Ancestry of
Alan Turing
WWII Codebreaker of Nazi Enigma Machine
Who was Alan Turing?
Alan Turing was an English mathematician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He is often referred to as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
During World War II, Alan Turing joined a secret code breaking unit based at Bletchley Park. He was instrumental in developing a machine that was able to find the settings used by the German Enigma machine enabling the allies to decrypt German messages. It’s been estimated that this accomplishment, the subject of the 2014 movie The Imitation Game, shortened the war by a couple of years and saved millions of lives.
Famous Kin
Alan Turing’s known famous kin tend to be through royal connections. He is a direct descendant of King Edward I and a number of Magna Carta sureties including Hugh le Bigod, John FitzRobert, Sir Saher de Quincy, and Henry de Bohun. One of Alan Turing’s more interesting connections is a kinship to actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch is the actor who portrayed Turing in the movie The Imitation Game. Another interesting family connection for Alan Turing is to German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. Not only did Braun help develop the United States’ Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the moon, but Braun also helped develop the German V-2 rocket which killed thousands of British and Belgian citizens during the war.
Some of the most recently added connections of famous kin for Alan Turing
Melville Fuller
8th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
20th cousin
via Edward I, King of England
Melville Fuller
8th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
19th cousin 1 time removed
via Sir Hugh I de Audley
Melville Fuller
8th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
15th cousin 3 times removed
via Richard FitzAlan
Rev. John Whittingham
(c1616 - 1639)
Great Migration Immigrant 1637
11th cousin 9 times removed
via Sir Alan la Zouche
Brian Forster
TV Actor
20th cousin 1 time removed
via Sir Robert de Holland of Upholland, Lancashire
View entire list of famous kin for Alan Turing
Please note: The ancestor reports on this website have been compiled from thousands of different sources, many over 100 years old. These sources are attached to each ancestor so that you can personally judge their reliability. As with any good genealogical research, if you discover a link to your own family tree, consider it a starting point for further research. It is always preferable to locate primary records where possible. FamousKin.com cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy and reliability of these sources.