People have been sharing their most tenuous historical claims to fame – 17 eye-opening links to the past
The past can seem like a remote place which is completely unconnected to the present. But a recent X thread has revealed that that just isn’t so.
Over on the social media site, screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell-Boyce revealed how his family has a glancing connection to the past. The post was written in response to a tale of another user who knew someone who knew Buffalo Bill, and invited others to share their stories.
What’s the lmost surprising historical reach in your life? My children were taught fiddle by a man who as a child met a man who remembered the Great Hunger.
They also spent time with a guy I used to drive to mass who had his 21st birthday on the Somme. https://t.co/EuE30wBl1M— Frank Cottrell-Boyce (@frankcottrell_b) September 7, 2024
The replies are an amusing look into how the past can come into contact with the present in surprising ways. Here are some of our favourite historical reaces.
1.
My father met Yuri Gagarin which is little distance in time but a lot in space
— Dan MacRae (@danmac50) September 7, 2024
2.
My Dad made our kitchen cupboards out of Keith Chegwin’s piano
— Rosaleen Kilbane (@RosaleenKilbane) September 7, 2024
3.
1/2. Going off at a slight tangent, skirting the ‘famous’ element, @frankcottrell_b, in this 1868 photo, the woman holding a hat is my great-great-grandmother. She’s using her hat to hide her pregnancy. That ‘bump’ was my great-grandmother who was still alive when I was born. https://t.co/VqNcq2GzWi pic.twitter.com/juE0znv52A
— Philip Ardagh (@PhilipArdagh) September 8, 2024
4.
I mentor someone whose father’s godfather was the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination was a major catalyst for the First World War https://t.co/JnOegYLmr0
— Ann Morgan (@A_B_Morgan) September 8, 2024
5.
When I was little and our family friend drove me places, he sometimes gave a lift to an old man too. The old man never said a word. After he died, I found out he was one of the only people to win medals in both Army and Air Force, and he was in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft 3 https://t.co/Jy8455ecwL
— Alexander Fox (@AlexanderFoxEtc) September 7, 2024
6.
I once knew a woman who had worked as Augustus John’s secretary and (when working in an italian tailor’s) had measured Hermann Goering for a leather suit https://t.co/iwzgI2A4hr
— Rob Palk (@robpalkwriter) September 7, 2024
7.
My granny’s war-time beau worked on a film with Clark Gable https://t.co/FO3MTm3Y2h
— Donna McLean (@Donna__McLean) September 7, 2024
8.
My great Aunt had Trotsky to tea
— Alison Diamond (@ADsaxist) September 7, 2024
9.
My gt gt grandmother female side made the outfit worn by the little boy in John Everett Millais’ Bubbles painting (aka Pear’s Bubbles).
My great uncle was the last glassblower at Pilkingtons Glass.
My gt gt uncle male side built half of Toxteth including Stananought Cottages.
— Zoë Richards | Author & Writing Coach (@zoerichardsuk) September 7, 2024