My two sons are related to Celine Dion. They are 9th cousins.
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| My boys are also related to
Madonna. They are 9th cousins.
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| Also in their family tree are the
Dionne Quintuplets from Corbeil, Canada, born in 1934. They were identical
and the chances for this was one in 57 million. They were the only
know quintuplets in the world to survive at that time. My
boys and the quints are 9th cousins as well.
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Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was born April 2, 742 in Northern Europe. In 768 he and his brother inherited the Kingdom of the Franks. He was determined to bring order to Europe and in 772 launched a 30 year military campaign to accomplish his goals. By 800 he was the undisputed ruler of Western Europe, which encompassed what is now France, Switzerland, Belgium and The Netherlands, half of present day Italy, Germany and parts of Austria and Spain. On Christmas Day 800, he was coronated Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (He preferred the Title "King of the Franks") at St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, by Pope Leo III. |
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Jack Kerouac, the renowned American
author, was born in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922. His parents, Leo and
Gabrielle Kerouac, were of French-Canadian heritage, and Jack did not learn to speak
English until he began school at age six. Jack was an intense and serious child, devoted to Memere (his mother) and constantly forming important friendships with other boys, as he would continue to do throughout his life. He was driven to create stories from a young age, inspired first by the mysterious radio show 'The Shadow,' and later by the fervid novels of Thomas Wolfe, the writer he would model himself after. Jack was a football star at Lowell High School, and his athletic ability allowed him to enter Columbia College in 1940 on a football scholarship. But midway through his first year, Jack broke his leg in a game, and upon returning in the fall, had some heated disagreements with his coach Lou Little about his place on the team. Jack quit college shortly after, packed his bags, and went "On the Road." Signing on as a merchant seaman, he traveled the North Atlantic to Greenland and England, and later continued his journeys on land, crisscrossing the United States, Mexico, North Africa and Europe, often in the company of his friends Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William Burroughs. Throughout that time, Jack was writing constantly. In 1951, Kerouac wrote his most famous novel, On the Road, based on his adventures with Neal Cassady. On the Road was a stylistic breakthrough for Kerouac, who had developed a theory of writing he called "spontaneous prose." When On the Road was published in 1957, Jack was instantly hailed as a major American writer, and thrust into the spotlight as the reluctant spokesman for the "Beat Generation." Jack continued to write, and published many more books, including Visions of Gerard, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody, Satori in Paris, Vanity of Dulouz, The Subterraneans and Doctor Sax. Jack was living in St. Petersburg, Florida with his mother and his wife Stella when he died in 1969. He is buried at Edson Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts. - John Sampas |
