Discovering distant cousins who’ve achieved various levels of notoriety is part of what makes genealogy fun (for me). I openly admit that I enjoy the surprise of coming across a name that I recognize. That didn’t happen initially when I added Martha Sharp Crawford, my 5th cousin, 2x removed, to my family tree. After all, it’s a rather unassuming name. Martha and her mother are fellow descendants of my newly-discovered 6th great grandparents, Daniel and Jemima Hackney. Martha’s mother, Annie, intrigued me from the get go. She married a man who was 30 years older and who must have had quite a bit of money. In the 1920 census, I found them living in Philadelphia (a far cry from our Tennessee farming roots) with a valet named Joseph Joyce and two more household servants. Now, I could digress and focus on the coincidence of a “Joyce” living with them given that I am an insufferable genealogist and my first instinct was to figure how HE was related to my 2nd great grandmother on my mother’s side, Lucinda (Joyce) Turner, but I didn’t have the opportunity. The hints for Martha Sharp Crawford came pouring in on Ancestry.com.

I soon discovered that Martha Sharp Crawford was better known in life as Sunny von Bülow. Who knew? Unfortunately, her name was familiar to me because of Joan Rivers. I was a big fan of Joan’s and she made references to Sunny and Claus in her stand-up routines. I didn’t really understand the references because I wasn’t following the tabloids at the time. Sunny, it turns out, died 28 years after falling into a vegetative coma. That’s definitely not funny. Sunny’s husband, Claus, was accused and later acquitted of giving her the lethal dosage of insulin which put her into the coma. Even the word “tragic” falls short in describing Sunny’s life.

Sunny’s first husband was an Austrian prince (without a kingdom). Their grandchildren are my 7th cousins and carry the hereditary titles of “Prince” and “Princess”. And thus, I’ve finally found my connection to the Royal Houses of Europe by way of Tennessee!

Kenfolk: Trantham
Relationship: 5th cousin, 2x removed
Common ancestors: Cousin Sunny and I descend from Daniel and Jemima Hackney whose parents remain a mystery.