For anyone who gets the same curiosity about a potential family connection as I did, and to spare them the British-peerage rabbit hole I dived into to satisfy it: John Russell was Bertrand Russell's second cousin once removed. To be precise, John's great-grandfather and Bertrand's grandfather were siblings.
John Russell was, himself, merely the son and heir of a baron, but he was from the very prominent Russell family. His great-uncle Francis Russell was the 9th Duke of Bedford, while his great-great-uncle, John Russell was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice and the 1st Earl Russell. The 3rd Earl Russell (the first earl's grandson) was Bertrand Russell, the noted philosopher and mathematician. He would be our John Russell's "second cousin, once removed".
The son of a baron would be thought rather lowly to marry royalty, but a member of an ancient and important family like the Russells is a different story altogether.
This was absolutely WILD. I now have several new additions to my list of questions to check on if there is an afterlife and you get to find out what really happened in history. Great stuff.
For anyone who gets the same curiosity about a potential family connection as I did, and to spare them the British-peerage rabbit hole I dived into to satisfy it: John Russell was Bertrand Russell's second cousin once removed. To be precise, John's great-grandfather and Bertrand's grandfather were siblings.
John Russell was, himself, merely the son and heir of a baron, but he was from the very prominent Russell family. His great-uncle Francis Russell was the 9th Duke of Bedford, while his great-great-uncle, John Russell was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice and the 1st Earl Russell. The 3rd Earl Russell (the first earl's grandson) was Bertrand Russell, the noted philosopher and mathematician. He would be our John Russell's "second cousin, once removed".
The son of a baron would be thought rather lowly to marry royalty, but a member of an ancient and important family like the Russells is a different story altogether.
This was absolutely WILD. I now have several new additions to my list of questions to check on if there is an afterlife and you get to find out what really happened in history. Great stuff.