Ethel Skakel Kennedy

The Jackson Family Tree - Michael Jackson

Lord Krishna Family Tree - Mahabharata

## Lord Krishna and His Close Family: A Complete Family Biography Lord Krishna is one of the most revered deities in Hinduism and the eighth incarnation (avatar) of Lord Vishnu. His life, described in the **Mahabharata**, **Bhagavata Purana**, **Harivamsa**, and other sacred texts, is filled with stories of divine love, wisdom, courage, and dharma. Beyond his role as a spiritual guide and warrior, Krishna belonged to the illustrious **Yadava dynasty**, and his family played a central role in many events of Indian mythology. ### Parents: Vasudeva and Devaki Krishna was born in **Mathura** to **Vasudeva** and **Devaki**, members of the royal Yadava family. Devaki was the sister of King Kamsa, whose prophecy foretold that her eighth son would end his reign. To protect the newborn Krishna, Vasudeva carried him across the Yamuna River on the night of his birth and entrusted him to foster parents in Gokul. Devaki and Vasudeva remained symbols of sacrifice and unwavering faith throughout Krishna's life. ### Foster Parents: Nanda and Yashoda Krishna was lovingly raised by **Nanda Maharaja** and **Yashoda** in the village of **Gokul** and later **Vrindavan**. Nanda was the respected chief of the cowherd community, while Yashoda became one of Hinduism's most celebrated maternal figures. Her affectionate relationship with Krishna, including stories of butter theft and childhood miracles, represents unconditional love and devotion. ### Brother and Sister Krishna's elder brother, **Balarama**, is considered an incarnation of **Shesha**, the divine serpent associated with Lord Vishnu. Balarama was Krishna's closest companion, protector, and guide throughout his youth and adulthood. Krishna's younger sister **Subhadra** became an important figure in the Mahabharata after marrying **Arjuna**, making Krishna both Arjuna's cousin and brother-in-law. Subhadra was also the mother of the heroic warrior **Abhimanyu**. ### Wives of Lord Krishna Krishna is traditionally said to have **eight principal queens**, known as the **Ashtabharya**. The most prominent among them was **Rukmini**, regarded as the goddess Lakshmi's incarnation and Krishna's chief queen in Dwarka. Other principal queens include **Satyabhama**, known for her courage and determination; **Jambavati**, daughter of the bear king Jambavan; **Kalindi**, **Mitravinda**, **Nagnajiti (Satya)**, **Bhadra**, and **Lakshmana**. According to the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna also married **16,100 women** whom he rescued from captivity, restoring their dignity and status. ### Sons and Daughters Ancient texts describe Krishna as having many children through his queens. His most famous son was **Pradyumna**, born to Rukmini and considered an incarnation of Kamadeva, the god of love. Pradyumna became a renowned Yadava prince and warrior. Another well-known son was **Samba**, born to Jambavati. Although brave, Samba's mischievous actions eventually contributed to the downfall of the Yadava dynasty through a famous curse narrative. Other sons included **Charudeshna**, **Aniruddha's father Pradyumna**, **Bhanu**, **Gada**, and several others born to Krishna's different queens. The Puranas also mention daughters, though they receive less detailed attention than his sons. ### Grandchildren and Legacy Krishna's grandson **Aniruddha**, son of Pradyumna and Rukmavati, became one of the most important heirs of the Yadava dynasty. His marriage to **Usha**, daughter of the powerful king Bana, is celebrated in Hindu mythology. Aniruddha's son **Vajra** survived the destruction of the Yadavas after the Mausala Parva. Following Krishna's departure from the earthly world, Vajra became the ruler of **Indraprastha** and later regions associated with Mathura, preserving Krishna's royal lineage. ### The Yadava Family Legacy Krishna's family represents devotion, duty, sacrifice, and divine purpose. From Devaki's courage and Yashoda's unconditional love to Balarama's loyalty, Rukmini's devotion, Subhadra's connection to the Pandavas, and Vajra's continuation of the dynasty, each family member contributed to the enduring legacy of the Yadava lineage. Together, they form one of the most influential and beloved family trees in Hindu mythology, connecting the stories of the Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana, and the spiritual traditions followed by millions around the world.

Bourbon Family Tree - The House of Bourbon in France and Spain

The House of Bourbon is a European royal dynasty, descended in the male line from the Capetian kings of France, that ruled France from 1589 to 1792 and again from 1814 to 1848, and that still reigns in Spain today under King Felipe VI. Over four centuries its members also held the thrones of Navarre, Naples and Sicily, Parma and Etruria, which makes it one of the most widely established royal houses in European history. ## Origins The family takes its name from the lordship of Bourbon in the Auvergne, centred on Bourbon-l'Archambault. Its royal line descends from Robert, Count of Clermont, a younger son of King Louis IX of France, whose marriage to Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of Bourbon, carried the name into the Capetian house in 1272. For three centuries afterwards the Bourbons were powerful French princes of the blood rather than kings. That changed with Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome, whose marriage to Jeanne d'Albret, queen regnant of Navarre, produced Henry of Navarre. When the Valois line died out in 1589, Henry was the senior Capetian heir, and he took the French throne as Henry IV. ## Notable members Henry IV ended the French Wars of Religion and issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598. His son Louis XIII, guided by Cardinal Richelieu, built the centralised state that Louis XIV, the Sun King, carried to its height across a reign of seventy-two years, the longest of any European sovereign, and to the palace of Versailles. Louis XV and then Louis XVI inherited that system, and Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were swept away by the French Revolution in 1792. The dynasty returned with Louis XVIII in 1814 and Charles X in 1824, and in 1830 the crown passed to Louis Philippe I of the cadet House of Orleans, the last king to rule in France. ## The Spanish branch In 1700 the childless Charles II of Spain left his crown to Philip, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. Philip became Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, at the cost of the War of the Spanish Succession, which ended with his renunciation of any claim to the French throne. His descendants include the reforming Charles III, Ferdinand VII, Isabella II, Alfonso XII and Alfonso XIII, who left Spain in 1931. The monarchy was restored in 1975 under Juan Carlos I, grandson of Alfonso XIII, who presided over Spain's transition to democracy and abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son Felipe VI. Felipe's elder daughter Leonor, Princess of Asturias, is heir to the throne. ## Significance No other family links the absolute monarchy of Versailles to a working constitutional monarchy in twenty-first century Madrid. Bourbon marriages tied the house to the Habsburgs of Austria and Spain, the dukes of Savoy, the Medici of Florence and the British royal family, so a Bourbon family tree doubles as a map of European dynastic politics from the Reformation to the present day. | Fact | Details | | --- | --- | | Family name | House of Bourbon (Maison de Bourbon, Casa de Borbon) | | Place of origin | Bourbon-l'Archambault, Auvergne, France | | Founder of the line | Robert, Count of Clermont (1256-1317), son of Louis IX | | First king of France | Henry IV, reigned 1589 to 1610 | | Last king to rule France | Louis Philippe I, reigned 1830 to 1848 | | First king of Spain | Philip V, reigned 1700 to 1746 | | Head of the house in Spain | King Felipe VI, since 2014 | | Heir in Spain | Leonor, Princess of Asturias | | Principal seats | Versailles, Fontainebleau, the Louvre, the Royal Palace of Madrid |

Bachchan Family Tree - Bollywood's First Family

The Bachchan family is an Indian family of poets, film actors and industrialists, descended from the Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan of Allahabad and known above all for his elder son, the actor Amitabh Bachchan, whose own marriage and children have kept the family at the centre of Hindi cinema for more than half a century. ## Origins in Allahabad The family's documented line begins with Pratap Narayan Shrivastava, a Srivastava Kayastha from Babupatti in the Raniganj area of Pratapgarh district, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, who settled in Allahabad and worked in the city's paper trade. He and his wife Saraswati Devi had a son, Harivansh Rai, born in 1907. The boy was called "Bachchan" at home, a Hindi word meaning child, and he later took the nickname as his pen name. It has been the family surname ever since, which is why the Bachchans carry a name that began as a term of endearment rather than a caste or clan title. ## Poet, star and the generations after Harivansh Rai Bachchan became one of the most widely read Hindi poets of the twentieth century. His 1935 collection Madhushala is still recited across north India, and he combined writing with teaching English at Allahabad University, a Cambridge doctorate on W. B. Yeats, and service in the Ministry of External Affairs. His first wife, Shyama, died in 1936; his second, Teji Suri, was a Punjabi social activist who became a well-known figure in Delhi's cultural life. Their sons were Amitabh, born in 1942, and the businessman Ajitabh, born in 1947. Amitabh Bachchan's career, from Saat Hindustani in 1969 through Zanjeer, Deewaar and Sholay to Kaun Banega Crorepati, made him the single most recognisable figure in Indian popular culture. He married the actress Jaya Bhaduri in 1973, joining the family to the Bhaduris of Bhopal, whose head was the journalist and author Taroon Kumar Bhaduri. Their daughter Shweta became an author and columnist, and their son Abhishek an actor. ## The Nanda and Rai branches Two marriages widened the family considerably. In 1997 Shweta married Nikhil Nanda of Delhi, chairman of the Escorts Kubota engineering group, the son of the industrialist Rajan Nanda and of Ritu Nanda, herself a daughter of the film-maker Raj Kapoor. Their children are the entrepreneur Navya Naveli Nanda and the actor Agastya Nanda. In 2007 Abhishek married Aishwarya Rai, Miss World 1994 and one of Indian cinema's most internationally recognised stars, bringing in the Rai family of coastal Karnataka: her father Krishnaraj Rai, a biologist with the Indian Army, her mother Brindya, and her brother Aditya. ## Significance Few Indian families span so many fields in four generations: Hindi literature, mainstream cinema, heavy engineering and parliamentary politics, with Jaya Bachchan serving several terms in the Rajya Sabha. The Bachchan house in Mumbai has been a fixed point of Indian public life for decades, and the family's marriages have tied it to the Bhaduris, the Nandas and, through Ritu Nanda, to the Kapoor film dynasty. | Fact | Details | | --- | --- | | Founding figure | Harivansh Rai Bachchan (1907-2003), Hindi poet | | Surname origin | "Bachchan", a childhood nickname meaning "child", adopted as a pen name | | Native place | Babupatti, Pratapgarh district, and Allahabad (Prayagraj), Uttar Pradesh | | Best known member | Amitabh Bachchan (born 1942), actor | | Generations covered | Four, from Pratap Narayan Shrivastava to Navya Naveli and Agastya Nanda | | Families married in | Bhaduri of Bhopal, Nanda of Delhi, Rai of Mangalore | | Fields | Hindi poetry, cinema, business, politics |