History Main / FamousAncestor

* In ''LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo'', pretty much every important character has a famous ancestor, from RealLife or fictional works (Arsène Lupin, Sherlock Holmes, Jeanne d'Arc, Cleopatra, etc.) A good part of the reveals are about the characters' lineages. [[SuperpowerfulGenetics Which usually involve inherited superpowers of some sort.]]
* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'' features a team of terrorists who are all descendants of legendary figures from time's past. These include, but are not limited to, [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms Cao Cao]], UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc (a reincarnation in this case since Joan never got to have children), [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hercules]], Myth/{{Faust}}, and that's only the central squad.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': The villainous Lily tells the other new Myth/{{Scholomance}} recruits that she is a descendant of Myth/{{Merlin}}, arguably the most famous wizard to ever exist.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has "Sword God" Shimotsuki Ryuma, from the author's previous one-shot ''Monsters'' in ''Manga/Wanted1998''. He was already pretty famous when he was alive, but by the time of the present storyline, he's considered a legend in both his home country Wano and throughout the world as one of the greatest swordsman to have ever lived. His descendants are the Shimotsuki Family, who have produced some of the most talented swordsmen and swordsmiths in the series, including Roronoa Zoro's master Koushiro, his best friend, Koushiro's daughter Kuina, and, as revealed in an SBS, [[spoiler:Zoro himself. While Zoro remains unaware of his heritage, it nonetheless plays an important part in the Wano arc, as his resemblances to Ryuma and to his granduncle Shimotsuki Ushimaru (the former Daimyo of Ringo) are why the natives of Wano warm up to him so quickly]].

* Creator/KatherineHepburn, who played UsefulNotes/EleanorofAquitaine in ''Theatre/TheLionInWinter'', actually is descended from Eleanor...from ''both'' of Eleanor's marriages.

* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': This is very common. Littlepip and her cousin Velvet Remedy are descendants of Applejack, and [[Fanfic/FalloutEquestriaProjectHorizons Blackjack]] is descended from Twilight Sparkle's bastard daughter.

* UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat claimed descent from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hercules]]. This was the traditional claim of the Argead dynasty of Macedon, but he also claimed descent via his mother from Achilles. If badass is hereditary, his claims weren't far-fetched. Since Hercules' father was Zeus and Achilles' mother was Thetis, one of the Nereides, and his father was a grandson of Zeus, this means Alexander also claimed to descend from an Olympian.

** ''Anime/LupinIIIDragonOfDoom'' has Goemon attending a UsefulNotes/KabukiTheatre performance of his ancestor's death. ManlyTears follow.

* Masahiro in ''LightNovel/ShonenOnmyouji'' is often recognized as the grandson of the great Abe no Seimei, a fact that Masahiro despises.

* In the Literature/ShiraCalpurnia trilogy of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' novels, the Calpurnia family hails from Ultramar and is noted as having a long history of members with distinguished careers in many different areas of Imperial government and military, even two who became [[SpaceMarine Ultramarines]]. Shira is commended at one point for seeing this as something to strive to build on and not something to use to lord over others.

* Franchise/FireEmblem
** In the the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Archanea]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem games]], Marth is the great grand nephew of the hero, Anri.
** [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar ''Genealogy of the Holy War'']] and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 ''Thracia 776'']] has all the nobles descended from the twelve crusades who received SuperhumanTransfusion from Dragons.

** UsefulNotes/TimurTheLame claimed descent from UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, but this was probably false. However, he did marry a Genghid princess, so his descendants--the most famous of whom being the Mughals of India--were descended from UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan.

** Genealogists had a lot of fun with the 1992 presidential election, since UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush was descended from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III_of_England a king of England]] while UsefulNotes/BillClinton was descended from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_de_Montfort,_6th_Earl_of_Leicester a man executed by said king.]] Several rather fanciful articles were published speculating that [[InsaneTrollLogic De Montfort's death had finally been avenged.]]

* The Queen of England and the rest of the current British royal family is probably descended from UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad (via Arab kings of Spain).

** Descent from the heroes of Troy was a common claim of medieval royalty. Aeneas is said to be the ancestor of both the kings of Rome (through his dependent Romulus) and the kings of Britain (through his great-grandson Brutus). The Merovingian dynasty claimed descent from Hector, which for starters Hector's son to have actually survived the war in defiance of the actual myths.

* Marjane Satrapi, author of ''Literature/{{Persepolis}}'', is a descendant of Nasser al-Din Shah, Shah of Persia from 1848 to 1896. She herself puts it down, noting that kings of that time period had hundreds of wives and thousands of children, so there were plenty of others with similar claims.

* Creator/ChristopherLee was a direct descendant of UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}, and had the documentation to prove it. This inspired him to record the symphonic metal concept album ''Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross''.
** Of course since Charlemagne had lots of children with several wives and concubines and lived twelve centuries ago (which would roughly correspond to 40 generations until the present day) he has many descendants. German genealogists already joked that "every German is descended from Charlemagne" at least a hundred years ago, and the same probably also goes for the French. The fact that Lee was able to document it was the impressive part.
** Lee had a further connection to notable medieval ancestry: his mother's family (through whom he claimed descent from Charlemagne) were loyal servants of [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Frederick Barbarossa]], and given the title of count for their trouble. Descendants of Barbarossa almost certainly married into the Carandini comital line.
* It was common during the Middle Ages for English kings to claim to be descended from Myth/KingArthur. [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor Henry VII]], who besides being King of England was also Welsh (and therefore had a particularly strong reason for emphasising Arthur, whom the Welsh considered one of their own and was thus especially popular in Wales) hired Welsh genealogists to "prove" that he was a lineal descendant of the legendary king, and named his eldest son Arthur to shore up the connection. (Poor Prince Arthur died young, leaving his position as first in line and his bride to [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII a rather more famous Tudor]].)
* Music/FrankZappa discovered in 1984 that there actually lived a composer in 18th century Italy called ''Francesco Zappa''. Despite the fact that they weren't related in any way Zappa did feel they were some kind of kindred spirits, as this composer also wrote music that was a little bit eccentric and faded away in obscurity after his death. Seeing that Zappa's own music was also overlooked and ignored by people in his own era he decided to bring this music out on record: ''Music/FrancescoZappa''. Despite explaining in the liner notes that Francesco Zappa was not some kind of pseudonym and the man wasn't an ancestor of his, many listeners still assumed it was.
* The paternal grandmother of actress-model-socialite [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Shields Brooke Shields]] is [[OldMoney Dona]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Torlonia_di_Civitella-Cesi Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi]]. Through her, Shields is a descendant of:

** also the son of France Pejot, important member of LaResistance
** and the grandson of André Jarre, co-inventor of the mixing desk; he probably wouldn't be where he is now without his grandpa's creativity

* ''Creator/NathanFillion'' is descended from American Civil War general [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubal_Early Jubal Early]] ''Creator/JossWhedon'' named a black bounty hunter in ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' after him as a kind of TakeThat at the real Early’s racism.
* Take a wild guess what modern birds are descended from, no really take a guess, you'll never get it. [[spoiler:It's Dinosaurs.]]

* In the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo game ''Ninja Commando'', Ryu Eagle claims to be UsefulNotes/FuumaKotaro the 32nd.

* In the extremely forgettable 1989 DTV skiffy movie ''Film/Arena1989'', Steve Armstrong plays a short-order cook attempting to win the intergalactic boxing championship; it's mentioned briefly that he's a direct descendant of Neil Armstrong.

** Sanae Kotiya is [[DivineParentage a distant descendant of the goddess Suwako]], who [[GodEmperor ruled a kingdom]] back at the dawn of Japanese history before becoming one of the two deities worshiped at the Moriya Shrine. The twist is that Suwako [[Really700YearsOld is still around]], so Sanae is a {{Miko}} serving under her own ancestor, [[PalsWithJesus who is also her roommate,]] and who [[SleepModeSize prefers the form of a little girl with]] [[NiceHat a goofy frog hat.]]

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' takes it UpToEleven when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Pythagoras]] is the real father of the Eagle Bearer, who is already the descendant of the legendary Greek king Leonidas of Sparta through their mother Myrrine. [[spoiler:The final few scenes of the ''Legacy of the First Blade'' DLC reveal that the Eagle Bearer's son Elpidos is not just related to Darius but he's also the ancestor of Aya/Amunet, the co-founder of the Assassin Brotherhood in ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins Origins]]'']].

** [[UpToEleven On top of that]], Dona Marina is [[LongList also descended from]] the [[BlueBlood noble families]] of:

** Voldemort is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, from whom he gets his ability to speak to snakes. Given that Salazar Slytherin was born while the Roman Empire was still a force to be reckoned with, this is either much less impressive than it sounds or the Gaunt family are ''extremely'' inbred even by the standards of British pureblood wizards. If the ring is any indication, he's also the descendant of Cadmus Peverell.

** Harry himself is apparently the direct descendant of Ignotus Peverell.
** In ''Order of the Phoenix'', Sirius tells Harry that most pureblood families are related to each other in some way or another. It's simply a product of having a limited choice in who one's children can marry to keep the bloodline "clean". It's noted that even the Blacks and the Weasleys (who are purebloods themselves) share common ancestors. This explains quite a lot about British magical society, really...

** House Tyrell is a cadet branch of House Gardener, descended from mythical king Garth Greenhand.

* Literature/TheBible
** The Bible states that UsefulNotes/JesusChrist is a descendant of King David as this was one of the requirements to be the Jewish [[TheChosenOne Messiah]], making this trope OlderThanFeudalism.
** Given that the Bible tells us that David's son Solomon had ''[[ReallyGetsAround over 700 wives and 300 concubines]]'', it's quite safe to say that David has a ''lot'' of descendants. Jesus's mother Mary was one of them is very plausible. In fact, by the time Jesus was born, it's likely that most Jews were descended from King David. In fact Jesus is given two completely different lines of descent from David in different books, which could be read as Mary and Joseph's different bloodlines or as different parts of the same family tree. (One other interpretation is that one of these genealogies actually traces the succession rather than strict generational descent, thus establishing Jesus as both a descendant of King David and the rightful heir to the kingship of Israel.)
** Ancestry in general was a big deal to the Jews in the Bible, given that each of the 12 tribes was named for the son of Jacob/Israel who was the patriarch of the tribe. On top of that, members of the tribe of Levi were destined to work in the temple, and only the descendants of Aaron could be priests.
** Fun fact: the word "Semite" means one who is descended from Shem, who was one of the three sons of Noah. He was an ancestor of Abraham, and thus of all Abraham's descendants, Jews and Arabs both (remember, the Arabs claim descent from Abraham through Ishmael).
* The Greeks believed the Persians to be descended from Perses, son of Perseus and Andromeda, which would make Zeus the ancestor of at least 60% of the population of Iran.

* The Queen of England and the rest of the current British royal family is probably descended from UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammed (via Arab kings of Spain).

* Played for humor in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' as Mr L. Prosser (the man who wants to build a bypass through Arthur's home) is revealed as a direct male line descendant of Genghis Khan but the blood only shows up as predilection for little fur hats, a preference for axes over the door, and the occasional disturbing visions of screaming Mongol hordes on horses, houses on fire, and fleeing peasants with spears sticking out of their backs.

* Remilia Scarlet of the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series claims to be a descendant of Vlad Ţepeş. She's lying.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* One of the major enemies of ''Radio/TheShadow'' was Shiwan Khan, who claimed to be the last descendant of Genghis Khan. While he probably was descended from the great Khan, his notion of being the ''last'' descendant of Genghis Khan is almost certainly nonsense - Genghis really got around, as did his sons and ''their'' sons, and as a result of this roughly a twentieth of Asia can trace their lineage back to the man.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', Yunobo is a descendant of the Goron Champion Daruk. His SuperpowerfulGenetics allow him to use [[BeehiveBarrier Daruk's Protection]] just like his ancestor.