Tris Speaker Moore, and he died in the Korean War. The two families didn't really talk as far as I know.

My wife is related to Enos "Country" Slaughter. Her grandma has a female relative Slaughter that married out of the line, and my wife's grandma became a Ramey. But by using the Slaughter lineage, my wife could become a daughter of the American Revolution.

Anyway, that's pretty decent lineage!

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Tris Speaker's family tree is on Family Search. His grandmother's maiden name was Moore. You should check it out. Some lines can be traced into the 1500s for his German side.

[Kevin]

My uncle won the Taylor Spink award and was president of the Baeball Writers Association in the 70s. About 15 years ago, dad and I flew to Pittsburgh and spend a weekend with him and Roy Face.

Face was fine and regaled us with stories. Has told us the worst possible stories off the field proclivities about Clemente that you could imagine. My uncle did not confirm or deny. I don’t know the veracity of the claims; I do see Clemente interviews calling my uncle an “asshole” as an “official scorer” of games in the 60s.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Tris Speaker's family tree is on Family Search. His grandmother's maiden name was Moore. You should check it out. Some lines can be traced into the 1500s for his German side.

Yeah, I'm on family search. I looked it up one time. Need to go back one more generation to hit our direct relative, Andrew Moore b. 1778. Eliza Moore was the oldest child, whereas my direct relative was #6, Archibald Moore.

Everyone was born in Texas for generations, including my grandpa, then my line moved to New Mexico. My uncle heard it was due to hanging a preacher. Everyone packed up and left for Clovis, NM. I was told not to date anyone from Clovis because they're all my cousin.

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[mortimer brewster]

30 years ago my daughter sold Girl Scout cookies to a kind quiet unassuming gentleman on the other side of our block.When he passed away we learned he was former Yankee Buddy Rosar. Does that count?

[KJA]

I think I have a cousin that pitched like 10 games for the Yankees in 2000. No idea if he got a ring, don't think he was on the playoff roster. Otherwise he never appeared in the majors again and spent like 10 years in the minors. Not sure how his mom is related to our family.

Other than that my dad worked with Barry Larkin's sister, got some cards autographed by him.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by mortimer brewster

30 years ago my daughter sold Girl Scout cookies to a kind quiet unassuming gentleman on the other side of our block.When he passed away we learned he was former Yankee Buddy Rosar. Does that count?

If I learned one thing about genealogy over the years it’s that you’re definitely related to neighbors you barely know

[Fred]

Originally Posted by z28jd

How far back can you go to claim a famous baseball player as a relative before it loses meaning? There's no right answer to that question I assume, but I wanted to share this from my family tree. I have cousins closely related to Dots Miller, which is much better than my claim. I know we have a grandson of the best pitcher of all-time here, which I can't compete with either, but I'll share anyway

John, I thought you were going to tell us that Larry Corcoran was a second cousin 6 times removed or something like that...

Originally Posted by oldjudge

I once shared a taxi cab from the airport with Paul Blair. That has to be close to counting, isn’t it?

I've sat by a few celebrities on planes during my life. One time I was two seats away from Jimmy Carter. It was Jimmy in the window seat, a secret service agent on the aisle, another secret service agent on the cross aisle with me by the window. I was able to speak with the former president for a few minutes.

Also sat next to Aaron Neville on a flight.

Another time, I was in first class coming from Europe and Johnny Bench was in business class.

Oh, if this is for athletes, I did sit next to Pat Day on a flight as well as Cheryl Miller.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by Fred

John, I thought you were going to tell us that Larry Corcoran was a second cousin 6 times removed or something like that...

He was one of the first people I looked up. Not much there to see. You can read my last answer, but I've looked up hundreds of baseball players with no better than 0.5% success.

James Fenimore Cooper was actually the first person I looked for a match because I have a long line of "Fenimore" men not too far back. I hit on the first one I checked, then I'm at 1% success rate since. Luckily (or not), I have nothing better to do, so I keep checking.