A long time ago. Mom informed me that the only famous person (that she knew of) that we were related to was Jenny Lind, aka The Swedish Nighhtingale. I found a biography of her when I was in elementary school and read it. I was amazed to learn that she was friends with (I think) Queen Victoria...and she toured with PT Barnum...and Hans Christen Anderson proposed to her & she turned him down. She ended up marrying her pianist who was like 11 years younger than her. I found this at Wikipedia.com:

Johanna Maria Lind (October 6, 1820 - November 2, 1887), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish-born singer.

From a young age, she was noted for her singing voice. When she was nine years old, her singing was overheard by a passerby, who the next day came with a music master and paid her uncle, who had charge of Lind, to give her up. She began to sing on stage when she was ten, and by the age of 16 she was a favorite in the Royal Swedish Opera. She was received throughout Europe with tremendous acclaim. She studied in 1841 with Manuel Garcia.

Autograph

In 1850, Lind sailed to the United States and under the management of P.T. Barnum, went on a concert tour of a number of cities. The tour was a great success, and she became known in the press as the "Swedish Nightingale". While in the States, she married a young pianist, Otto Goldschmidt. They returned to Europe together in 1852 and she ceased her singing career. She became a philanthropist.

// posted by Heather @ 5:12 PM