It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Tesla and Elon Musk, who, after accusations of fraud, managed to come out of the court case without his chairman position, but with his CEO status still firmly in place.

For once, Tesla shares didn’t plummet in response to something Elon did, but he did have to fork out a $20 million fine.

Despite his antics, some of which border on the absurd (that British diver…), Elon is still quite impressive in the field of technology and space travel. As much as the tortured genius bit is getting old, it’s still interesting to see where he came from and how he got to where he is.

So let’s meet the Musks, Elon’s rather impressive extended family.

Elon’s mother, Maye, was born to Joshua and Wyn Haldeman – who in 1952 flew the family around the world in a propeller plane, writes The Guardian.

They settled in Pretoria, South Africa, where Maye became a model and met Errol Musk, an engineer. The couple had three Musks, starting with Elon, while Maye trained as a dietician.

After a divorce, she and the kids ended up back in Canada, where Maye continued to model, featuring on Special K boxes and in the 2013 video for Beyoncé’s single Haunted.

Maye’s grandmother and Elon’s great-grandmother, Dr Almeda Haldeman-Wilson (below), was Canada’s first ever chiropractor. Her son, Joshua Haldeman, followed in her footsteps and studied chiropractic medicine, and was a politician and famed explorer.

Elon’s dad, Errol, who called Elon a spoiled child back in March, made some major cash when he bought into an emerald mine in Zambia.

According to CNBC, all three of Maye’s children started their own business, and Elon’s siblings have really weird names.

Elon is, of course, a PayPal co-founder and Tesla CEO turned tunneller, space coloniser and battery tycoon. His brother, Kimbal Musk, describes himself as a “social entrepreneur”.

Not so little Kimbal (he is 6ft 4in) is a […] player in the US’s burgeoning “farm to table” food movement. His Big Green scheme has planted hundreds of gardens in school playgrounds, starting in Colorado.

He also has a chain of restaurants and an “urban farming accelerator” in Brooklyn, whereby young farmers grow expensive salad in shipping containers.

He also auctioned off the sixth Tesla Model 3 ever built to raise money for Big Green earlier this year.

Which brings us to Tosca Musk, who despite having a name that makes her sound like a supermarket franchise, is a successful director.

The youngest Musk, born in 1974, went west and studied film at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

She produced and directed some small-time films before getting into web TV with Tiki Bar TV, an ad-libbed comedy series that went to the top of the iTunes chart in 2005 after an endorsement from Steve Jobs. Late last year she raised millions of dollars in funding for Passionflix, a streaming service for romantic films.

Some pretty decent bragging rights for the parents, then.

With a family like that, success seems inevitable.

[sources:cnbc&guardian]