9 Celebs With Spooky Family Histories

Entertainment
30 October 2014
by Ancestry Team

Witches, ghosts, murder—researchers from Ancestry found them all and more when they started combing the headlines for spooky facts in some current, and former, celebrities’ pasts. Here are 9 of the spookiest family history facts from celebrities you may know!

1. Taylor Swift Has an Undertaker in the Family

Charles Baldi, 2nd great-grandfather of pop star Taylor Swift, was killing it himself as an undertaker in Philadelphia in 1900. His own start rose as he became a real estate broker, then, by 1930, president of a banking company!

2. Real Witch Found in Emma Watson’s Family Tree

Muggle actress Emma Watson, famous for playing Hermione Granger, the preternaturally talented witch and ally of Harry Potter, has a real-life connection to the wizarding world. According to family history experts at Ancestry, English records show Watson is a distant relative of one Joan Playle of Essex County, England, who was convicted of witchcraft in 1592.

Anastasia Tyler, an Ancestry genealogist who researched Watson’s heritage, said:

“It is not every day we are able to trace the branches of a family tree back to the 16th century witch trials. It shows researching your family’s past can have just as many twists and turns as a film blockbuster.”

3. Noisy GHOST Means Tax Cut for Helena Bonham-Carter’s Cousin

Helena Bonham Carter’s 2nd cousin once removed, Lt. Col. Algernon Bonham-Carter, received a 10 percent tax cut in 1957 when “the local tax valuation court agreed to reduce the taxes on the Colonel’s 500-year-old house” because a ghost that frequented the first-floor bedrooms “was knocking down the property values.”

4. Alleged “Jack the Ripper” Committed to Leavesden Asylum! Murders Cease!

“Jack the Ripper” suspect Aaron Kozminski was committed to the Leavesden Asylum after his previous discharge from Colney Asylum in 1894. A hairdresser by trade, Kozminski died in 1919. While the Whitechapel murders stopped following Kozminski’s incarceration, the true identity of Jack the Ripper remains a mystery.

5. Colonial Fratricide in Stephen King’s Tree

Horror master Stephen King’s 7th great-grandfather Jonathan Nason was killed with canoe oar on the Pascataqua River. The fatal blow was delivered by his brother, who, according to historical records, was acting in self-defense.

6. Twilight Star Robert Pattinson Related to Dracula

Family history experts at Ancestry discovered that the role of dreamy vampire Edward Cullen is in Pattinson’s blood. Pattinson is a distant relation to Vlad the Impaler himself, a possible inspiration for Bram Stoker’s vampire. Pattinson comes through the lineage via the British royal line: his family tree merges with Princes William and Harry’s on their father’s side, and the royal brothers count Vlad as a distant uncle.

“Without any myth or magic, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson’s life — making his story just as supernatural as the one he is playing on screen,” Tyler said.

7. Spooky Birthday for Science Fiction Great Peter Jackson

Happy Birthday to Peter Jackson, director of fantastical films such as The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and King Kong.

8. Ghostbusting Is an Aykroyd Family Affair

Dan Aykroyd reports that his grandfather, Maurice Jas Aykroyd, was a “Bell Telephone engineer who actually queried his colleagues about the possibility of constructing a high-vibration crystal radio as a mechanical method for contacting the spiritual world. His son, my father, as a child witnessed séances and kept the family books on the subject…and from all this Ghostbusters got made.”

9. Houdini DIES on Halloween!

“Harry Houdini, the magician, died today. The noted escape artist, whose adeptness at freeing himself from strait-jackets, chains and cells mystified audiences in all parts of the world, died after second surgical attempt had been made to save his life from the effects of peritonitis.”
Independent Record (Helena, Montana)

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Disclaimer: The individuals discussed here are not affiliated with Ancestry and do not endorse Ancestry products.