How I'm related to Nicolas Cage

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):