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{{trope}}
We've all known a guy like this, you know the guy who claims his great to the Nth grandfather did something famous which via [[Fridge Logic]] carries over to him? This is dedicated to any character who invokes a '''Famous Ancestor''' to help characterize himself, or ''is'' characterized by his famous ancestor despite his own traits. Expect this as the source of a [[Secret Legacy]] or [[Superpowerful Genetics]] in a family line and expect a poor kid being held up to the ancestors standard.
Commons subversions occur where the character has a Famous Ancestor, but the powers or prowess eludes them and their humiliation is [[Played for Laughs]].
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* [[X-Men|Colossus]], a.k.a. Piotr Rasputin, is a direct descendant of the infamous Grigor Rasputin. Piotr doesn't claim kinship with any pride.
* ''[[Wynonna Earp]]'' is the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp.
* Played for laughs with the ''Drabble'' comic strip, where Ralph has his family tree traced and discovers he's related to Famous Amos and Little Debbie. (The joke being, this makes perfect sense, as Ralph is a [[Big Eater]] and an incurable [[Sweet Tooth]].)
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In the [[Mega Crossover]] ''[[The Dance of Shiva]]'', Nene Romanova of ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' is revealed to be a direct descendant of the "lost" Russian princess [[w:Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia|Anastasia Romanova]]. (The story was written well before Anastasia's remains were finally found and definitively identified, and there was still some doubt as to her fate.)
== [[Film]] ==
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{{quote|'''Rhys:''' You had an ancestor, I believe, who was a regicide?
'''Vimes:''' I've always thought that was a bit unfair. I mean, he only killed ''one'' king. It's not as if it was a ''hobby''. }}
* [[Harry Potter]] lore:
**
** Similarly, Sybil Trelawney decided that having a seer for a grandmother entitled her to a spot teaching Divination. She did actually have the gift of foresight, but it didn't work that often.
** Harry himself is apparently the direct male-line descendant of Ignotus Peverell.
** In ''Order of the Phoenix'', Sirius tells Harry that most pureblood families are related to each other in some way or another. It's simply a product of having a limited choice in who one's children can marry to keep the bloodline "clean". It's noted that even the Blacks and the Weasleys (who are purebloods themselves) share common ancestors.
** Professor Trelawney's great-grandmother was none other than Cassandra herself. Possily she inherited some of her ancestor's curse that caused nobody to ever believe her, as most of her contemporaries and some of her students regard her as a charlatan and crackpot, even though of her predictions do indeed come true - just [[Prophecy Twist|not quite the way she said they would.]]
* ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'': The Holy Grail is not a cup, but rather a person, a person who is the descendant of Jesus - [[Dan Browned|through His wife, Mary Magdaline.]]
* It turns out in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' that all the Knights of the Cross we've met so far are descended from royalty - Shiro from the last king of Okinawa, Sanya from Saladin and Michael from Charlemagne.
** It's been estimated by genealogists that [[Did Not Do the Research|nearly all persons with European ancestry are descended from Charlemagne]].
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** Fflewder Fflam, a wandering bard (and a king, albeit of a very small, self-sufficient kingdom) is distantly related to the Sons of Don. {{spoiler|This, unfortunately, means that he has no choice but to leave Prydain with the rest of his kin at the end of the series.}}
* The protagonist of J.C. Hutchins' novel ''Personal Effects: Dark Art'', Zach Taylor, is a many times great-grandson of U.S. President Zachary Taylor.
* A case of an ''infamous'' ancestor, in ''[[Beowulf]]'', Grendel is said to be a "monstrous descendant of Cain", the first murderer cursed for killing his brother.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Octavian happily uses this on ''[[Rome]]''. Even though the father he speaks so highly of was actually his great-uncle, and Octavian found out he was adopted when he read Caesar's will.
** Brutus also has a Famous Ancestor, being descendant from the man who rid Rome of its last king. His mother and the men who conspire to kill Caesar often bring it up.
* Spock of ''[[Star Trek: The
** And [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Miles O'Brien]] claims descent from the legendary Irish king Brian Boru. This is at least justified, as Boru is traditionally believed to have founded the O'Brien clan.
* On ''[[The West Wing]]'', Pres. Josiah Bartlett is supposed to be descended from the delegate to the Constitutional Convention of the same name.
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** Timur/Tamerlane claimed descent from Genghis Khan, but this was probably false.
* Several US presidents, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and both Roosevelts, plus other famous Americans such as Robert E. Lee and Humphrey Bogart, claimed descent from European royalty. George W. Bush is known to be a descendant of Edward I, who ruled England from 1272 to 1307.
* ''[[The Bible]]'' claims [[The Chosen One|Jesus]] is a
** Of course, Solomon was the son of David, and Solomon supposedly had 700 wives and 300 concubines, meaning Solomon likely had a ''lot'' of children. [[Fridge Logic| Logically speaking, if this were true]], almost the entire Jewish population could trace their lineage back to David.
* Tom Hanks is a relative of Abe Lincoln by way of Abe's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Referenced in one of the [[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] movies when the first thing Jessie the cowgirl says upon meeting the Hanks-voiced Woody is "Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln!"
* And [[John Scalzi]] is distantly related to John Wilkes Booth. He's joked about getting a twitchy feeling around five-dollar bills.
* The Queen of England and the rest of the current British royal family is descended from the Prophet Mohammed (via Arab kings of Spain).
* Also, in 2011, Prince Charles (now King Charles III) publicly claimed that heredity proves that he is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler , the Romanian tyrant who was the inspiration for [[Dracula]]. The claim accompanied his announcement of a pledge to help conserve the forested areas of Transylvania.
* Julius Caesar claimed descent from Aeneas. Or more accurately, Vergil claimed Caesar was descended from Aeneas. Aeneas is also the son of Venus.
* Marjane Satrapi, author of ''Persepolis'', is a descendant of Nasser al-Din Shah, Shah of Person from 1848 to 1896. She herself puts it down, noting that kings of that time period had hundreds of wives and thousands of children, so there were plenty of others with similar claims
* [[Barack Obama]] is said to be a descendant of Jefferson Davis.
* [[Christopher Lee]] was a direct descendant of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne Charlemagne], [[Badass Grandpa|which does]] explain [[In the Blood|a ''lot''.]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
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