Shared Surnames of Celebrities



A fun activity to get family members interested in doing family history research is looking up about famous, present-day celebrities and see if there is any link to a branch on your family tree.

Pick any surname on your family tree and do a Google search for any famous individuals with that name. Using my family maiden name, I did ‘Kershaw’. First, I know it is not a common name in the United States but it is common in central-western England.

So this is what I located:

Doug Kershaw, musician, songwriter and performer, known as the Louisiana Man, the King of the fiddle playing. He has promoted the Cajun music and culture. Born in 1936 in the Cameron Parish of Louisiana, the heart of Cajun country with French as a major language. He first appeared on the Johnny Cash Show in the 1960s and had made numerous recordings and live performances across the country.

Sammy Kershaw, musician, singer. Born in 1958 and grew up in Cajun country of Kaplan, Louisiana. A third cousin to Cajun singer, Doug Kershaw. Known as a country singer, mostly in the form of ballads, his first hit was ‘Tennessee Girl’. One of his top hits was ‘Love of My Life’.

Clayton Kershaw, baseball player, playing in 2008 for Los Angeles Dodgers as a pitcher. Born in 1988 in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Highland Park, Texas. He went straight from playing high school baseball to some brief minor league play to being signed in March 2008 by a major baseball league team, being the youngest player in the major leagues. Now a left-handed starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a major league team.

His father was Christopher George Kershaw, a musician, music composer, writing many advertising jingles, for which he won a Clio Award. Christopher’s parents were Reverend George Clayton Kershaw and Alice Irene “Peggy” Evans Kershaw. Clayton’s mother, Marianne Tombaugh is the niece to the astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of the planet Pluto.

As it turns out, none of the above three have any lineage link to my Kershaw tree.

Now there is:

Glenn Kershaw, an American television writer, director and producer for such programs a ‘Criminal Minds’, ‘Third Watch’ and ‘Army Wives’. Also, there is Lily Kershaw, the daughter of Glenn, who is an actress, songwriter and singer who has also performed on ‘Criminal Minds’. Glenn, it does turn out is my 2nd cousin, born a month after my birth. His grandfather, Edwin Kershaw, was my uncle and younger brother to my father.

Try it, you never know what you might find.

Photos: Doug,m Sammy, Clayton and Glenn Kershaw.

Related Familytree.com Blogs:

Surnames and More

What are Surnames?

Your Surname and Heritage

< Return To Blog

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.