History Main / MyGrandsonMyself

* ''Literature/TheMisenchantedSword'' by Creator/LawrenceWattEvans gives the main character immortality. Once he solves the problems with it, he does just this by telling all his friends he's leaving his business to a long lost relative. Then he gets himself youthened and comes back as the relative.

* Played with in ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'': although late 20th-century artist George is actually a different person from late 19th-century artist Georges Seurat, the final scene has him effectively turn into the famous painter, as he reconciles with his estranged mistress, Dot (who is actually his great-grandmother) from beyond the grave.

-->"If it's just giving a temporary introduction to ordinary people, then there is no problem. But you will use your real name when conversing with fellow immortals, and your body will reject establishing a false identity in this world"

* ''Series/{{The Sandman|2022}}'', "[[Recap/TheSandman2022S01E06TheSoundOfHerWings The Sound of Her Wings]]": The immortal Hob Gadling mentions having repeatedly used the trick of going away for a while and then coming back claiming to be his own descendant.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': Captain Jack Harkness twice claims a historical photograph of himself as his own ancestor, in the episodes "Small Worlds" and "[[Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay The New World]]".
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "Queen of the Nile", Pamela Morris did this and claimed that the old woman living with her was her elderly mother when it was really her ''daughter''. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she was actually [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Cleopatra]] and had discovered an ancient Egyptian magic that enabled her to stay immortal by sucking the youth out of people using scarabs.]]

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* ''Film/TheHauntedMansion'' has Master Gracey who poses as his own grandson.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'': Subverted -- as part of the original 1711 contract, all immortals are rendered incapable of establishing long-term false identities, which means all of them will eventually have to give that awkward explanation as to why their passport claims they're six or seven times older than they look. According to [[spoiler: Ronnie]] in the prologue of ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Rolling Bootlegs]]'', there's a mental block against setting false [=IDs=]:

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*** The ''Comicbook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'' annuals were published during this period, and one had a new Superman fighting a Luthor who had done this ''sixty times''.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gadling.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Hob Gadling learned the trick early.]]

* In ''Literature/AnnoDracula: Ten Thousand Monsters'', Geneviève's backstory mentions that in the days when vampires hid their true natures, they would sometimes do this, generally if they were the sort who wanted to retain an aristocratic title. (Geneviève herself simply moved around a lot and tried to avoid being someone people would remember.) Eventually, someone would notice that the gallery of identical all-male ancestors who chose to have their portrait painted at exactly the same age was a bit suspicious and the trouble would start.

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* [[spoiler:Zidane Tribal]] in the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' fanfiction [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3368230/10/ Prince of Thieves]] is the immortal boss of Ultima Express. Every so often, he leaves the company for a couple years and comes back as the late owner's son; he faked his last death by deliberately crashing an airship. Nobody noticed because a) he's a Genome, a race of similar-looking recluses, and b) he doesn't like being photographed.
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* ''VideoGame/ApexLegends]]: [[spoiler:Torres Silva]] took his son's identity when the latter died of natural causes.

* Played with in ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'': although late 20th-century artist George is actually a different person from late 19th-century artist Georges Seurat, the final scene has him effectively turn into the famous painter, as he reconciles with his estranged mistress, Dot ([[IncestIsRelative who is actually his great-grandmother]]) from beyond the grave.

* In ''TabletopGame/FreedomCity'', Daniel Daedalus, a GadgeteerGenius who is a member of the modern day Freedom League under the name Daedalus, allows people to believe he's the son of the Daedalus who was a member of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Freedom League. It's simpler than explaining he's ''actually Daedalus''.

You're immortal, or just extremely long lived, and you want to stay in one place for a long time without people noticing that you don't age. So what do you do? You reintroduce yourself as your own son, then grandson, etc. This handily gets around the problem of having to explain how you could have served in WWII and still only be 25 years old. This can also be used as a way to hang on to your property, by having the new identity "inherit" it from the old one.

Bonus points if you keep the same name -- so John Smith becomes John Smith Jr, becomes John Smith III, etc. Bonus [[IdiotBall idiocy-points]] if you've ever allowed someone to paint your portrait or take your photograph while pursuing this strategy, as it ''will'' be discovered and [[ExpositionOfImmortality expose your deception in future decades.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheSandman https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gadling.jpg]]]]

-->-- ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "Enemies"

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'':
** Hob Gadling/Sir Robert Gadling/Bobby Gadling mentions he has done this several times. (He also mentions that it gets more difficult after the invention of photography.) He has to conceal old family photographs to make sure nobody notices that he looks EXACTLY like his uncle or grandfather did fifty years ago. Although he also talks authoritatively about the past when confronted with TheThemeParkVersion, no one ever seems to notice that he's talking about it firsthand.

*** In one instance, he pretended to be his own lookalike son when meeting the aged leader of a French Resistance cell he worked with in WWII.

* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': PlayedWith. [[spoiler:The immortal Jack Vessalius ages in a cycle, growing to adulthood and becoming a child again about every hundred years. His body ended up being taken over by part of Oz' soul, so while Oz believed Jack to be his anscestor the body was actually Jack's all along.]]

* In the IDW ''ComicBook/BackToTheFuture'' comic, one storyline saw Marty travel to 1972 to figure out why his Uncle Joey ended up in jail. He runs afoul of Biff Tannen and his gang, who notice how similar he looks to "Calvin Klein" from [[Film/BackToTheFuture the fifties]], which Marty explains by claiming to be Calvin's son Kevin Klein, whose parents had to leave Hill Valley when they got pregnant out of wedlock.

** In the 2006 ''Mystery in Space'' miniseries, Comicbook/CaptainComet finds himself reborn on Hardcore Station in a 20 year old body, and claims to be the original Captain Comet's nephew. His new irreverend attitude means that even heroes who've worked with him before are fooled ... and preferred his "uncle".

** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'': Strahd von Zarovich, the setting's most infamous vampire, has been pulling off this gambit for the past eleven generations, feigning his own death and leaving rulership of Barovia to his identical "son".

* ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'': Nevyn was a close adviser to the first King in Cerrmorr and the last King in Cerrmor over the course of a century long civil war. When his second King's wife remarks on the coincidence of his name (Nevyn is ''not'' a common name, as it means No One), Nevyn claims that the Nevyn who served as adviser to Glyn I was his grandfather. Of course, Neyvn made a point of spending the decades between the death of Glyn I and his becoming tutor of the future Maryn I a long way away from Cerrmor, to keep people from realizing that he didn't age.

* ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'': Nevyn was a close adviser to the first King in Cerrmorr and the last King in Cerrrmor over the course of a century long civil war. When his second King's wife remarks on the coincidence of his name (Nevyn is ''not'' a common name, as it means No One), Nevyn claims that the Nevyn who served as adviser to Glyn I was his grandfather. Of course, Neyvn made a point of spending the decades between the death of Glyn I and his becoming tutor of the future Maryn I a long way away from Cerrmor, to keep people from realizing that he didn't age.

** ComicBook/LexLuthor, dying from radiation poisoning ('cause it turned out kryptonite was just like any other radioactive substance to humans), [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] by plane crash then had his brain transferred to a clone body, introducing himself to the world as his own son. After the reveal (which involved clone degeneration and him levelling Metropolis), he pulled a KarmaHoudini by selling his soul for a cure and then blaming everything on an [[FromACertainPointOfView insane clone that faked his death and took his place]].

* ''Series/{{Ultraviolet}}'': A variant is used where the death of a real grandson allows a code 5 to re-enter society using the deceased's identity.

** The ''Comicbook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'' annuals were published during this period, and one had a new Superman fighting a Luthor who had done this ''sixty times''.

* ''TabletopGame/DarkMatter'': Itohiro Nakami setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Alternity}} / TabletopGame/D20Modern''. He pretends to be his own ''son'' to transfer the leadership position of Hoffman Institute without becoming suspicious, being a Grey / Fraal and all that who uses illusions to appear as a human.