Whilst it may not be in the same ball park as the Hollywood actor Edward Norton discovering he was a descendent of well-known Native American historical figure, Pocahontas (his 12th great-grandmother), the Forsyth family from Armidale learned the Eastern Mouse Spider (Missulena bradleyi) was named after their great, great Grandfather, Henry Haughton Burton Bradley.

Mr Bradley (4 November 1845 - 23 November 1918), was an Australian arachnologist, naturalist, keen horticulturalist and lawyer by profession.

He was the president of the Horticultural Society of New South Wales and was a member of the royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain. He was also president of the Board of Trustees at the Australian Museum between 1913 and 1918.

Mr Bradley published papers on many types of spiders, in particular describing specimens found on the Chevert Exhibition of 1875, a scientific exhibition to collect natural history samples from New Guinea and the Torres Strait.

He also corresponded with spider specialists in Europe and sent them collections.

Mr Bradley lived in North Sydney and collected a local mouse spider.

The spider was described by William Joseph Rainbow, an entomologist and arachnologist whose work includes the first catalogue of Australian spiders, as a 'beautiful and strikingly marked' specimen.

Rainbow named it in honour of its collector, Mr Bradley, who he stated as being the first collector of Australian spiders.

The Sydney Mail described Mr Bradley, in 1919, upon his passing, as a "prominent figure in the world of horticulture, a fine practical gardener, a clever hybridist, a good citizen and an upright, honourable gentleman."

He grew up in Surry Hills and as a child, developed a keen interest in natural history and made collections of beetles and spiders, the collections were presented to the Australian Museum but were unfortunately destroyed in a fire in 1882.

As an exhibitor, Mr Bradley specialised first in dahlias, then later in chrysanthemums, and after that, in roses and daffodils. He imported varieties of daffodil from England and was the first person in Australia to raise daffodil from seed.

His next interest was the hippeastrum and according to the Sydney Mail, at the time, the Bradley collection of hippeastrums was the "finest in existence."

Most of Mr Bradleys horticultural treasures were gifted to the Sydney Royal Botanic gardens from his home in North Sydney.

One of Mr Burton's children, Dr Clement Henry Burton Bradley was a pathologist and the prominent pioneer of 'blood bank' work in the southern Hemisphere.

Dr Clement's daughter Patricia Burton Bradley, married Mr William 'Roy' Forsyth whose father, WS Forsyth founded WS Forsyth and Co in Armidale in 1921, now known as 'Forsyths', a finance and business advisory firm.

Mouse spiders look relatively similar to the Sydney Funnel-Web spider.

They create underground burrows lined with silk and are what's known as an "ambush predator."

The Mouse Spider is quite venomous. There is some evidence to suggest that they could be almost as dangerous as the Funnel-Web, but have caused no deaths as their bites are rare.

The things you learn when you find old family books.