You Just Never Know
One day in the early 1960s, my dad got off work and decided to stop by the Rusty Lantern for a drink before he headed home. Now this was before I-10 was actually a thing, so the people traveling from the Los Angeles area heading to Palm Springs had to drive through Beaumont where we lived. Often they would stop for gas or a bite to eat. In fact, “the Rusty Lantern was essentially the ‘it’ spot for celebrities traveling through the San Gorgonio Pass. Because Beaumont was a primary stop on the route between Los Angeles and the desert (Palm Springs), it became a natural sanctuary for Hollywood figures who wanted a high-quality meal without the fanfare of the city.” It had a mid-century vibe that people appreciated and celebrities were treated like everyone else.
This particular day just happened to be the same day that John Wayne (aka Marion Robert Morrison) decided to stop in Beaumont for a drink during his trek to Palm Springs. My dad and John happened to sit next to each other at the bar and got to talking. My dad said John Wayne was super nice and he really enjoyed the conversation.
Unbeknownst to either my dad or John Wayne, they happened to be distant relatives; in fact, they were 9th cousins once removed.
The information about John Wayne being a distant relative came from FamilySearch which is a free genealogy program supported by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It provides lots of resources for genealogy research and it’s all free. The downside is that it consists of one shared family tree instead of individual trees like Ancestry.com. While this can be great for finding resources, it also means that since everyone collaborates on one tree, there are tons of errors. People can add anyone they want even if there is no documentation and they can also change what other people have added.
A fun feature of FamilySearch is that there is the famous relatives section under activities. There are different categories of famous people and it shows who your common ancestor is and the people that connect each of you to that common ancestor. The problem of course is that this is all based on the one world tree so some of the information is true while a lot of it is wrong. The key is to conduct your own research based on what FamilySearch surmises and what you can document.
So…FamilySearch shows that John Wayne is connected by way of our common ancestors Stephen Goodyear and Mary Gibbard who are my 10th great grandparents. I had recently conducted research on this line and had written about Mary Gibbard and the Ghost Ship on my blog: An Address with a Story – Month 3 of 12 Ancestors in 12 Months | Journeying with Jacque. My line goes through their daughter Rebecca and John Wayne’s line goes through their daughter Hannah.
Now Family Search also shows me to be a 7th cousin 6 times removed to Marie Antoinette going back to the 1500s with common ancestors of Herzoq Wilhelm Von Julich – Kleve-Berg and Erzher Zogin Maria Osterreich through my Cunnard line (Margaret Cunnard was married to Nicholas Osborne). The problem is that I have a potential father for Margaret but no documentation. Then there is the surname issue. On FamilySearch there is Cunnard, Conrad, Conard, and Kunders all jumbled up. Margaret is my 5th great grandmother and I haven’t been able to go any farther back than that. Seriously, I highly doubt that I am in any way related to Marie Antonette.
This can be a fun thing to check out but you still have to do your research.
