How do I find out if I am related to a specific historical person?

Question

A prof. asked me if I was related to William Charles Macready (actor of England, 18th, early 19th century.)

I understand very simple genealogy searches, but the spelling is different. My name is spelled McCready.

As far as I know, I am Irish on my father's side (the surname here) and English on my mother's side.

I know this name has 3 different locations- England, Ireland and Scotland. It also has a large variety of spellings.

So how do I find out if a specific person is an ancestor?

Answer 1

You have to do your family tree and that person's family tree and see if they cross paths anywhere, meaning that you SHARE a common ancestor.  That is the only way.

Answer 2

You would have to do your family tree and his family tree and see if there were any common ancestors.

It looks like someone may have already done his tree its on OneWorld Tree on Ancestry.

Looks like his father came from Ireland

Him;

William Charles Macready

Born: 3 Mar 1793

Mary St, Euston Road London, [county], England  

Died: 27 Apr 1873

Sherbourne House, [parish], Dorset, England

His father;

William Macready

Born: 1755

[city], [parish], [county], Ireland  

Died: 11 Apr 1829

Bristol, [parish], [county], England

His kids;

Christina Letitia Macready   F   26 Dec 1830 in [city], [parish], [county], England     

William Charles Macready M 7 Aug 1832 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Catherine Frances Macready F 21 Jul 1835 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Edward Neville Macready M 17 Feb 1836

Harriet Joanna Macready F 13 Jul 1837 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Henry Frederick Macready M 20 Dec 1838 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Walter Francis Macready M 27 Jun 1840 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Lydia Jane Macready F 26 Dec 1842 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Cecilia Benvenuta Macready F 1847 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Jonathan F Macready M 1850 in [city], [parish], [county], England

Cecil Frederick Macready   M   7 May 1862

This  may or may not be accurate- depending on the skills of the researcher.

Answer 3

Your English teacher would be highly insulted, so don't let him/her in on the fact that spelling is on the low end of the priority scale in genealogy.  Most persons prior to 1900 were illiterate.. it did not stop them from being related or not related. It doesn't shut out a relationship now.

Your only concern would be to learn facts concerning your father; his father; his father;, etc.. and look to see if your ancestors seem to be in the same neighborhood as the other person.  You MIGHT find that you both share an ancestor, which would make you related. Don't forget.. you can also be related to a kazillion people who have different names (but thats an aside from Mr. William above).

Be very careful concerning a 'simple' search.  If you used google for one spelling, computers (bless their analytical processors) will only hit on matches. Mispelled records won't appear.

Answer 4

You CAN NOT work from the famous person down to you; it won't work. You MUST WORK from yourself back.  The only way around that would be to have a DNA test done for yourself and a known descendant of that person; an "exact match" would indicate that you are related.

Do not concern yourself with variations in spelling of the name;  uniform spellings of names is a modern tradition, but if you notice how people spell various given names, you know that especially today there is NO standardized spelling.

According to http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx... McCready (with several variant spellings) is a Scottish name.  Many Scots fled to Ireland, the United States and Australia, taking the name with them.

According to  http://www.4crests.com/mccready-coat-of-...  McCREADY was derived from the Gaelic MacRiada.  It means "Always Ready".

Good luck!