Sunday, October 18, 2009

How I'm related to Nicolas Cage

Posted by Craig on 10/18/2009
As a fan of his work on screen, I've got to say I was delighted to discover that I'm distantly related to Nicolas Cage.

We're ninth cousins, once removed to be precise. That means my father and him are ninth cousins -- in this case, their great-grandparent's great-grandparent's great-grandfathers were brothers. Follow? (Chart at the bottom of this post.)

I've known for some time that his mother's maiden name was Vogelsang, and that made me always suspect a connection, as I'm a Vogelgesang descendant and that family had many descendants in America use the Vogelsang spelling.

Vogelgesang, a surname meaning "dweller of where the bird's sing" (Vogelsang translates to "bird's song"), is not a common name to begin with and I soon learned that Cage's family goes back to Bavaria, Germany, as does mine.

After in-depth research, I was able to trace his Vogelsang family from California to Illinois, and before that Ohio, linking directly to a branch of my family that settled there.

Our common ancestors are Heinrich Ludwig Vogelgesang (1644-1704) and Cecelia Huether (1646-1695). He descends of their son Hans Jacob born 1671 and I come from their son Johann Georg born 1675.

As promised, here's the chart showing our exact relationship (click to enlarge):

5 comments on "How I'm related to Nicolas Cage"

Chet on September 4, 2013 at 11:53 PM said...

This is fantastic!

Unknown on December 30, 2013 at 1:32 PM said...

We are probably related as well! My ggggrandmother was Gertrud Vogelgesang: Birth 7 MAR 1806 in Herbitzheim, Saarland, Germany
Death 6 OCT 1853 in New Washington, Crawford, Ohio

Anonymous said...

This is great but his relatives were NOT from Bavaria They came from Saarland, near the border of France.

If you need more information on the Vogelgesang family, please contact me at axonjaxon1950@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

I think the history of the area shows shifting boundaries and that at least parts of Saarland were part of Bavaria at one time.

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