I have at least four:
Robert the Bruce on my dad's side (ever seen the movie Braveheart?), Reuel Gridley (sold the same sack of flour over and over and raised $250,000 for the Civil War relief effort, was friends with Samuel Clemens and once pushed him into the Mississippi when they were young),
Charles V. Gridley (captain of the flagship during the Battle of Manila "You May Fire When Ready, Gridley") and
on my mother's side (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition).
"You may fire when you are ready Gridley."
Commodore George Dewey, 1 May 1898, at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. The American squadron entered Manila Bay and took fire from the Spanish fleet, anchored under the guns of Cavite, for half an hour until in the position Dewey wanted. Then Dewey addressed his order to Charles Gridley, captain of Dewey's flagship
Olympia.
[Dewey, George.
Autobiography of George Dewey, Admiral of the Navy. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913) 214.]
