Yorkshire born athletes appear to be thin on the ground! The best I could find is PAUL GOODISON, born 29/11/1977, sailing, who is the reigning olympic champion having won a gold medal in 2008. There is always Seb Coe, but I think you have done him. Dawn in Sweden -----Original Message----- From: roy.stockdill@btinternet.com Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:55 PM To: Yorksgen@rootsweb.com Subject: [YORKSGEN] My celebrity blog Perhaps I could draw listers' attention to my latest celebrity blog for July tieing in with the upcoming London Olympics, which is on Victoria Pendleton, Britain's queen of the cycling velodrome who is bound to be a hot contender for yet another gold medal.You can see it at: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/2012/07/famous-family-trees-victoria-pendleton/ Unfortunately, Victoria doesn't have any Yorkshire ancestors that I was able to discover. All her male line forebears were needle makers in the hosiery industry from Leicester and Nottingham. However, I have told my friends at Findmypast that I am determined to do a Yorkshireman (or woman) for my August blog and I would appreciate a few suggestions! Perhaps not necessarily just for now but for future blogs as well. My immediate prospects are..... JOHN CRAVEN, Countryfile presenter born in Leeds. MICHAEL PALIN, my favourite Python and travel programme presenter born in Sheffield. ALAN TITCHMARSH, gardening presenter and chat show host born at Ilkley. DAVID HOCKNEY, world-famous artist born in Bradford. SIR PATRICK STEWART born at Mirfield. ALAN BENNETT born in Leeds. Would anyone like to suggest a famous Yorkshireman or woman whose ancestry they would like to see? -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE ..... Ancestors in Yorkshire? http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/index.html; www.ryedalefamilyhistory.org; www.wharfedalefhg.org.uk; www.yorkshireparishregisters.com; www.yorkshireroots.org.uk; ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to YORKSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

My sincere thanks to all who have chucked names of some famous Yorkshire folks at me! There were some excellent suggestions in there. I am posting this to the list since there have been so many it seems easier than replying to all individually. If I might perhaps make a few points in response..... 1) I appreciate that some of our overseas friends may not have heard of all the people I proposed. However, could I respectfully point out that we all have Google at our fingertips these days, so it isn't difficult to find out precisely who they are? For instance, one respondent said she'd never heard of Victoria Pendleton but a mere glance at her Wikipedia entry will reveal that she is one of the most successful sportswomen in history, even if you're not a cycling fan. She's won NINE world titles in the velodrome and is the reigning World and Olympic champion in the individual sprint (that's the event where they often stand still on their bikes on the track, playing a cat and mouse game inviting their opponent to go first, and then scream for the finishing line at incredible speed over the final lap). She won the gold medal in Beijing in 2008 and suffered a horrendous crash in the world championships in Melbourne in February this year in the semi-final against her major Australian rival Anna Meares, ending up black and blue all over with her lycra suit ripped to shreds, but got back on her bike and beat Meares and went on to take a record 6th world sprint title. The video is easily found with Google. OK, I'm obviously a cycling fan having been a cyclist virtually all my life, but it's not difficult to find out who Victoria Pendleton is. BTW, UK listers will know that she is also a very glamorous lady who has got her cycling kit off several times for magazines and those pictures are all over the Internet also!!! The same principle applies to Alan Titchmarsh and John Craven. They may not be well known overseas but they are household names in the UK, both being constantly on television, and again they are easily found with Google. Alan Titchmarsh, for instance, is a famous gardener, chat show host and author. I accept that Findmypast is now global but it is still principally UK-based. 2) Several people suggested Dame Judi Dench, one of the world's great actresses, who was born in York. Excellent suggestion, but the problem is that I did her family tree a few years ago for the former magazine Practical Family History. I try not to repeat myself, since that would be too easy. I discovered that her great-grandfather, George Joseph Dench, a customs officer from Weymouth, was a bigamist, and you can find a YouTube video posted by Findmypast of me talking about that with Google at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHZtHlqdemM Dame Judi was lovely about it, like the great lady she is! She sent me a very nice e-mail saying she was intrigued and even amused by my findings. 3) One lister suggested Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch, who was hanged at York in 1809 for murder by poisoning. Again, I have written reams about her and also do a talk about her, having researched the case at length. I may even be a (very) distant relative of hers by marriage myself!!! As part of my researches I looked into her ancestry but was only able to get back as far as her grandfather who came from a fairly remote place called Scugdale in the North York Moors. 4) There were numerous other good suggestion and I shall be considering all of them. One person I would love to do is Michael Palin, always my favourite Python, who is surely well known everywhere for his superb TV travel documentaries, and another is the playwright alan Bennett, and probably the artist David Hockney as well. Again, many thanks, folks, for your ideas! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

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