My cousin, Phil, is an avid genealogist, who attends every Dillman Family function imaginable, and has a collection of historical data that includes pictures of our great-great Cherokee grandmother (um, well, we thought she was our Cherokee grandmother until we had our DNA tested – we have since learned that we aren’t Native American at all), along with books written by Dillmans, photographs of distantly related Dillmans, and photograph albums filled with pictures of our immediate family. His spread of memorabilia grows with each year and with each family reunion he joins. I’ll be attending another one in a couple of weeks.
Many many reunions ago, Philip and his mother – my Aunt Glenda (who has since passed) – made an announcement. His research unearthed a link between the Dillmans and somebody famous. We already knew about Bradford Dillman, the actor that hardly anybody knows, who was invited to, but never attended, our family reunions after Philip discovered our familial connection. But we were unprepared for the new information that spilled out of my cousin’s mouth.
While the Republicans cheered gleefully, the Democrats and uncommitted members of our family rolled their eyes. We are, he announced, related to former Vice President Dick Cheney. A chart showing the actual lineage was irrefutable. There it was in black and white. We were distant cousins to the famous, and sometimes infamous, vice president.
Several years later, after Ellen DeGeneres invited Barack Obama to appear on her show, and he accepted her invitation. I watched our (then) presidential candidate with curiosity. Among some of the more entertaining antics, such as Barack Obama dancing, and Barack Obama reading, was the information he delivered – that he was related to Dick Cheney. Interestingly, he’s also related to Brad Pitt.
Wait! I just got sidetracked. What was my original reason for posting this? Oh yeah, I wondered, Is everybody related to Dick Cheney?
I guess it all goes back to Adam and Eve. Or maybe the “Atom” split the day into “Eve”ning and Morning. Whatever. Adam and Eve were obviously multi-colored human beings whose two male children, Cain and Abel, fought for dominion. Cain won, after killing his brother, leaving only one member of the male species to populate the Earth.
Women were so inconsequential back then, I’m surprised Eve was even mentioned, but somehow (I don’t judge) the Earth became populated with a variety of colors and ethnicities.
In conclusion I have deduced that, like it or not, yes, we are all related to Dick Cheney.
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I like Dick Cheney. Well, okay … I like him better than Joe Biden. But maybe that’s just because I’m not related to Joe.
Meanwhile, I wonder if my Cherokee grandmother was stolen from your family?
As everyone knows, there’s a Dick in every family.
My mother was an avid geneology pursuer, too. I once remarked to her that it would be interesting if we had an unsavory character or two in our family tree.
She vehemently disagreed. End of THAT discussion!