Siblings of the Famous Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Washington

Lawrence, Augustine and the 1st U.S. President George Washington were the sons of Augustine Washington Sr. Lawrence and Augustine's mother was Jane Butler Washington, while George's mother was Mary Ball Washington. Much of George's early education at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, Virginia is attributed to his father and half-brother Lawrence, who himself would marry into the powerful Fairfax family, for whom Fairfax County, VA was named. Lawrence would later be the first resident of what would be known as the Mount Vernon estate.

This famous landmark would have gone to Augustine Jr., but he preferred his land at Pope's Creek instead and ceded the estate to George. He may have been the 'father of his country', but had no children of his own.

He and wife Martha raised two step-children and two step-grandchildren before his death in 1799.

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

The death of Thomas Hepburn (1905-21) was devastating for Katharine, who adored her older brother. For many years after, she adopted his birthday as her own. Of the others, Robert followed in his father's medical footsteps to become Chief of Urology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut for over 30 years before his death in 2007, the last of the Hepburn siblings. Younger sister Marian Hepburn Grant (1918-1986) is the mother of actress Katharine Houghton, who debuted opposite her famous aunt in the movie 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' as the daughter of Hepburn's character.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Most of Napoleon's siblings took advantage of their brother's ascension to the French throne in December of 1804. Elder brother Joseph was elevated to King of Naples, Sicily, Spain; the areas of Piombino and Lucca went to sister Elisa; brother Louis became King of Holland; sister Pauline became the Princess of Guastalla (which she later sold to neighboring Parma), Caroline became Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves and Queen consort of Naples, and Jerome became King of Westphalia. Brother Lucian, however, constantly fought against his brother, escaping to Britain at one point to avoid his brother's wrath.

Answer: Richard

Richard (1157-1199), third son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, was nicknamed 'Coeur de Lion' (Lion-Hearted) because of his reputation as a soldier and military leader. Elder brother William IX of Poitiers was only two when he died in 1156, one year before Richard's birth.

His other big brother was called Henry the Young King (for being crowned while his father was still alive), but died in 1183 while in a military campaign against his father and Richard. It was while Richard was warring with his father that Henry (Sr.) died in 1189, clearing the way for him to be crowned Richard I. Younger brother Geoffrey, Count of Brittany, died in a jousting accident in 1186, leaving baby brother John as the heir apparent to the English crown (especially after Geoffrey's son and rightful heir disappeared in unusual circumstances).

It was while Richard was away during the Crusades that the legend of Robin Hood was created as a defender of the crown against the evil John, who sought to take the kingdom from his brother, but that's a story for another time. Additionally, Richard had two elder half-sisters, Marie de Champagne and Alix, daughters of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her first husband, King Louis VII of France.

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was the third son of Austrian customs official Alois Hitler (née Schicklgruber) and his third wife, Klara Pölzl Hitler. Both Gustav and Ida died of diptheria by 1887 and Otto died shortly after he was born that same year. Adolf was a sickly child who was constantly attended to by his mother, but soon grew healthier. Edmund was five when he succumbed to measles in 1900. In her only filmed interview, given in 1959, a year before her death, youngest sister Paula Hitler said despite all the misery her brother had caused, he was 'still family', but she would have preferred he had become an architect, as he originally wanted.
Hitler also had two step-siblings from Alois' second wife, both of whom survived their step-brother. Alois Jr. (1882-1956) has little to do with Adolf after running away to Ireland in 1909, then back to Germany where he ran a restaurant in Berlin. His eldest son, William Patrick Hitler (later changed to Stuart-Houston) joined the U.S. Navy to fight against his uncle's ideals.
Angela Hitler (1883-1949) was hired by Adolf as a housekeeper at Berchtesgarten and was the mother of Angelika 'Geli' Raubal, who reportedly had an affair with her step-uncle, which may have been the cause of her suicide in 1931. Angela is the only sibling mentioned in 'Mein Kampf'.

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's relationship with his siblings did not come without a few controversies. Eldest brother Laxmidas (sometimes spelled 'Lakshmidas'), who practiced law and became a treasury official in the Porbandar government, was reportedly outraged at his brother's initial vow of poverty, claiming as the richest member of the family (Mohandas was also a lawyer at the time) he was needed to provide for the family. While attending school, brother Karsandas was actually dropped two grades to wind up in the same class as Mohandas. He went on to serve as a sub-inspector of police in Porbandar. Karsandas died in 1913 and Laxmidas a year later. Older sister Raliatbehn, who survived her brothers, once remarked that, as a child, Mohandas was often fearful of being punished by his father - not that he would beat him, mind you, but that he would take the punishment out on himself. She said Mohandas could not stand that.
Mohandas also had two step-sisters from one of his father's three previous wives, all of whom had died.
Of the other choices, Mandela of South Africa, Walesa of Poland and Aquino of the Philippines all took a page from the Gandhian book in the struggle to free their own respective nations.

Answer: Charles Dickens

Of the siblings in the family of John and Elizabeth Dickens, eldest brother Alfred Allen died in infancy and middle sister Harriet died at the age of five. Eldest sister Frances 'Fanny' Dickens (1810-1848) was the mother of a disabled son. He proved to be a model for both Paul Dombey ('Dombey and Son') and Tiny Tim ('A Christmas Carol').

The famous penname 'Boz' came from youngest brother Augustus Dickens (1827-1866), nicknamed 'Moses' but he couldn't pronounce the 'M' and substituted a 'B' instead. Brother Frederick William (1820-1868) was a spendthrift like their father John (1785-1851), both of whom found themselves in debtor's prison. Frederick was the model for Fred, brother of Little Nell in 'The Old Curiosity Shop', while father John can be recognized as Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield'. Even Charles' mother, Elizabeth (1789-1863), became the source for Mrs. Nickleby in 'Nicholas Nickleby' and, of course, Wilkin's wife, Mrs. Micawber. Younger siblings Letitia Mary (1816-1893) and Alfred Lamert (1822-1860) also lent a hand in the creation of a few of Charles' many characters.

Answer: Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel Capone (1899-1947) earned the nickname 'Scarface' during his early days in New York City working around the seedier nightclubs with a number of gangs. He moved to Chicago early in the Prohibition to become the epitome of the gangster in the annals of crime, punctuated by the bloody 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre' in 1929.
Two brothers, Raffaele (1894-1974) and Salvatore (1895-1924) followed Al to Chicago in the bootleg trade. Raffaele would become Ralph 'Bottles' Capone, while Salvatore ('Frank') Capone died in a hail of bullets. Amazingly, eldest brother James Vincenzo (1892-1952) changed his name to Richard Hart, after movie star William S. Hart, and become a Prohibition agent in Nebraska, earning the nickname 'Two-Gun' Hart before the media discovered the connection to his brother.
Of the other Capone boys, John Erminio 'Mimi'(1901-1994), Albert Umberto (1906-1980) and Matthew Amedoe (1908-1967) served in a smaller capacity, but could not maintain the empire once Al was busted for income tax evasion in 1931.

Answer: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The children of Rev. Michael King and Alberta Williams King were all born in Atlanta, Georgia at the Auburn Avenue home of their maternal grandparents, Rev. Adam Daniel Williams and Jeannie Celeste Williams. Michael Jr.'s father later renamed him (and himself) after the Protestant reformer Martin Luther.

In keeping with his father's calling and following a visit to Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace, Dr. King jumped headlong into pastoring the Ebenezer Baptist Church and fighting for civil rights using non-violence. Alfred Daniel Williams King (1930-1969) followed his brother through many of the protests. A.D. King took over co-pastorship of the Ebenezer Church following his brother's assassination in 1968, but tragically drowned less than a year later at his home. Christine (b. 1927), not only watched her brothers die violently, but her mother as well (shot to death by a deranged gunman in 1974).

She married Isaac Farris in 1960, became a professor at Spelman College and helped run the King Center in Atlanta.

Answer: Dracula

All four were the children of Vlad II, called Vlad Dracul ('the Dragon') of the kingdom of Wallachia in modern-day Romania. All four would also succeed their father to lead the kingdom, but Vlad III or Vlad Tepes ('the Impaler') would surpass his family in the history of the region. Known to most Romanians as a patriot who kept law and order, Tepes was villified in the rest of Europe for his reign of terror, mostly using his favorite means of execution. Ottoman Turks (and fellow Romanians) died in agony by the thousands under Tepes' rule. Over 400 years later, his violent reign served British author Bram Stoker to use him as the model for the lead character in his novel 'Dracula'. Eldest brother Mircea II (1428-1447) was a great military strategist who fought the Turks alongside Dracul and Tepes. For his troubles, he was blinded and buried alive by Turkish boyars. Younger brother Radu cel Frumos, or Radu the Handsome (1435-1475), on the other hand, grew to support the Ottomans, earning him the name Radu Bey and pitting him against his brother on the battlefield.

After the smoke cleared, it was Vlad Calugarul, or Vlad the Monk (1425-1495) who reigned the longest of the brothers, from around 1481 until his death.