User:JackofOz/Family connections

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I have Irish, Scottish and English ancestry. Although I identify most strongly with my Irish forebears, the furthest back I've traced my documented genealogy is the English line. My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents were Thomas Sheather (1635-?) and Jane Allowe (1636-?) [1] (that's 12 generations).

I am directly or indirectly related by blood or marriage to:

Name Dates Notability Relationship to me
Brian Boru 941-1014 High King of Ireland 1002-1014 We're related according to family legend, but which true son of Ireland isn't related to him!
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton KG 1735-1811 Prime Minister of the UK 1768-70 Second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law's uncle's relative's father-in-law's grandfather
William Chalker (aka Charker) 1775-1823 Pioneer of the Mittagong district (NSW) Great-great-great grandfather [2] [3]
Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov 1777-1861 Russian General; military commander during the Napoleonic Wars; hero of the Battle of Borodino; Governor of the Caucasus 1816-27. He was a character in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, and in Sergei Prokofiev's opera based on the novel. Prokofiev's War and Peace was the first opera to be performed at the Sydney Opera House, a building that was the brain-child of Sir Eugene Goossens - see Nat Craig below A reputed ancestor of my ex-wife and of my children
Sir Luke Leake 1828-1886 Speaker of the WA Legislative Assembly Second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law's uncle's brother-in-law
Sir James George Lee Steere KCMG 1830-1903 WA politician; Speaker of the WA Legislative Assembly; brother-in-law of Sir Luke Leake and uncle of George Leake [4] Second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law's uncle
Charles Yelverton O'Connor CMG 1843-1902 Irish-Australian engineer; best-known for his work on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme; eponym of the WA Federal electorate of O'Connor; suicided Second cousin's great-grandfather
Churchill Julius 1847-1938 Archbishop and Anglican Primate of New Zealand Second cousin's great-grandfather
George Leake CMG QC 1856-1902 Premier of Western Australia 1901-02 Second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law's uncle's brother-in-law's nephew
Sir Ernest Augustus Lee-Steere 1866-1957 Pastoralist and businessman [5] Second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law, or second cousin's grandfather's brother-in-law
Sir George Julius 1873-1947 Inventor of the totalisator Second cousin's grandfather
John "Jack" McGrath 1890-1949 President of the North Sydney Rugby League Club and official of the New South Wales Rugby League Grandfather [6] The McGrath clan
Tom Hogan - "Father of Waverley Council". Mayor of Waverley 1940, 1943, 1949, and an alderman for 22 consecutive years (1933-55). [7]. Eponym of "Thomas Hogan Reserve and Bird Sanctuary" [8] [9] [10]. He is buried in Waverley Cemetery (A later Mayor of Waverley was Johnny O'Keefe's father Ray O'Keefe.) [11] Great-uncle
Nat Craig ISM 1905/6-1972 Sydney Head of the Australian Customs Service who in March 1956 was involved in the arrest of the composer and conductor Sir Eugene Goossens at Sydney Airport, for importing pornography, thus ending his (Goossens') brilliant career. [12] p. 54. Fortunately, Goossens' brain-child the Sydney Opera House was built - see General Yermolov above for an interesting cross-connection Uncle - married my mother's sister
Sir Allen Fairhall KBE 1909-2006 Federal politician 1949-69; Minister for Defence, Works, Interior and Supply; missed his chance to become Prime Minister of Australia after the 1967 drowning of Harold Holt [13] [14] 4th cousin twice removed
Sir Ernest Henry Lee-Steere KBE 1912-2011 Lord Mayor of Perth 1972-78 Second cousin's great-grandfather's grandson, or second cousin's grandfather's brother-in-law's son
Sir John Kerr AK GCMG GCVO QC 1914-91 Governor-General of Australia 1974-77 His second wife's first husband was related to my grandmother's brother-in-law Jack Robson
Tamara Jermolajew 1920-2010 Yugoslav-born Australian autobiographer ("It Can't Be Forever", Ginninderra Press, 2005; ISBN 1740272951) [15] [16] Sometime mother-in-law
Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 Queen of Australia She's 1st cousin 9 times removed of King Charles II, who, through his mistress Barbara Villiers, was the father of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton. The granddaughter of the 4th Duke was Elizabeth Fitzroy (1826-1906), who married Henry Lee-Steere (d. 17 June 1899) [17], a close relative of the Lee-Steeres mentioned above.

I guess this makes the Queen my second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law's uncle's relative's father-in-law's great-great-great-great-grandfather's 1st cousin 9 times removed.

And her successor, King Charles III would be my second cousin's great-grandfather's son-in-law's uncle's relative's father-in-law's great-great-great-great-grandfather's 1st cousin 10 times removed.

Brett Whiteley AO 1939-92 Australian painter, who twice won the Archibald Prize, named after J. F. Archibald, who is buried at Waverley Cemetery, not far from great-uncle Tom Hogan. Whiteley died of a drug overdose, in a seedy motel, alone. Second cousin's husband 1962-89; they divorced
Wendy Whiteley OAM b. 1941 Australian arts celebrity; muse, former wife and curator of the works of Brett Whiteley Second cousin; nee Julius; her mother Daphne nee McKenzie was the daughter of my grandmother's brother Stan McKenzie) [18].
Arkie Whiteley 1964-2001 Australian actress; daughter of Brett and Wendy Whitelely Second cousin once removed