“I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”

In this case, it really all ends in a mouse!

Once upon a time, in the famous dairy area of D'Isigny, in Normandy in France, there lived a family called Suhard. 

This family decided to support the famous William the Conqueror, who came over to England in the 1000s; and members almost certainly took part in the Battle of Hastings. Among those believed to have come to England were Lambert D'Isigny who was a vassal of Judith de Huntingdon; she was a niece of William. Sources have traced the line of descendants from Lambert, but sources also say that, at least, two other members of the family also came to England and later chose to settle here. They were Hugues Suhard D'Isigny and Robert (his son).

Members of the family settled in Norton, in Lincolnshire and later angelicised their "honorific" D'Isigny to Disney; part of area later became as Norton Disney and it remains to today.

And those settlers from Normandy started a line which ended in 

or rather, it really ends with his creator Walter Elias Disney.

Otherwise known as Walt Disney, this world famous man, is the 10th cousin of my 1st cousin 4x removed. Walt was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA a far cry from Normandy in France, or the other places where the family stopped on the way and who would have thought he was a distant relative to me!

The line between him and me is quite complicated, so I have attempted to explain it with 2 diagrams.

Disney1 
This shows the Disney link to Uncle Walt. The individuals in red show the direct line with Richard Disney in purple reappearing on Disney2.

Disney 2
This shows the Disney link to me, via Thomas Stapleton, as before following the individuals in red.