Julie Bowen: Who do You Think You Are?

Actress Julie Bowen from the Television Show Modern Family was the subject of this weeks Who do you think you are? They went into two of her ancestors on her Mother’s side, one who they call Big Charley. Who is Julie’s Great-Grandfather who during World War one was the head of agency that rounded up German-Americans that some thought was a threat and put them in camps. This is a dark part of American History I didn’t Know about and I have read Howard Zinn’s books so I know a little about that side, but this is a new one on me.

          Another one was Julie’s 4^th times Great-Grandfather on her Mother’s father’s side who was a doctor in Pennsylvania before the Civil War. He ran the local underground railroad. So he was one of the good guys who was fighting the dark side of American History.    

Courteney Cox; who do you think you are?

Courteney Cox is an actress that is most famous for playing Monica on the TV show “Friends”. She was the subject of the latest “Who do you think you are?” Show which traced her ancestry back to William the Conqueror who defeated the English in 1066. One thing it showed is that once your pedigree chart gets some royal blood on it then there are already more charts waiting for you to add to your chart.

Per an English Genealogist on the show one of Courteney’s ancestors murdered King Edward the second by sticking a red-hot poker up his ass (he put it in a nicer way). This Englishman said that this was “after King Edward fell out of favor because of his failures on the battle field”. I happen to have read a history book in which this event was described and what the English Genealogist didn’t want to say was that this event occurred after the Battle of Bannockburn in which the Scots nocked the hell out of the English army.  

I have found that the records of working class people get rarer as you go back through the centuries until even the church records run out. The fact that your direct ancestors double each generation depending where they lived there is a good chance you will get some noble blood on your chart too.