Genealogue Challenge #45

Tuesday was the anniversary of Shel Silverstein's birth.

When did his maternal grandfather die?

Born to Write Fiction

Novelist Natalie Danford comes from "a family of great mythologizers."

My paternal grandfather created this whole story that he had come over here when he was 12 and that he didn’t speak any English and pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Many years ago, after the Ellis Island records went online, my father idly punched in his own father's name and it turns out that my grandfather came here when he was three with his entire family.

On my mother's side, we always thought that my great-grandfather left Russia because he didn't want to be conscripted into the Czar's army, obviously a pretty bad deal if you were Jewish. One of my mother's cousins did genealogical research in the late 1970s; it turned out that he actually killed somebody and hopped a boat. [Link]

Didn't Shania Twain Write 'Huck Finn'?

From The (Provo, Utah) Daily Herald of Oct. 28, 2005:

Tolstoy namesake speaks at UVSC

Anna Chang-Yen DAILY HERALD

Textbooks, novels, historical works, the first diary recorded in Russia -- they all are the work of Nikolai Tolstoy's ancestors. But perhaps the distinction that draws the most attention is the fact that his grandfather's cousin was Leo Tolstoy, author of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina."

Nikolai Tolstoy, who also is the step-son of novelist Patrick O'Brian, told attendees at a reception in his honor at Utah Valley State College on Thursday that his family enjoys a legacy of literature and creativity. Sometimes, he said, the connection leads to confusion. At the premiere of the Russian film "War and Peace," Tolstoy was seated at a table with dignitaries including a young Russian actress. The actress ignored him for most of the night, he said, but after he was introduced, she asked, "Why didn't you tell me you were the screenwriter?"

[snip]

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J. K. Rowling: Pureblood, Half-Blood, or Mudblood?

From The (Glasgow, Scotland) Sunday Mail of Aug. 14, 2005:

JK'S SECRET SCOTS FAMILY

Writer in hunt for lost relatives

By Donna White

HARRY POTTER author JK Rowling has secretly traced her Scottish roots.

Adopted Scot Joanne, 40, believes she is the great-granddaughter of a pioneering doctor from Arran.

Dugald Campbell, who died aged 82 in 1940, moved from his Scots home to Hawaii, where he helped to create a national health service in the 1890s.

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[Read the whole story]