Had a GG aunt who wrote the book on Mom's side, long list. Ancestor was a bishop in England at Westmenster way way back, maybe1100 century. Another was companion of Daniel Boone's, and was the father of the first "white" child born in TN - I think it was. A widow and widower met, one had 12 childern, the other had 13. They married and lived with all the children and a MIL and a child of theirs in a 2 or 3 room log cabin back in the 1700's. Another story tells of a girl kidnapped by Indians; two of her brothers looked for her for years. When they found her she was married to an Indian man and had children. I don't believe she came back "home" with her brothers. Both my paternal GM and GF were from same area in PA, and had same last name-not related that we know of. In more recent times: Geoffry Bean, the fashion designer was a 3 or 4th cousin. Alan Bean the astronaught(sp?) is a distant cousin. Had another cousin who was politing a helicopter with 7 Sercet Service men on board that crashed in the ocean; he dove through gas and flames and recued 6 of them. He suffered health problems for the rest of his life because he inhaled some of the gas. He was a lovely man.
DH GF drove one of the last cattle drives up the Chism trail; he later moved to Chicago and invested with the Olds brothers in race cars and the Indy 500 in the 20's or 30's.
As for me well my Mother always told me I was related to Jesse James...don't really believe this because my older sister wasn't related to him and we had the same parents.