Seventeen-year-old Adolphus August Busch V—scion of the Anheuser-Busch family— was arrested Wednesday for drinking one of his family's beverages.
The report said the underage group was drinking Natural Light beer when police arrived.
Busch is a grandson of the late August A. "Gussie" Busch Jr., but his parents do not work for the brewery. [Link]
Members of the famed Guinness brewing family had their DNA tested to confirm their ancestor Arthur Guinness's claim that he descended from the Magennis chieftains of Iveagh, in County Down. It turns out that he descended from "the subsidiary McCartan clan, a far less eminent family."
The book [Arthur's Round: The Life And Times Of Brewing Legend Arthur Guinness] explains that where Arthur's genuine ancestors, the McCartans, once lived is a small village called Guiness or Ginnies.
The name of which is derived from the Irish Gion Ais, meaning wedge-shaped ridge -- thus clarifying the roots of the famous surname.
However, the pretensions arose when Arthur Guinness married in 1761 and engraved a silver cup with the armorial bearings of the Magennises of Iveagh -- a lion, with the red hand of Ulster, and a boar. [Link]
An advertisement for Stella Artois included the phrase, "A family dedicated to brewing for six centuries." This claim is true only when read through beer goggles.
Artois is no longer a family-owned brand. But readers were likely to interpret the claim as 'one family of common ancestry had been involved in the brewing of Stella Artois for six centuries', the [Advertising Standards Authority] ruled.
It told InBev to remove the claim.
InBev said the advert's aim had been to emphasise the 'continuity of tradition and care' found in the Artois family of beers. It had not meant to suggest that one family of 'common ancestry' had brewed the beers for six centuries. [Link]
If Fred Noe ever forgets his ancestry, he can just head down to the liquor store and buy a bottle of bourbon. He's the seventh member of his family to have his portrait displayed on bottles of Jim Beam.
Noe, 50, who is assuming the role as Jim Beam’s distiller, became choked with emotion when he saw his portrait next to that of his father’s, longtime master distiller Booker Noe, who died in 2004.
“This is a huge honor,” said Noe, whose family traces its Kentucky whiskey heritage to 1795, when family patriarch Jacob Beam set up a frontier still.
Jacob Beam is atop the family tree portrayed on the label, with Booker and Fred Noe at the bottom. [Link]
A descendant of Otto von Bismarck is being called "Germany's laziest politician."
Booing and laughter broke out at a regional party meeting roll call on Sunday in Mölln, Germany, when the great-great grandson of Germany's legendary "Iron Chancellor" came up absent -- again.
Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck, 46, isn't living up to his disciplined family name. The national politician frequently avoids local party obligations and colleagues, isn't present in his electoral district and doesn't answer voters' questions. [Link]
A member of a famous circus family wants to strike out on his own, but a 1967 franchise deal may prevent him from using the family name.
John Ringling North II, grandnephew of circus promoter John Ringling, wants to bill the show he bought in Hugo, Okla., as “John Ringling North II presents the Kelly Miller Circus.”
North’s attorney, Lamar Matthews, said customers are unlikely to confuse “a one-ring circus in Hugo, Okla., and the greatest show on earth.” [Link]As an aside, did you know that there's a mailing list for "anyone with a genealogical interest in circus folk"? There is also a list devoted to high-wire artists that is somewhat less popular.
Author Emma Darwin lives in the long shadow of her great-great-grandfather, and in the somewhat shorter shadow of his wife, for whom she was named.
When I checked in for the writing course the administrator ran his finger down the clipboard list. 'No relation to Charles Darwin, then?' I've had a lifetime's training in family manners, so I smiled modestly. 'Well, yes, actually. He's my grandfather's grandfather.'
His finger began to tremble. 'No! But I've actually shaken your hand,' he gasped. 'Charles Darwin's descendant! Oh my God!' He began to hyperventilate and had to sit down. I stood there, trying to keep smiling.
In the odd, blank year between the champagne corks popping to celebrate the deal and my book actually hitting the bookshelves, I Googled myself occasionally, as most new authors do. But I don't think most new authors are consistently upstaged in the Google rankings by their own great-great-grandmother. [Link]
Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mohandas, says it's sometimes a drag being known as the Mahatma's descendant.
"I have been termed Gandhi-in-Jeans by the press. I recall an incident when I was joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and Congress from Mumbai north-west constituency in 1997. The campaign was held sometime during Ramzan. There were lavish spreads of non-vegetarian food. Photographers would click pictures of me eating non-vegetarian food all the time. I wish they could understand I am a descendant of the Mahatma, not Mahatma myself. If being Mahatma was hereditary, there would be 54 living Mahatmas today!" says Tushar, recounting another episode. [Link]
Those of you eager to learn how Paris Hilton is related to Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor should direct your attention to today's Indianapolis (Ind.) Star. 
Wikipedia has a bit more information. Brian Hines revealed last year his own Paris connection.
Unfortunately, Conrad Hilton was the son of a Norwegian immigrant, and is not related to the Hiltons who settled early in New Hampshire, from whom I am descended. My closest connection to obscene wealth is through my great-grandfather Elton L. Dunham, who was the second-cousin of Henry Solomon Wellcome.
Who was he? Well, an exhibition at the British Museum is dedicated to him. He was a physician, and helped found Burroughs Wellcome & Co. in England to import American pharmaceuticals. His wife having run off with British novelist Somerset Maugham, and having no children, Henry left his company and estate of about £3,000,000 to the Wellcome Trust, now "the world's largest medical research charity," in 1936. You might know the Burroughs Wellcome company by its current name: GlaxoSmithKline, whose annual earnings would make Conrad Hilton blush.
But, as my father bemoans, our ancestors were generally of the dirt-farmer variety, and no hefty checks are forthcoming from long-lost cousins. On the bright side, we don't have to hang our heads in shame whenever Paris speaks.
