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Historical Character's Fictional Relative
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Beck: It's at a friend, Peach Salinger's.
Joe: Like J. D. Salinger?
Beck: I mean, yes. But she doesn't like to talk about it. And she's a sweetheart. Her family's just a little, you know?
— You (2018)

A fictional character is revealed to be related to someone non-fictional and famous. Sometimes, this is supposedly a distant ancestor (for instance, Alice claims that she is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Napoléon Bonaparte) while at other times the relationship is much closer in terms of blood. If that non-fictional celebrity is still alive, they might actually turn up as a guest star playing themselves.

Not to be confused with Real-Life Relative (or Relative-ly Flimsy Excuse, which deals with in-universe fake relatives) or Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity, where a fictional person is connected to a known famous person, but through fandom rather than family. See also Historical Domain Character, Famous Ancestor, Same Surname Means Related, Crossover Relatives, History with Celebrity, and Beethoven Was an Alien Spy. Compare Real Tragedy, Fictional Victim, which may qualify under this trope instead if the (real) victim of a tragedy is (fictionally) related to a character.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Code Geass: Nina Einstein is somehow related to her universe's Albert Einstein (who apparently studied something other than physics and never invented the bomb; Nina does).
  • As part of the liberties it takes with history, the Fate Series sometimes includes a few of these.
    • "Faker" of the Lord El-Melloi II Case Files is eventually revealed to be the twin sister of Hephaestion, Alexander the Great's best friend. El Melloi's apprentice, Gray, is also a far-off descendant of the Pendragon bloodline, supposedly on Kay's side of the family.
    • Fate/Samurai Remnant features Dorothea Coyett, the fictional daughter of real life Dutch nobleman Frederick Coyett, as well as Kaya, an original daughter of the Ogasawara clan who appears as Iori's beloved step-sister. Iori himself might count, really: while Miyamoto Iori was a real person, the one in the game is an orphan adopted by Miyamoto Musashi rather than his nephew, effectively making him a completely different person.
  • The Ferari sisters in Galilei Donna are direct descendants of Galileo.
  • Hikaru no Go has Fujiwara no Sai, whose relative position in the historical Fujiwara clan is never stated other than having sufficient means to dedicate himself to a lifetime of playing Go.
  • In the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin sequel story Artesia: 0083, Sayla is doing charity work with a wealthy Englishwoman named Lady Barrie who claims to be a descendant of one of the English running team from the 1924 Paris Olympics, as seen in Chariots of Fire.
  • La Seine No Hoshi: Simone Rolland is a fictional character, but father is Franz I, Duke of Lotringen, which means that Marie Antoinette is her half-sister. In the end of the anime, after Antoinette is killed in the French Revolution, Simone and Robert rescue her children and move away, starting a new life together.
  • Vinland Saga: Although it's unknown if King Arthur existed in any way in real life, in-series he did, and Askeladd at least thinks he is his direct descendant.

    Asian Animation 
  • An episode of Adit Sopo Jarwo guest starring the third President of Indonesia, B.J. Habibie, reveals that Dennis is his grandson.
  • Tianming, the main protagonist of Qin's Moon is the son of the Chinese assassin Jing Ke.

    Comic Books 
  • Alix Senator: The mother of Alix's son Titus is eventually revealed to be a sister of the emperor Augustus.
  • Asterix:
    • In Asterix in Spain, when Asterix is sent to the circus and forced to fight an auroch, a Roman noblewoman drops her red cloak into the arena, and Asterix's attempts to keep it from being dirtied lead to him defeating the Auroch. Impressed, the noblewoman demands Asterix is pardoned, and since she's Julius Caesar's half-sister of a cousin by marriage, the Roman general in charge of the circus cannot deny her request.
    • Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter introduces Adrenalin, the daughter of Vercingetorix. It's not know if Vercingetorix had a daughter, but she probably didn't have a Punny Name.
  • Batgirl villain Agrippina believes herself the direct descendant of the Claudian line of Roman emperors, even though the line died with Nero.
  • Batman: Modern writers have established that Bruce (Batman) Wayne is a descendant of Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. (This is also a Mythology Gag as Bob Kane named the character Bruce Wayne after Robert the Bruce and "Mad Anthony" Wayne.)
  • The Desert Peach is about the fictional brother of Erwin Rommel.
  • The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones: In "The Trail of the Golden Guns" (#26-27), Dr. Jones is hired by Beth Cody, the granddaughter of Buffalo Bill Cody, to retrieve a pair of golden pistols presented to her grandfather by the Czar of Russia.
  • Les Innommables: Basil and Sybil Jardine are descended from the historical merchant and opium smuggler Sir Jardine.
  • In Justice Society of America, the superhero Lance (later Magog) was the great-grandson of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  • One of the Justice League Elite's covert missions involved tracking down a distant heir of Adolf Hitler.
  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Doctor Moreau is the uncle of French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau. More amusingly, Rock Hudson is the younger brother of the Hudson Sisters.
  • The Daltons who are recurring villains in the Lucky Luke franchise aren't the historical outlaws but their fictional cousins. More accurately, they're Suspiciously Similar Substitutes for the comic's version of the real Daltons (who were one-shot villains who didn't survive the sole album they appeared in).
  • In Marvel 1602, Robert Drake is said to be related to the famous explorer Sir Francis Drake.
  • Poncito de Leon, a fictional son of Juan Ponce de León in a Pocahontas' comic, arrives in Virginia while still searching for the Fountain of Youth as an old man.
  • Preacher: Jesus is revealed to have survived crucifixion, had children with Mary Magdalena, lived in hiding, and was run over by a dung cart in his forties. The Grail is an organization devoted to keeping Christ's bloodline pure... by making his descendants reproduce with each other. By the 20th century they're profoundly inbred with huge eyes, have to be kept in a cage, and the last one is intended to be the Messiah that will allow the Grail to openly take power (despite being a clearly damaged Manchild bereft of any divine ability).
  • In Promethea, the protagonist Sophie Bangs briefly meets John Kendrick Bangs, her ancestor, on the house-boat on the Styx which he wrote about while searching for her dead predecessor.
  • In Sensation Comics #39, a lost Roman colony is ruled by a descendant of Emperor Nero.
  • Tiffany is a French comic about a young woman descended from Joan of Arc's brother (the Virgin of Orleans famously not having any children). While she also hears voices, she's actually a mind-reader instead of hearing angels instructing her to boot the English out of France.
  • An issue of Viz had Johnny Fartpants saying his ancestor was The Highwayman, Dick Turpin's brother, Arse Turpin. A highwayman who would rob people by threatening to fart on them.
  • Wynonna Earp is the great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp.
  • X-Men: Piotr and Illyana Rasputin are revealed to be descendants of Grigory Rasputin, who was the mutant head of a sex cult.

    Comic Strips 
  • It's eventually revealed in Safe Havens that Leonardo da Vinci is the grandson of Samantha and Dave, thanks to their daughter/Leo's mom Maria gaining Time Travel abilities. Maria would later marry Bambi, meaning that Bambi is Leo's stepmom.

    Fan Works 
  • Child of the Storm reveals in the sequel that the Grey family (as in, Jean Grey, and, indeed, Lily Potter) is an offshoot of the House of Grey, with one branch producing Lady Jane Grey a.k.a. the Nine Days Queen. When this is revealed to Harry, he's so inured to bizarre revelations about his heritage that this barely even rates notice.
  • Subverted in Lamarckian. The villain Wendigo is introduced as being a descendant of Andrew Jackson (who had no children) and tries "finish what he started" by hunting Native American populations. However, it's implied he's actually delusional. Considering he's a cannibalistic serial killer who has spent a decade hunting the family of the hero who caught him, it would be the least insane thing about him.
  • Shinobi's Creed: Raphael, the Assassin sent to Naruto's world, is the illegitimate half brother of Hernán Cortés.

    Films — Animation 
  • The title character of Dumbo is implied to be the son of the most famous circus elephant, Jumbo, since his real name is Jumbo Junior.
  • The protagonist of the 1972 Australian film Marco Polo Junior Versus The Red Dragon is a grandson of Marco Polo, apparently his "seventh son's seventh son". The real Marco Polo had four daughters (three legitimate and one illegitimate) and no sons.
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • Ham III of Space Chimps is the grandson of Ham, the first chimp to be sent into outer space.
  • Space Dogs: Belka ends up giving birth to a pup named Pushok, despite there being no evidence the real-life Belka ever had pups. Pushok is, in fact, based on Strelka's daughter Pushinka, who was indeed gifted to the U.S. President. Ironically, we get to see Strelka's mother, whose identity in our world remains unknown.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • The Golden Age Mystery character Albert Campion of the Albert Campion books and Campion is implied but never stated to be the illegitimate son of King George V. Campion has an undisclosed source of wealth and is indicated to have some connection with the royal family. George V, like other members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha/Windsor, had Albert among his names, and Campion's real name, Rupert, also fits in with the German origin of the family.
  • Alice, Girl from the Future: In Gai-do, the space race has Jules Verne's distant descendant Gustav act as the head judge.
  • Gary Corby writes the Athenian Mysteries series about Nicolaos, the fictional older brother of Socrates (who in the novels is Nic's Annoying Younger Sibling). The historical record gives the name of Socrates' parents and in Platos' Dialogues, Socrates mentions being taught by a Diotima, who in the novels, is Nicolaos' girlfriend.
  • Cussy Mary Carter, the titlular character from The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is one of the Kentucky blue people, who were descended from Martin Fugate, a man with a condition that made his skin blue who came to the US from France and ended up starting a family with a woman who just so happened to carry a recessive gene for the same condition as him.
  • Le Bal du comte d'Orgel (1924): Our two protagonists, François de Séryeuse and Countess Mahaut d'Orgel, are nobles who related to Joséphine de Beauharnais, the latter being a more direct descendant. It isn't an obstacle in them falling in love.
  • In Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson (the sequel to Kidnapped), the hero encounters fictionalized versions of several significant Scottish historical figures, including James Mor MacGregor, son of the folk hero Rob Roy. James is given a fictional daughter, the title character.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo:
    • The (real) general Quesnel is given a fictional son (Franz) so as to provide a You Killed My Father moment (in real life, his death was unsolved). In the book, he's killed in a duel with Villefort's father Noirtier, with Noirtier keeping this interesting little tidbit as a trump card to prevent Franz' marriage with his granddaughter Valentine.
    • Haydee is the daughter of the historical Ali Tebelin and Kyra Vassiliki, and she serves a major role in revealing Fernand's crimes (in the novel, he betrayed Ali to the Turks and sold both Kyra and Haydee into slavery), leading to his downfall.
  • In The Da Vinci Code, Sophie Neveu is discovered to be the last descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald's novella "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" features a family descended from George Washington note .
  • Dusty Fog, in the novels of J.T. Edson, is a cousin of real-life gunslinger John Wesley Hardin.
  • In The Gods of Manhattan, several famous personages are revealed to have had children after becoming gods.
  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, L. Prosser is one of many, many descendants of Genghis Khan.
  • In the Gor series protagonist Tarl Cabot may be related to the Italian navigator John Cabot.
  • Hannibal Lecter franchise:
    • In Hannibal, the Italian detective Rinaldo Pazzi is stated to be a direct descendant of the Pazzi family who attempted to overthrow the Medicis in Renaissance Florence. Hannibal kills Rinaldo and hangs his corpse from a window of the Palazzo Vecchio, mimicking his ancestors' fate.
    • In Hannibal Rising, Hannibal Lecter has a Japanese aunt-by-marriage named Lady Murasaki Shikibu. The historic Murasaki Shikibu is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, one of the world's earliest novels as well as one of the most famous and significant works of Japanese literature. The character in the book is said to be a descendant of the historic author, but this doesn't make the name much more plausible because "Murasaki Shikibu" was the author's pen name. The author's real personal name is unknown, but she was a member of the Fujiwara clan. "Shikibu" isn't even an actual Japanese family name, it was a reference to the court position held by the historic author's father.
  • Horatio Hornblower has Lady Barbara Wellesley, Horatio's second wife, who is a fictional sister of The Duke of Wellington.
  • The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has Herbert Einstein, the fictional younger brother of Albert Einstein. He's far less intelligent than his brother, despite bearing a striking resemblance to him.
  • Johnny and the Dead: One of the ghosts is a cousin of Albert Einstein.
  • The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Margaret's birthdate is unknown, but she's believed to have been the youngest of Walter and Janet's children. Her younger brother is fictional. Possibly Sir Walter Scott was thinking of Walter's grandson Walter Scott (yes, another Walter Scott! And yes, the author was related to them), who was a toddler at the time of the murder.
  • The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds features a powerful political family in its future history named Springer-Soames, descended from the real British political Soames family, and thereby from Winston Churchill.
  • Old Mortality: Francis Stewart of Bothwell is said to be descended from and named after Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell.
  • Tim Powers:
    • In Declare, the protagonist is the half-brother of Kim Philby.
    • In Three Days to Never, the protagonist learns that his family are secretly descended from Albert Einstein through Lieserl, Einstein's first daughter who is believed to have died as an infant.
  • The Railway Series provides us an interesting variant. The book "Enterprising Engines" reveals that Gordon is the last surviving "brother" of famous steam locomotive The Flying Scotsman.
  • In the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor, Gordianus' friend Lucius Claudius is a member of the Claudius family (i.e. ancestors of the emperor detailed in I, Claudius).
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms has several, with the most famous one being Guan Suo, the fictional son of Guan Yu.
  • Serge Storms: Tropic of Stupid reveals that Serge is a distant cousin of real-life retired baseball player Bill Lee.
  • The Shadow: The Shadow's Arch-Enemy Shiwan Khan is the last living descendant of Genghis Khan.
  • In The Shadow of the Vulture, Red Sonya of Rogatino (who would serve as inspiration for Red Sonja) is the sister of Roxelana, the Ruthenian wife of Suleyman the Magnificent.
  • Sherlock Holmes: One of the few tidbits Holmes gives about his personal life (in "The Greek Interpreter") is that his grandmother was the sister of a French artist named Vernet (without specifying which of the several French artists with that name it was).
  • Sister Fidelma: Fidelma is the sister of King Colgu of Munster. She's also related to the other royal houses of Munster to the same extent as him, obviously.
  • In the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts, the main character Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is a fictional member of the Real Life Caecilius Metellus family and is closely related to several notable Real Life members.
  • The Tale Of Huo Xiaoyu: We have no records of Li Yi ever having cousins. But this tale tells us that he had two; Shang and Miss Lu.
  • The Spartan mercenary commander Aeositeus in Thais of Athens is a fictional younger cousin of the historical Spartan king Agis III.
  • The Three Musketeers' take on the Man in the Iron Mask is that it was the (real) king Louis XIV's (fictional) twin brother. Aramis learns of this and uses it to advance in the Jesuit ranks along with trying to replace Louis with his twin, hoping he'll be a better king. Note that the author was well aware this theory was highly fanciful, but it certainly made for a better story.
  • In The Western Mysteries, main character PK Pinkerton believes that he is a nephew to the Real Life Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detectives.
  • The Winternight Trilogy: In Real Life, Ivan II of Moscow's first wife Fedosia died childless. In this book, they had one daughter before Fedosia died: Anna Ivanovna, the Wicked Stepmother to the main character. Given that Anna was treated as a Madwoman in the Attic before being forcibly married to Vasya's father, it makes sense why she didn't make it into the history books.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In 30 Rock, disliked writer Lutz turns out to be closely related to hunky actor Kellan Lutz (who cameos on the show as such relative).
  • Abbott Elementary: Vin Diesel is a cousin of Melissa's. Being very Italian-American, she calls him "My Cousin Vinny" when Janine points it out.
  • In season 3 of Acapulco, we learn that Chad's father is none other than famous Hollywood director Orson Welles. Unfortunately, he finds out shortly after the man passes.
  • 'Allo 'Allo!: Herr Otto Flick, a parody of the sinister Nazi Gestapo agent, tends to remind others that he's the godson of Heinrich Himmler. On at least one occasion, this gets him out of trouble when he's arrested by Wehrmacht General von Klinkerhofen and Himmler uses his connections to get him released.
  • Arrested Development Season 4 introduces Rebel Alley, a fictional illegitimate daughter of Ron Howard.
  • Belgravia: Caroline Bellasis, the Countess of Brockenhurst, is a fictional younger sister of the Duchess of Richmond, who hosted a ball three days before the Battle of Waterloo. Her son Edmund also qualifies as the Duchess' nephew.
  • Blackadder:
    • The first Blackadder himself is a fictional son of the mostly-fictional King Richard IV, who in real life was probably killed in the Tower around the time of his tenth birthday by his uncle Richard III. Whatever may have happened to him, he was certainly never king himself as the crown passed to his brother-in-law Henry VII after Bosworth. Henry VII, in this fictionalized take, wiped Richard's reign from the record. It follows that all other Blackadders are descended from him, though each descendant's lot degrades over time: from prince to lord to butler (to prince) to soldier.
    • Edmund's "friend", Percy is a fictional member of the House of Percy, an English noble family that had great power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In the first series, Percy is identified as the Duke of Northumberland and in the second series, he's Lord Percy Percy, the heir to this title. In what is possibly a deliberate error, although the Percy family were Earls of Northumberland for a long time, the title of Duke of Northumberland didn't exist until the 1550s and no one with the last name of Percy held it until 1766.
    • In Blackadder the Third, William Pitt The Younger (himself portrayed as not only still alive as Prime Minister during the Regency but evidently younger than he was when he first served as Prime Minister in 1783) has a younger brother also named William Pitt and appropriately titled “Pitt the Even Younger”.
  • In Blindspot, Patterson's father is revealed to be Bill Nye. He guest-stars in an episode to help the FBI solve the problem of the week.
  • Bones:
    • Angela is the daughter of Billy Gibbons, guitarist of ZZ Top, who guest stars as a fictional version of himself.
    • Booth meanwhile is a descendant of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. This is a sore point for Booth, and a probable source of his desire to serve his country so much (first in the military and then in the FBI).
  • Eddie Hitler in Bottom claims that Adolf Hitler is his mother.
  • Frankie Stecchino in Boy Meets World is revealed in one episode to be the son of professional wrestler Vader. He's also apparently a former student of Mr. Feeny, who claims that his real name is "Leslie" (his real name was actually Leon White).
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine eventually confirms that Susan Boyle is one of the myriad of Boyle cousins.
  • California Dreams: In "Family Tree", Lorena mentions that she is related to Saved by the Bell star Mario Lopez.
  • Cheers: When the bar burns down, it prompts Woody to tell a story about an ancestor of his who is strongly implied to be Mrs. O'Leary (whose cow was blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire).
    Woody: The shame was so great, the family had to move to Ohio and change their name to Wilkinson.
    Kelly: But you're from Indiana and your family name is Boyd.
    Woody: Well, some stuff happened in Ohio.
  • Coach: Implied when Christine (whose last name is Armstrong) mentions a cousin named Neal who is an astronaut.
  • The Gilded Age: John Adams IV is said to be President John Quincy Adams's great-grandson but has no real-life counterpart, certainly none who are the right age.
  • The Good Place invented a "fourth Hemsworth brother" (after Luke, Chris, and Liam) named Larry for Tahani to briefly date.
  • Brittany from Glee is the biological daughter of Stephen Hawking.
  • Head of the Class: While doing a genealogy project, Darlene discovers that she is probably descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. While her classmate Alan is overwhelmed by this revelation, Darlene herself is completely blasé about it.
  • Home Improvement: Wilson W. Wilson Jr. is a cousin of the Wilson brothers from The Beach Boys.
  • In Homicide: Life on the Street, Megan Russert is the cousin of Tim Russert. He guest-starred as himself in "The Old and the Dead".
  • Jane the Virgin: Rogelio discovers that he's fifth cousins with Eva Longoria. Upon taking a closer look at their family tree, they discover that they're actually first cousins, which throws a Spanner in the Works in the show they're doing where their characters kiss.
  • Just Shoot Me!: Kevin from the mailroom was a cousin of actor Ray Liotta, who sometimes appeared as himself.
  • Law & Order: Played with in the episode "Illegitimate". The Villain of the Week believes JFK is his biological father, in fact it's an all-consuming obsession for him. The episode never confirms or refutes his suspicions.
  • Legends of Tomorrow: Implied by the fact that they're played by the same actors (and everyone notices the resemblance). John Diggle is apparently descended from Bass Reeves, and Nora Darhk is descended from Marie Antoinette.
  • Several in Little House on the Prairie: Mary Ingalls marries and has a family (she never married in real life); the Ingalls family adopts children, which never actually happened.
  • The Man in the High Castle: Nicole Dormer, a young German woman and fellow Lebensborn who befriends Joe Blake, is officially the "niece" of Joseph Goebbels, although it's implied that she's really his bastard daughter.
  • Murder, She Wrote: In the episode "The Great Twain Robbery", Anna Louise Barlow and her daughter Lindsay may or may not be illegitimate descendants of Mark Twain. (Probably not, though.)
  • Murdoch Mysteries:
    • In the episode "The New Recruit", one of the War Reenactors in a recreation of the Battle of Queenston Heights is the grandson of Joseph Willcocks, who believes his ancestor's reputation as a traitor is unfounded and seeks to prove it. Agent Meyers privately tells Murdoch that Willcocks was actually a double agent for the British whose defection to the US was faked, but the Canadian government has no interest in reopening old wounds by letting the Americans know they were duped.
    • The episode "What the Dickens?" features Tanis Stony Dickens, a Native Canadian woman whose claims of being Charles Dickens' granddaughter aren't proven, but seem to be largely supported by her actions. The Dickensians officially dismiss her claims because (as in our world) the historic record states Patrick Dickens died childless, although she thinks it's more because they have trouble with the idea of a Dickens descendent who isn't white.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000: In the episode "Werewolf", Mike and the bots are surprised to see that the film features Martin Sheen's lesser-known brother Joe Estevez. Inspired by this, they start discussing "Who would you cast in your werewolf movie?", and all of their choices are the (fictional) obscure relatives of real actors, like Burt Reynolds' brother Tim, and Don Knotts' brother Spike. And Tom Servo's last choice is Chip Hitler.
  • The Nanny:
    • Fran's cousin is real-life fashion designer Todd Oldham, who is the person behind a lot of her wardrobe.
    • Maggie’s boyfriend and eventual husband Michael Brolin is revealed to be cousins with Josh Brolin, which makes Fran think she’s going into labour when she connects the dots that the wedding puts his wife Barbra Streisand in her family tree.
  • On Parks and Recreation, the rapper Ginuwine is mentioned as being the cousin of the character Donna, and eventually cameoed on the show.
  • The whole premise behind the French shortcoming La Petite Histoire de France, which is about the much less famous cousins of Vercingetorix, Joan of Arc, Louis XIV and Napoléon Bonaparte.
  • Rome implies very strongly that Ptolemy XV (Caesarion), in real life the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, was actually fathered by the fictionalized Titus Pullo. At the end of the series, Pullo is charged with executing Caesarion on Octavian's orders, but instead he spirits him away and raises his son in Rome.
  • The short-lived TV series The Rousters starred Chad Everett as Wyatt Earp III, a rouster for a carnival. He's a grandson of Wyatt Earp the First and not too pleased about it.
  • In Season 5 of Scrubs, J.D.'s girlfriend Julie Quinn reveals that her godfather is actor Billy Dee Williams. Discovering this fact is enough to instantly win Turk over.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series: It's said that Spock is related to Arthur Conan Doyle on his mother's side.
  • Ted Lasso: In season 3, Jan Maas, Richmond's Dutch player, is revealed to be the cousin of famed Dutch DJ Martin Garrix.
  • New York queen bee Peach Salinger of You (2018) is a relative of J. D. Salinger, which is the source of her family's wealth and literature connections.

    Music 
  • The Arrogant Worms' song "Jesus' Brother Bob" is sung from the perspective of the brother of Jesus. (Presumably half-brother, both having the same mother Mary.) It details the complaints of Bob being overshadowed by his famous brother. Among his gripes is when mobs of people (typically played by the audience) come beseeching the help of Jesus, they leave disappointed when they find it's "only Bob". A more humorous one is that Bob needs to pay for the Sea of Galilee ferry, whereas his brother can simply walk across at no cost. In later performances of the song, about the only person who pays much attention to Bob is Judas, though even then, to Bob's annoyance he's mostly just interested in how Bob's family's Christmas was.
  • P.D.Q. Bach is the fictional last and least son of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

    Podcasts 

    Tabletop Games 
  • In BattleTech, the Kurita House, rulers of the Draconis Combine, claim descent from the WWII vice-admiral, Takeo Kurita. There's also Aleksandr Kerensky and his family, said to be descended from his namesake from the early Soviet era. This lead to an amusing real life incident in which a history textbook about Red October included a battle scene somebody at the publishing company had thoughtlessly pulled off Google Image Search that featured a Battlemech visible in the background.

    Theatre 
  • Macbeth: Banquo is told by the Witches that his descendants will be kings. After he's killed, his son Fleánce manages to escape, and the Witches show Macbeth a future vision of his descendants, starting with King James.
  • In Something Rotten!, Nick Bottom seeks help from Nostradamus' nephew Thomas.
  • Stereophonic: Charlie is a cousin of The Doobie Brothers' frontman Tom Johnston.
    Grover: You're a Doobie Cousin!

    Theme Parks 
  • Étincelle: The Curse of the Black Opal 4D movie from Futuroscope: Teddy mentions that the original Étincelle was the granddaughter of Gustave Eiffel. That's why she chose the Eiffel Tower to hide the Black Opal.

    Video Games 
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • In Assassin's Creed II, Ezio's teenage girlfriend, Cristina Vespucci, is the cousin of explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
    • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag subverts this: when the character James Kidd first appears, it's directly stated that he's the son of Captain Kidd, if the name wasn't enough of an indicator. The subversion is that not only is Kidd not really a Kidd, he's not fictional and isn't even a man—it's a persona played by the historical lady pirate Mary Read as part of her Assassin activities.
    • Assassin's Creed: Odyssey has it that the player character, either Alexios or Kassandra depending on player choice, is the grandchild of King Leonidas — yes, that Leonidas, the one also featured in 300 — through his fictional daughter Myrrine, whereas in actual history Leonidas is only known to have had one child, a son named Pleistarchus; spotty historical records are used to justify this, like most liberties taken in Assassin's Creed. It's also eventually revealed that Alexios and Kassandra's biological father is actually Pythagoras, the famed Greek mathematician, not their recognized father Nikolaos as detailed early in the story, doubling-up on their known historical relatives.
    • Assassin's Creed: Shadows has protagonist Naoe be the daughter of ninja Fujibayashi Nagato. The real Fujibayashi had a son named Yasumasa, and no indication is made of his existence.
  • In Aviary Attorney, main character Jayjay Falcon is the grandson of Maximilien Robespierre, which he has gone to great lengths to conceal.
  • Edge of Awakening: Fūma is a part-human Oni descended from the Fūma clan, Daikichi was born to the Tokugawa clan and probably directly descended from Mitsukuni himself, and the Player Character is descended from the Yagyū clan.
  • The Big Bad of Ghost of Tsushima, Khotun Khan, is the grandson of Genghis Khan and cousin of Kublai Khan.
  • In Grand Theft Auto IV and V, two fictional grandchildren of Elizabeth II have bit parts, one being an unnamed prince and the other Princess Georgina. It's unclear if they're supposed to be the children of one of her four real-life children, or some fictional fifth child.
  • Hong Kong '97 explains in its opening that the character you play as is Chin, who is Bruce Lee’s relative, the exact relation being unspecified.
  • Implied in Steelrising: Aegis, the Player Character is an automaton created by genius inventor Eugène de Vaucanson. Jacques de Vaucanson was a real inventor who created the metal lathe (one of the most important tools of the Industrial Revolution) and a series of primitive automatons. Jacques died nine years before the events of the game and his family name died with his daughter, meaning Eugène is likely a fictional son or grandson.
  • Touhou Project likes this one:
    • Remilia Scarlet claims to be descended from Vlad Tepes. (Her stage theme is even called "The Young Descendant of Tepes.") It's complete BS, however: if anything she's old enough to have been his daughter.
    • Yuyuko Saigyouji is implied to be the daughter of the famous Japanese poet Saigyou.
    • Byakuren Hijiki is the sister of the historical Buddhist priest Myouren Hijiri.
    • Fujiwara no Mokou was the daughter of a Fujiwara noble of high enough rank to be a princess's suitor.note  However, due to the princess humiliating her father by refusing his proposal, Mokou swore revenge, drank the Hourai elixir she was supposed to destroy, and now fights Kaguya whenever she can (since both are immortal).
    • The relation between Yukari Yakumo (one of the oldest and most powerful youkai in Gensokyo, able to do whatever the hell she wants with boundaries) and Maribel Hearn (a young girl who can see boundaries) is uncertain, but fanon generally accepts that Yukari was Maribel very (very) long ago, despite existing in the same time period (which, admittedly, means very little in Gensokyo). When asked about this, Zun only said "There once was a man named Lafcadio Hearn" (Lafcadio being a 19th-century Irishman who eventually settled in Japan and collected traditional ghost stories, taking the name Koizumi Yakumo).
  • Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series claims to be descended from Sir Francis Drake, though it later turns out he lied about that.

    Web Animation 
  • Camp Camp: both Space Kid's great grandfather and granduncle were part of the 1969 moon landing; his great-grandfather was Neil Armstrong (in fact, Space Kid's real name is Neil Armstrong Jr.) and his grand uncle is Buzz Aldrin.

    Webcomics 
  • Avengers Academy (2024): Reporter Marcus Wetherell is the son of Manoli Wetherell, who is a real TV news technician, but also a Marvel Comics character who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #266 (alongside real reporter Neal Conan).
  • PepsiaPhobia: Phobia's (possibly half-)brother is Alcides, better known (after the bout of divine madness during which he killed his family) by the name Herakles.
  • Giuseppe the pizzeria manager in Irregular Webcomic! has a tendency to assert his expertise in something with the Mad Libs Catchphrase "I'm a direct descendent of [historical Italian known for that subject]! Italians invented [that thing]!" Assuming this is true, he's a direct descendent of Alessandro Volta, Giovanni Casanova, and Augusto Righ, making him an expert in electricity, love, and microwaves.

    Web Videos 
  • Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story: Real-life explorer Henry Hudson is given a wife named Henrietta Hudson, who captained one of the ships in the same fleet and was the leader of a witch coven, before getting turned into the Headless Horseman. The real Henry Hudson's wife was named Katherine, and she stayed behind in the Netherlands.

    Western Animation 
  • Invoked in Archer: the identity of Sterling Archer's father is a running mystery throughout much of the show; two of the possible candidates are drummer Buddy Rich and actor Burt Reynolds.
  • Arthur: Francine's uncle is noted jazz musician Joshua Redman. Admittedly, he appears not quite As Himself: he's credited as "Joshua Redman as Mr. Redman" while Yo-Yo Ma is "As Himself" in the same episode. He's also depicted as a bear while Francine and her immediate family are apes, likely due to the Unfortunate Implications of portraying a black man as an ape.
  • Family Guy:
    • A Cutaway Gag had real-life comedienne Kathy Griffin as a cousin of the fictional Griffins.
    • "The Griffin Family History" shows that Peter's ancestor Peter Hitler was brothers with Adolf.
  • One episode of Futurama had David Farnsworth as one of Professor Farnsworth's ancestors; he looked just like him (huge glasses included), only younger. In the same episode, Philo Farnsworth, a real-life inventor who played a critical role in developing the first televisions, and Dean Farnsworth, who invented the Farnsworth Lantern Test are also shown to be Professor Farnsworth's relatives. Note that in reality, the three real Farnsworths don't seem to be closely related to each other.
  • Gargoyles: The pilot episode has the gargoyles living under the rule of Princess Katharine. Flashbacks showed that the gargoyles previously served her father, Prince Malcolm. After Castle Wyvern is abandoned, Katharine goes to live with her uncle, King Kenneth II. King Kenneth II was a real king of Scotland, but Prince Malcolm and Princess Katharine are fictional characters invented for this show.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Deuteragonists Jade and Uncle Chan are the fictional niece and uncle of the titular character, who were based off of young girls he met and his father respectively.
  • Johnny Bravo: Early in the first season, it is established that Farrah Fawcett is Little Suzy's cousin.
  • Johnny Test introduces No-Beard, Blackbeard's loser brother.
  • Jurassic World: Chaos Theory establishes Soyona Santos, the dinosaur smuggler from Jurassic World Dominion, to be the daughter of a female paleontologist who discovered the famous "Fighting Dinosaurs" fossil. While Santos's mother is never named, the implication is that she was Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska.
  • Hank Hill from King of the Hill is cousins with Dusty Hill of ZZ Top.
  • Masters of the Universe brand manager, Scott Neitlich said on YouTube that He-Man's mother, Marlena Glenn was named after the astronaut, John Glenn and that he was pretty sure he was meant to be a descendant.
  • Milo Murphy's Law:
    • The titular Milo is the fictional descendant of Edward A. Murphy Jr., after whom Murphy's Law was named.
    • The episode "Wilder West" introduces the thrill-seeking Jackie, a descendant of Calamity Jane.
  • Dr. Marcus Garvey Carver II, the antagonist of The Proud Family Movie, is the great-grandson of George Washington Carver, who in real life never married or had children.
  • The Simpsons has used this a few times:
    • Krusty the Clown is half-brothers with Luke Perry. (In the Latin American translation this was changed to Robert Redford.)
    • Mr. Burns is the natural brother of George Burns (despite Burns being a Stage Name).
    • When Lisa looks at a tabloid while waiting in line at the Kwik-e-mart, she says "I wonder what cousin Jessica's up to."
  • In South Park, Hong Kong singer Wing is portrayed in the show as the wife of City Wok owner Tong Lu Kim.

    Real Life 
  • A variation where both characters are historical and them being related is hypothetical: Some historians have theorized that Joan of Arc's Establishing Character Moment (to test if she really was sent by God, king Charles VII met her not in royal garb but dressed as a simple nobleman among other courtiers, yet she went straight to him) has the more mundane explanation that she was actually the king's secret half-sister, and so was able to blackmail him for command of an army.

Alternative Title(s): Historical Characters Fictional Sibling, Historical Characters Fictional Child, Historical Characters Fictional Descendant

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