Did You Know #30

You never know what you will find out when you start digging into genealogy records. Every family will a few "skeletons in the closet," so what can you do? You can't change the past, so you just have to take "the good, bad, and ugly" and accept it. That being said, here's a family connection that is guaranteed to "make your day."

Clinton Eastwood, Jr. was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, CA to Clinton Eastwood, Sr. and Margaret Ruth Runner. Clint worked as a lifeguard after graduating from High School and prior to serving in the military during the Korean conflict, where he served as a boot camp swimming instructor, a position he shagged when his plane crashed into the Pacific. Eastwood swam three miles to reach the shore. He moved to Los Angeles after his military service where he got a job digging swimming pools. Two of his army friends, David Janssen and Martin Milner, encouraged Clint to get into acting, and he started taking small acting jobs. He landed a conract with Universal Studios in 1954, but then was cut because they thought his adam's apple was too big (also fired by the same director, on the same day, was a little known stunt man named Burt Reynolds).


One day Eastwood was visiting a friend on the CBS lot when a movie executive spotted him and thought, "He looks like a cowboy!" He was asked to try out for the role of Rowdy Yates on the popular TV show "Rawhide," and the rest is history. He really hit the big time in movies with A Fistful of Dollars (1964); For a Few Dollars More (1965); and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The 1970's brought Eastwood into another movie franchise with Dirty Harry (1971) and its popular sequels. Everybody has they favorite Eastwood movies. My personal favorites are The First Traveling Saleslady (1956, co-starred with James Arness), Hang 'Em High (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Space Cowboys (2000), and Million Dollar Baby (2004). And who couldn't love Every Which Way But Loose (1978) with Clyde the orangutan?

Clint Eastwood is one of the greatest actors of all time, a wonderful director, and has served as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. His awards and honors are far more than can be detailed here.

So what is the family connection? Well, it depends. There are well over 60 different ways the relationship could be established reaching as high as 24th cousins. But the closest relationships are traced through the Hull family (Clint Eastwood's 6th great-grandmother was Sarah Hull). Sarah was the third cousin of our 7th great-grandfather Nathanial Hull.

Eastwood's great-great grandparents were Edward F. and Cordelia Kellogg Bartholomew. If you trace the connection through Cordelia Kellogg then Clint Eastwood and Dad are 11th cousins.

Thomas Hull & Joan Peson
Richard Hull b.1599 Dr. John Hull b.1640 Dr. Benjamin Hull b.1667 Sarah Hull b.1710 Samuel Hall IV b.1747 Hezekiah Hall Jane Hall Cordelia Kellogg b.1828 Sophia Amelia Bartholomew b.1859 Waldo Erroll Runner b.1882 Margaret Ruth Runner b.1909 Clinton Eastwood Jr. b.1930	George Hull b.1590 Lt. Cornelius Hull b.1628 Cornelius Hull b.1655 Nathaniel Hull b.1694 Nathaniel Hull b.1726 Ezekiel Hull b.1765 Platt Hull b.1787 Ezekiel Hull b.1813 Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

But, if you trace the connection through Cordelia's husband, Edward F. Bartholomew, then Clint Eastwood and Dad are 10th cousins, 1 time removed. The reason is because the married couple, Cordelia Kellogg and Edward F. Bartholomew, Clint Eastwood's great-grandparents, were both grandchildren of Sarah Hull (Edward F. Bartholomew was her great-grandchild while Cordelia Kellogg was her great-great grandparents).

Thomas Hull & Joan Peson
Richard Hull b.1599 Dr. John Hull b.1640 Dr. Benjamin Hull b.1667 Sarah Hull b.1710 Samuel Hall IV b.1747 Elizabeth Hall b.1790 Edward F. Bartholomew b.1828 Sophia Amelia Bartholomew b.1859 Waldo Erroll Runner b.1882 Margaret Ruth Runner b.1909 Clinton Eastwood Jr. b.1930	George Hull b.1590 Lt. Cornelius Hull b.1628 Cornelius Hull b.1655 Nathaniel Hull b.1694 Nathaniel Hull b.1726 Ezekiel Hull b.1765 Platt Hull b.1787 Ezekiel Hull b.1813 Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Source:

Clint Eastwood, The Internet Movie Database
[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000142/]