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| Images d'Épinal : Cendrillon |
I have this friend, she is related to EVERYONE. No, seriously she has a cousin connection to
over half of the people we know in common; maybe even more than that. She is also the reason I am sitting here
today and the first person I go to with genealogy questions. Dare I say she is
my genealogy fairy godmother? Perhaps
not, I don’t want to get hit the next time I see her.
What fascinates me about this is the fact that when you
have links to colonial New England, like we do, you have links to a lot of
other people. I have one line from the
Mayflower, Alden, but unlike most persons of that time my family left the area very
quickly. Within 3 generations they were
in New Jersey. A generation later they
were in Kentucky. The next they were in Indiana where my line finally stayed for
the next 150+ years. My other New
England family was named Kelley. They were Irish immigrants to the Boston area
who then moved to Martha’s Vineyard before landing in Indiana via Ohio.
I think it is due to this migration pattern that I have
fewer links to others with colonial roots.
My friend on the other hand has a multitude of connections to a lot of
families because even though her family group moved through New England they
married in every town and integrated into the various communities. Essentialy her family stayed longer and made
more connections. Interesting study in family
dynamics and migration patterns, yes?
She and I have 2 confirmed great X-grandparents in common. They are Christopher Webb and his wife
Humility Cooper (or could it be Wheaton), as well as John Crabtree and his wife
Alice Courtney. We are still looking at
the links to my husband, but so far it seems they may have as many as 7 cousin
connections. My mother-in-law has long
roots in New England, much to her amazement, so this is not as surprising of a
find.
Then there are the connections to figures that are larger
than life. My oldest child, the American
History buff, has grabbed onto the fact that we are cousins to Presidents on
one side and a signer of the Declaration on Independence on the other, all because
we have the same colonial genealogical roots.
These cousin connections have sent my son on a research spree (you
should have seen him when he was shown his cousins signature on the declaration
at the archives). He comes to me every
so often to let me know about another cousin connection he found on the
internet. The hard part? Trying to explain how distant of a connection
this is. To him a cousin is a cousin
darn it, we should be proud of all our ancestors. It must be that need in people to be connected
in some way to people or places that have a historical significance.
What are your thoughts?
Do you have lots of cousin connections to fellow
genealogy friends?
Did your family stay for longer periods of time, or did
they have itchy feet?
I’d love to hear your experiences with researching New England
ancestors and families that cross (sometimes more than once) with each other.
