In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", [Holmes] claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without further clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle, or Horace Vernet.
Also from Wikipedia:
Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 1789 – 17 January 1863) was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist Arab subjects. Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famous painter, who was himself a son of Claude Joseph Vernet.
I think Horace is our best bet to be Sherlock's great uncle. Both his father (14 August 1758 – 17 November 1836) and his grandfather (14 August 1714 – 3 December 1789) would have been too old to be siblings of Sherlock's grandmother. But Horace Vernet would have died about a week after Sherlock turned nine years old at the age of 73. And that seems about right for the age difference between Holmes and his great uncle.
I bring this up because it is through the Vernet family that Toobworld Central traces back Holmes' ancestry to France of the 17th Century, specifically to Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan - better known in all of the worlds of Fiction as D'Artagnan.
Toobworld Central is not really concerned with the historical inspiration for the legendary Musketeer. Nor are the depictions of the swordsman in the Dumas' romance novels, movies, cartoons, and comic books. Indeed, most of the television portrayals of D'Artagnan must be swept aside and relegated to alternate TV dimensions in favor of what I consider to be the first and therefore official televersion of "The Three Musketeers" - the 10 part TV series from 1966 which starred Brian Blessed, Jeremy Young, and Gary Watson as Porthos, Athos, and Aramis respectively... and Jeremy Brett as D'Artagnan.
I have to imagine that most fans of Sherlock Holmes have figured out where I am going with this.....
Upon arriving in Paris and allying himself with the Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan then found his first great love in Constance Bonacieux. Unfortunately, Constance was married to an older man and eventually she was murdered by "Milady Di Winter". Even if D'Artagnan consummated his love with Constance and she thus became pregnant, she was dead before any issue came to term.
I'm not one to do copious research on a topic; despite its many faults, Wikipedia is good enough for me. But I have found nothing to indicate the fictional portrayal of D'Artagnan ever did marry and have children. However, like his friends Porthos and Aramis, I would not be surprised to learn that he sired whelps by at least one tavern wench - the 17th Century stand-by for Toobworld to continue family trees, in much the same way saloon girls of the wild, wild West performed the same service.
And so I believe this version of D'Artagnan carried on his lineage in this fashion, eventually leading to the Vernet family and finally to Sherlock Holmes.
For Toobworld Central, despite the earlier adaptations of the character to television, it is the 1990s series with Jeremy Brett which is considered the official version of Conan Doyle's classic. And that is because it is the most complete series of adaptations, missing only about four of the stories.
Add to that the fact that Jeremy Brett played the role, as he had done decades earlier with D'Artagnan, and you can see why I favor this theory of "relateeveety". Tele-genetics run strong in many TV characters.....
Oh! And in case you were not aware of this fact, today marks the day on which Sherlock Holmes is generally considered to have been born in 1854.
BCnU!
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