Genealogy Chat

Found this which is interesting....... Imagine there was a man living 1,200 years ago whose daughter was your mother's 36th great-grandmother, and whose son was your father's 36th great-grandfather. That would put him on two branches on your family tree, one on your mother's side and one on your father's. In fact, most of the people who lived 1,200 years ago appear not twice, but thousands of times on our family trees, because there were only 200 million people on Earth back then. Many of the people who were alive in the year 800 never had children; they don't appear on anybody's family tree. Meanwhile, more prolific members of society would show up many more than 5,000 times on a lot of people's trees. Keep going back in time, and there are fewer and fewer people available to put on more and more branches of the 6.5 billion family trees of people living today. It is mathematically inevitable that at some point, there will be a person who appears at least once on everybody's tree. Staggering !!!!!

My grandfather's brother and sister married a brother and sister and it is beginning to look as though the Cox's from my mother's side of the family were related to the Cox's from my father's side of the family. I have traced them to the same village. I know it is family tree research but I also have Bush's croping up everywhere and I am scared to even try to link them. . I suppose it is inevitable if your family stayed in a small area and went to the same schools that they would end up marrying into quite a small gene pool. (I do still have ten fingers and ten toes).

Loop or spaghetti junction........!???? I thought you might like to read a note I wrote to ''help'' me with hubby's tree...........lol.......What a load of gobbledygook!!! ''There is a strong possibility that Robert Lewis Packer, the second husband of Mary Bush nee Crawley (mother of Mary Ann Bush) is the brother of Hephzibah Packer, who, at her second marriage became the second wife of James Beard, the father of John Beard (by his first wife), who in turn was the second husband of Mary Ann Bush. Mary Ann was Robert Lewis Packer's stepdaughter and her first husband was Robert William Cotton, son of William Cotton (brushmaker) and Emma Packer. Also, as William Cotton and Emma Packer named their second son John Hazel Cotton , it is possible that Emma was related to Hephzibah, as Hephzibah's father was named Robert Hazel Packer? Maybe Hephzibah Packer, Robert Lewis Packer and Emma Packer were all siblings, the children of Robert Hazel Packer??'' Get it???!!! No, neither do I any more! lol Merry

Hmm, well I suppose at least I have some excuse with the Joneses. On the other side some slightly rarer names have got me back to 5- or 6-gs, although in some cases this is based solely on uncorroborated IGI evidence. It probably won't surprise you too much that I haven't been looking for anyone for forty years...

Michael I trot my Greens out at every available opportunity (as you will soon know!) because they were SOOOOO easy to find! Still havent found my 2 x GGF on my main line after nearly 40 years looking, off and on. OC

OC, I'd think I was doing amazingly well if I could even find 11g-grandparents. On more than one line I'm still stuck at the 2gs - although I keep telling myself they're bound to come out when I call in at Cardiff to check up on them...

OC - I don't think I could begin to contemplate your lot - especially in this heat. I might just manage to get my head round it if I draw pictures and lines and diagrams... And thanks to all for your sympathetic encouragement. I can just imagine my younger son's face when he gets the e-mail I sent! Christine

I found a loop the other day where it turns out that my parents are actually fifth cousins, but the families moved away from each other over 150 years ago!

Christine Welcome to the confusing families club! My 11 x GGPs, had great great grandchildren who married each other. The 7 x lot married some of these and also some of the 11 x lot. The 5 x lot went for it big time and every single one of them married someone to whom they had a blood relationship. This gives me the following: 1 x GGP Thomas Green married Mary Robinson 10 x Thomas Green married Jane Sidebottom 9 x Thomas Green married Jane Robinson (great neice of Mary Robinson) 8 x Thomas Green married Mary Robinson 7 x Thomas Green married Amy Lawton (who was the great grandaughter of Jane Robinson's other sister Amy) 6 x Thomas Green marries Amy Lawton - neice of Amy Lawton above 5 x Thomas Green married Mary Robinson...I lose track a bit, here... 4 x Thomas Green marries Jane Lawton (his cousin) 3 x JOHN Green - halleluia! marries...who, exactly? No marriage found... It is a nightmare to keep track of them. OC

Well done Christine, it's a great feeling when the peices start to fit together isn't it :) Ann

This is in North Devon - Sheepwash and Black Torrington area... Start with Joseph CHAPMAN m Mary STENLAKE [a] amongst their children were: Mary CHAPMAN m Joseph BAYLEY amongst their children were: Ann BAYLEY m William HORN amongst their children were: MaryAnn HORN m William HALL amongst their children were: **** Ann HALL m John CHAPMAN or [b] amongst their children were: Joseph CHAPMAN m Susannah ODAM amongst their children were: John CHAPMAN m Mary BALSDON amongst their children were: **** John CHAPMAN m Ann HALL That makes Joseph CHAPMAN m Mary STENLAKE simultaneously Gx5 & Gx6 g-parents to my children. I hadn't realised I'd be so excited to find a loop like that! - or perhaps it's just the heat getting to me? Christine

A contact in the last day or two has prodded me into doing a bit more IGI research on a part of my husband's tree. The combination of what I'd found myself, plus what I'd received from some other GR friends meant that I spotted a connection...