Buzz
It’s common for parents to wish for their children to achieve greater success. These 10 stories highlight how the bar was set high, but not high enough. Despite the fame and accomplishments of their parents, these children rose above and became even more notable, leaving an enduring legacy that outlasted their forebears by decades or even centuries.
10. Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin
Mary Wollstonecraft was a trailblazer for feminism. Her influential work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in the late 18th century, argued passionately for women’s rights, asserting that any perceived inferiority of women compared to men was simply the result of a lack of education and opportunities.
Mary's personal life was filled with notable relationships. She first had an affair with Swiss artist Henry Fuseli, followed by another with American diplomat Gilbert Imlay, which led to the birth of an illegitimate daughter.
In 1796, Mary met William Godwin, the father of philosophical anarchism. A supporter of utilitarianism, Godwin admired Wollstonecraft’s writing, and their romance quickly blossomed. Mary became pregnant once again, and despite both philosophers being opposed to marriage, they wed to avoid the stigma of Mary having two illegitimate children by different men. On August 31, 1797, the couple welcomed a daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who was named after her mother. Tragically, complications from the pregnancy led to Mary’s death 10 days later.
Godwin provided his daughter with an education that was rare for women at the time, preparing her to follow in her parents' footsteps as a writer. In 1816, Mary married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Two years later, she published Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus under the name Mary Shelley. Initially receiving a lukewarm reception, it has since become one of the most iconic stories ever written.
9. Kurt Vonnegut Sr.
If you stroll through Indianapolis, you’ll come across numerous buildings that carry the Vonnegut name: the Athenaeum, Methodist Hospital, the first Chamber of Commerce building, the Herron Art Institute, and more. This is due to the once highly successful architectural firm Vonnegut & Bohn, which was a prominent name in Indiana.
The head of the Vonnegut family was Clemens Vonnegut Sr., a German immigrant who thrived as a businessman, managing a hardware store. One of his sons, Bernard Vonnegut I, opted not to join the family business and instead established the Vonnegut & Bohn architecture firm in 1888.
Kurt Vonnegut Sr., his own son, followed in his father’s architectural footsteps, eventually taking over the firm Vonnegut & Bohn. Although he married Edith Lieder, the daughter of Indianapolis millionaire brewer Albert Lieder, Kurt faced financial hardship during the Great Depression. His firm was struggling to get business, and his father-in-law’s brewery went under due to the Prohibition.
Despite facing numerous challenges, Kurt made every effort to ensure his children received an excellent education. This determination paid off when his son, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., became one of the most renowned American authors of all time. However, his other son, Bernard Vonnegut, named after his grandfather, made his mark in the field of meteorology. He revolutionized cloud seeding by demonstrating that silver iodide could be used to generate rain and snow. In 1997, Bernard Vonnegut was also awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for his paper 'Chicken Plucking as Measure of Tornado Wind Speed.'
8. Patrick Bronte
Patrick Brunty was born on March 17, 1777, the eldest of 10 siblings. Despite coming from a family of farmers with limited literacy, Patrick displayed a strong passion for learning and eventually graduated from Cambridge. During this time, he altered the spelling of his surname to Bronte, a name that would later become famous through his daughters, collectively known as the Bronte sisters.
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte became some of the most renowned writers of their time. Charlotte was the first to gain recognition with her timeless novel Jane Eyre, published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. Her sisters followed her lead, publishing their works under the names Ellis and Acton Bell.
As the sisters were establishing their literary careers, Patrick, now a reverend in the Church of England, held various curacies across Yorkshire before becoming the perpetual curate at a church in Haworth. He also published several poetry collections, although none gained the widespread fame of his daughters' works.
Branwell Bronte, Patrick’s only son, found himself in a similar position. Like his sisters, Branwell was a writer and even composed poetry alongside them in his youth, but it is the Bronte sisters who are remembered by history.
Patrick was the only member of the Bronte family to live a long life. His wife, Maria Bronte, passed away 40 years before him. His daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, both died in 1825 following a typhoid outbreak at school. Emily, Anne, and Branwell Bronte all passed away in their early thirties, while Charlotte Bronte died at 38, six years before her father.
7. Thomas Walsh
In 1869, Thomas Walsh left Ireland and immigrated to the United States with little more than the clothes on his back. He soon found himself caught up in the gold rush, becoming a prospector in Colorado. Unlike many of his peers, Walsh found success right away, accumulating a small fortune in just a few short years.
Walsh hit the jackpot when he discovered Camp Bird in Ouray, Colorado, which went on to become one of the country’s largest gold mines. At its peak, it was producing $5,000 worth of gold each day. Walsh sold the mine in 1903 for $5 million, then relocated his family to Washington, DC.
In Washington, the Walsh family quickly became part of the city’s high society. The Walsh mansion was the most expensive building in the capital at the time. Walsh, who wasn’t shy about displaying his newfound wealth, became a prominent figure, but it was his daughter Evalyn who truly stole the spotlight. A forerunner of today’s celebrities, Evalyn Walsh was a socialite who was always at the heart of the most fashionable events in DC.
Thomas Walsh passed away in 1910. The following year, his daughter Evalyn married Ned McLean, heir to the Washington Post fortune. Their engagement became a sensation in town when McLean presented Evalyn with a lavish wedding gift—the Hope Diamond.
Evalyn Walsh became the final private owner of what is arguably the most famous diamond in the world. Legend has it that she also fell victim to the infamous Hope Diamond curse—her husband left her, her son died in a car accident, and her daughter tragically overdosed.
6. Johann van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven is celebrated as one of the greatest composers of all time. However, he wasn’t the first artist in the family; his father, Johann, also pursued a musical career, albeit with far less success.
The artistic talents in the family were passed down from Ludwig’s grandfather, also named Ludwig. Starting his musical journey as a choirboy, he gradually rose through the ranks to become Kapellmeister of Bonn in 1761. Naturally, his son Johann sought to follow in his father’s footsteps. For a time, Johann pursued a similar path, working primarily as a singer, benefiting from his beautiful voice.
Although Johann seemed destined to take over as Kapellmeister, he developed a serious drinking problem that overshadowed his musical career. Johann van Beethoven became an alcoholic, tarnishing his reputation. As a result, when a new Kapellmeister was chosen in 1784, Johann was passed over in favor of someone else. His alcoholism deepened as his son, Ludwig, had to increasingly shoulder the responsibilities of the household.
Johann, recognizing his son’s musical talent, began teaching him at a young age. However, throughout his life, Ludwig, despite being a musical prodigy, looked to Ludwig the Elder for inspiration instead of his own father. Even though Ludwig was only three years old when his grandfather passed away, he held him in deep admiration. One of Ludwig’s most cherished possessions was a portrait of his grandfather, which he took with him wherever he lived.
5. William Nightingale
Florence Nightingale, renowned as the 'Lady with the Lamp,' was not only a staunch advocate for social reform but also a pioneering force in the nursing profession. Yet, her journey took a path far removed from the one her parents had planned for her.
William Edward Shore, born in 1794, would later adopt the name Nightingale, taking after his mother’s uncle, a mining magnate who left him a grand estate. His father was a banker, and by the time William was in his early twenties, he was already financially secure. In 1817, he married Frances Smith, the daughter of the notable Whig and antislavery campaigner William Smith. Together, they had two daughters: Parthenope and Florence.
In 1828, William was named High Sheriff of Hampshire. He briefly dabbled in politics, running for parliament, but his candidacy ended in failure.
William and Frances raised their daughters in a life of luxury, hoping they would embrace the roles of society women and marry into prominent families. They were taken aback when Florence chose to reject marriage in favor of nursing. At the time, nursing was seen as a lowly occupation, but Florence's resolve ultimately persuaded William to allow her to travel to Germany for training.
Parthenope, William’s eldest, conformed more to his expectations. She even married Florence’s former suitor and became Lady Verney. Despite this, Parthenope had her own sense of independence—she achieved success as a novelist and journalist, contributing to several magazines that were often dominated by male writers.
4. Immanuel Nobel
Immanuel Nobel, an engineer by profession, earned a reputation as a brilliant inventor, though his business ventures often faltered. Despite his mechanical genius, he faced numerous financial difficulties throughout his life, even as his inventions played key roles during the Industrial Revolution.
After declaring bankruptcy in 1833, Nobel relocated to Saint Petersburg to find a more suitable market for his ideas. His greatest financial achievement came during the Crimean War, when he built naval mines for the Russian army. He also began experimenting with nitroglycerin, a volatile new explosive, with the help of his sons Alfred and Emil. Tragedy struck in 1864 when Emil died in a factory explosion during an experiment gone wrong.
Nobel was left with three sons: Robert, Ludvig, and Alfred. Robert and Ludvig possessed the business skills that their father lacked. After another bankruptcy in 1859, Nobel left Saint Petersburg and returned to Stockholm, while his sons stayed in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they developed an untapped oil market and founded Branobel, which eventually became one of the world’s largest oil companies.
Alfred, the youngest son, shared his father’s inventive spirit. Despite the loss of Emil, Alfred continued working with nitroglycerin and went on to invent dynamite. In addition to his inventions, Alfred established the Nobel Prizes, ensuring the Nobel name would endure for generations.
3. James Gordon Bennett Sr.
While success stories are memorable, scandals often outshine them, and this is why Bennett Jr. is more widely remembered. He won the first transoceanic yacht race, a competition in which each participant had to wager $30,000, the largest sum ever bet in sports at the time. However, his most notorious moment came when he ended his engagement by showing up drunk at a party hosted by his future in-laws and urinating in the fireplace.
In 1866, Bennett Sr. handed control of the Herald over to his son, James Gordon Bennett Jr. While Gordon lacked his father’s business expertise and drive, his penchant for enjoying life made headlines. His extravagant actions, like his victory in the transoceanic yacht race and his infamous drunken behavior at his future in-laws' gathering, ensured that the Bennett name stayed in the public eye.
His most memorable scandal involved a drunken incident at a party where he was meant to celebrate his engagement, but instead embarrassed himself by urinating in the fireplace, ultimately ending his engagement in the most public of ways.
Gordon Bennett orchestrated a series of events to boost his newspaper's circulation, many of which left a lasting mark on history and helped cement his legacy. He financed Henry Morton Stanley's expedition in search of David Livingstone in Africa and also supported the ill-fated USS Jeannette expedition to the North Pole. Additionally, he established the Bennett Cups for automobile, plane, and balloon races, which were pivotal in popularizing these transportation methods and shaping racing into the global sport it is today.
2. Edmond Becquerel
Edmond Becquerel had a high standard to meet, given his father’s prestigious reputation. Born in 1820, Edmond was the son of Antoine César Becquerel, a distinguished French scientist and professor at the Natural History Museum in Paris. Antoine was an innovator in electricity and electrochemistry and is credited with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect in 1839.
Edmond Becquerel followed closely in his father’s footsteps and arguably outshone him in terms of his scientific accomplishments. As his father’s successor at the Natural History Museum, Edmond worked across various fields, including optics, electricity, and magnetism. His significant contributions included pioneering research on phosphorescence and photography, and he is credited with inventing the first photovoltaic cell.
In much the same way his father had done, Edmond set lofty expectations for his own son, Antoine Henri Becquerel. In an intriguing twist of fate, Henri would follow in his father’s exact path. Like Edmond, Henri taught physics at the Natural History Museum in Paris and carried forward his father’s work on phosphorescence. It was through this research that Henri Becquerel made one of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries ever—radioactivity. He was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize alongside the Curies for their collective contributions to physics.
1. Robert Darwin
Born in 1766 in Lichfield, Robert was the son of Erasmus Darwin, an esteemed English physician, natural philosopher, and poet who was also the patriarch of the soon-to-be-famous Darwin family. Like his father, Robert pursued a medical career. By the time he was just 20, he had graduated from the University of Edinburgh and established a thriving practice in Shrewsbury. A few years later, Robert was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
Robert Darwin enjoyed a prosperous 60-year career as a physician, but his talents weren’t limited to medicine. He demonstrated a keen sense for business, making profitable investments in projects such as new roads and the Trent and Mersey Canal, which quickly built him a considerable fortune. In 1796, he forged a significant connection between the Darwins and the Wedgwoods when he married Susannah, the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, founder of one of the largest pottery businesses in England.
The Darwin-Wedgwood family eventually produced ten Royal Society fellows, as well as numerous poets and artists, but none were more famous than Robert’s son, Charles Darwin. Charles’s groundbreaking theory of evolution ensured his place as one of the greatest scientists of all time, and he credited much of his success to his father. Charles referred to Robert as 'incomparably the most acute observer' he had ever known, praising his father’s knack for theorizing from observation.
