As for Famous, I'm related to John Hancock on my father's side, and Mary Queen of Scots (they named a drink after her) on my mother's side.
Not so famous, but contributing a lot to history are my Great great grandfather, great grandfather, and grandfather.
GGGrandad was Col. Charles W. Taylor. He was a company commander in the 9th U.S. Cavalry during the end of the Indian Wars and into the Spanish-American War. It was he, and the rest of the 9th that pulled Teddy Roosevelt's fat out of the fire when he charged up the San Juan Heights against orders and without support. (I know, the history books tell it different, but that's the way Taylor told it.)
GGrandad was Col. W.M. Modisette. There's an article about him
here about a quarter of the way down. His is the first pic.
Grandad was Col. W.M. Modisette Jr. and fought tooth-and-nail during the island hopping campaign in the Pacific during WWII. He made it as far as Iwo-Jima where the jeep he was in hit a land mine injuring him severely. Oddly enough, he was in the Army Air Corps, but he was an infantryman. His men went in with the 2nd or 3rd wave of Marines and went directly past the beach head to capture air fields from the enemy. He saw a lot of action. I recently inherited the 1911 that he carried during that time. It's a commercial model and I don't know if the Army issued it to him or if he bought it himself. As you can see, it has four notches in the grip.
(BTW, he wasn't a Flying Tiger. I bought that blood chit mail order years ago and was just using it as a prop for those pics.)
