4th cousins!

Today I drove to the area in central Kentucky where several generations of my dad's ancestors lived. My brother coordinated with several cousins for a little reunion. We met a more-distant cousin at his home (originally built in 1872, as I recall) and then gathered for dinner at a restaurant in Bowling Green.

Here are sisters Shirley and Kelley, to whom I am a fourth cousin: one of their great-great grandparents was a sibling to one of my great-great grandparents. Said another way, we have a set of great-great-great grandparents in common.

Tomorrow we're going to cemeteries: First stop is the burial site of a set of great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents we share (that's 6-great grandparents). Of course it's simple arithmetic to determine that everyone has 32 sets of 6-great grandparents…

Then we'll visit a cemetery I've visited 2 or 3 times before, http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-08-18

Before heading home the day after tomorrow I hope to revisit another set of great-great-great-grandparents, http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-08-19

1 year ago (“St. Ann (Saint Ann Catholic Church, Fremont, OH)”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2016-06-26
2 years ago (“This one *is* a ‘water lily’!”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2015-06-26
3 years ago (“My education continues…”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-06-26
4 years ago (“I found Cousin Itt!”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2013-06-26
5 years ago (“Mommy, are these butterflies mad at each other?”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-06-26
6 years ago (“Hey, how’s it goin’?”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-06-26

[ IMG_6541S12x8Atm :: f/2.8 :: 1/60 :: ISO-200 :: 55mm :: bounced flash ]

[Jane Anderson]

A very interesting journey! Did you all find each other on ancestry.com? We had a visit from a cousin earlier this year that my sister @mbemis met through ancestry.

[Thom Mitchell]

@janeandcharlie I think my brother found Shirley & Kelley through living family connections and research. He did submit to Ancestry DNA recently and is working on some information that has come from that. My brother has been doing this work off-and-on and in spurts for nearly 30 years. I asked him on this trip how he got started. Apparently it was from a document or record he saw that he knew to be wrong about something. That was the proverbial "bug bite"!

[Maggiemae]

Cousins are great to have! It is sometimes difficult to work out relationships down the line - 4th cousin ..etc.... then there is the "once removed' cousin relationship!

[Thom Mitchell]

@maggiemae My brother posted a diagram on facebook that simplified the numbering of cousins and "removals." I wonder if I can find that or something similar…

[Thom Mitchell]

I think this was it: http://lifehacker.com/second-cousins-once-removed-and-more-explained-in-1661572056