family is family?
That's a really broad definition. I don't know any of my 'family' beyond my grandparents' [both sides] cousins and I do not consider more distant relations as 'family', though we are genetically related. As a historian, I'm interested in the connections that molded personality and events. Some connections, especially with ideas, are ages long. In forthcoming volume 2 of our Separate Identity, we connect Russellite beliefs with a trail of ideas back to the 17th Century. But what Russell's great great great grandparents did has no traceable effect on him.
On the Austro-German side of my family you can find people who ruled most of Europe. But that's so distant that if it affects my thinking I would not know how. Interestingly though, there is a long line of writers among my ancestors. These include my dad, my great grandfather who was also an artist, back to a 17th Century man who wrote on religious topics. Did my genetics impel me to become a writer? Did the fact that my mom, a grand aunt and others were teachers turn me into an educator? How would one prove that?
N.H. Knorr did not made soup. He became a manager, an executive of a religious publishing house and head of a minor religion. Did his distant relations' ability to form a food company translate into Nathan Knorr's administrative ability? There's no way to prove that. Any conclusion would be mere speculation.