Everyone's heard if Nathaniel Hawthorne...right? The Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven Gables, the Blithedale Romance. What many people don't know about Mr. Hawthorne is that he was very good friends with Herman Melville, most famous for writing Moby Dick. They talk about their works in letters to each other and make interesting suggestions. It must have been really cool to have a friend (for both of them) that could really analyze your work.
Something that I found even more interesting, though, was about his ancestors. He was a descendant of John Hathorne, the famous judge from the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel decided to add a W to his last name so that he would not be associated with John. This shows that Nathaniel is independent and likes to be thought of as an individual, not judged based on who his relatives are. This reminded me of Nicholas Cage, who changed his name for a similar purpose: so that he could make a name for himself without the help of his famous family.
The Puritans had many uhh....interesting takes on things. One of their beliefs was that if there was a birth on Sunday of a child, that the child was cursed. Benjamin Franklin was called a devil child since he was born on a Sunday. In modern times, I would say we still have little specs of the same concept floating around. One of the biggest things we have nowadays is superstitions, which are a little less extreme versions of what Puritans said. Our superstitions deal more with sillier things like spilling salt or seeing a black cat. However big or small the connection is, there is always a small part of Purtitan roots in our society today.