RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: shadowwind2112 on Monday 09 May 22 23:45 BST (UK)
-
Okay, so I do not know if this is the right section of the forum to post this on, but has anyone ever found that they are related to say their best friend? or found that their best friend is either a distant cousin or long lost brother or sister?
-
Mine is in reverse...
In 1969/70 I had 2 best friends who were in my class at school...
Roll on approx. 40 + yrs, filling in different branches on my tree, I discovered both to be my 5th cousins & they're 4th cousins to each other.
I'm in touch with both although it never crossed my mind to mention their relationship.
Only one of them is active in family history research.
Annie
-
Grew up and went to school with two boys who were neighbours of my courtesy Aunt - 1960's. In the early days asked if we were related, because their mother's maiden name was the same as ours. Don't think so was the response (my father wasn't alive to answer yes or no). Years later on doing family history, two names kept jumping out at me in the tree, names I knew, but no other information, but didn't dwell on it, until one day saw the death notice of the father, a few years ago, and yes it turned out we were cousins. My great grandfather and their's were brothers.
Cheers
KHP
-
At a family reunion about 18 years ago, 3 girls who worked in the same office discovered that they were related.
-
My best friend in France had Jewish origins
I helped her mother with researching her family turns out we both had ancestors from Jacobstadt in Latvia.
And our great great grandfather s both had first names Lazarus .
I think she decided not to do a DNA or did one with a different company so I don't know for sure if we were blood linked but it's nice to know our ancestors were neighbours
Just had a small DNA link with someone who was my sisters school mate ..from Scottish origins but don't know which line .
-
I know that in quite small rural communities, such as I grew up in, many people were related as well as classmates, etc. As I came from "outsider" stock on both sides, it amused me to hear "Well, don't you have any cousins for friends?"
TY
-
Not best friend, but someone at school (1950s)....did not see him for many years after until we moved here to Radstock... then met up again quite by chance. He turns out to be my 2xgreat grand uncle's wife's second great grand nephew. The link goes back to somewhere around 1830.
Hi cuz!
-
My best friend wants us to be related.
We both have origins in the same small village, but the nearest I have found so far is one of her gt grandmothers was a witness to the marriage of one of mine.
-
I have a small DNA match to a friend of mine. I also am a distant cousin of a young man I taught.
-
Hi all
Sister worked with a lady and introduced her to mum. The lady was mum's cousin.
Also, mum had a friend at school and they went to meet her friends mother one lunch time. Turns pur her friends mother was my mums mothers cousin
Jon
-
My best friend from junior school has recently moved back to our home town, so I dug into his FH.
Our families are linked, though only through one marriage.
The farm where I get my eggs is owned by someone with a surname which I recognise from my family in the area. I already had his grandfather in my data, so printed off something of his family.
On my next visit he told me that his wife had looked at this, and asked if I could do something similar for her.
The following week I presented her with another set of paperwork. "Hello, cousin!"
She's a 4th cousin twice removed, and also a 6th cousin once removed, and a 7th cousin once removed. Everyone in that area seems to be related to everyone else!
-
I was at a small village primary school, and discovered during research that one of my contemporaries there was a 4th cousin once removed. I was tracing my gr gr grandfather's siblings forward and found myself looking at names I recognised as my mother's friends. Then I found that a friend at secondary school was a 3rd cousin once removed. Although her family lived in Canterbury by then, she knew that her grandmother had a link with my home village and my grandfather knew her name, though the family link was further back and in another village.
-
A number of years ago, ten years ago to be exact, I was on holiday in Torquay, and on this particular evening - I was talking on a thread on Faceache, about Staffies (the dogs) and was defending this person who was also commenting, so I added this person in question who I was talking to. Fast forward and after months of talking to each other in texts and via phone calls, we meet each other at a local coffee shop, and again a couple of months later in July 2012.
Of course one thing leads to another and I remember her saying to me in 2019 the following,
wouldn't it be strange if we were related to each other, yet epic at the same time.
[/i]
Of course in 2020 lockdown came, and with time on my hand I decided to delve deeper into my family tree, and it turns out that she is related to me via the husband of my great grandaunt, who was married to my great granduncle (if I am not mistaken). Through his side of the family his side of the tree eventually leads me to the husband of my friend's cousin. So for ten years I have had the most epic of friends, only to recently discover she is distantly related to me.
-
I helped a long time family friend with her FH and found her great gran came from the same Essex fishing village that my lot came from. Turned out we shared ancestors in the 1600s. Sadly she has let us down in recent years over us not getting on with one of her friends, and took her side. So i see the cousin ship as very, very distant whereas before I embraced it.
Lets hope there is an NPE on her lines of descent from the mutual ancestors.
-
I discovered when I started doing OH's family tree that, we are both related to one of my second cousins, although we are not related to each other.
I recently discovered that my neighbour and I are 4th cousins.
-
Mum and dad both went to school with distant cousins in SE Essex.
Imagine if the nasty neighbour, local villain or school bully turned out to be a distant cousin.
I always was a fan of Madonna, and she has some distant English roots through her French nobility ancestors on her mother's side, and they meet up with mine through my gateway ancestor. Madonna's ancestry is 98% French and Italian (at least traceable) but has a spot of English and Spanish.
Madonna can sing a new song for me called Cousin Don't Preach.
-
friends can become family
My scots gran told me she met grandad at a wedding so they were related ..I didn't ask at the time and kept waiting for DNA lines to converge
the answer was closer than I expected but related by marriage . Grandads elder sister married grandmas cousin ....
I only recently realised when I saw her father was a witness on that marriage . !
So they were in laws
.friends then related by marriage
And their descendants connected to both sides of my tree 🌲
-
One of my son’s best friends is distantly related to him, and they have been friends since they were three years old, since 1990. Their fathers both moved to Ontario from the same area of Quebec, although they didn’t know each other - but my then mother in law knew all about the connection.
OH and I both have ancestors from Chipping, Lancashire from the early 1800s. Not unusual for locals in Lancashire perhaps but I was born in Quebec and he was born in Michigan. His Chipping folk came in Canada in 1842. Am sure if we could trace them further back we would have ancestors in common. Ancestry DNA shows we share at least one distant cousin.
-
Don't forget, Diana, I'm still working on 'em!
TY
-
Diana Canada
Something similar saw a distant michagan relative to my mum with my father's surname
On tree ...it was by marriage
Then found a cluster of michagan based matches who had a Canadian lumberjack ancestor .
With links to this Scottish side father's side
There was adoption and illegitimacy along the lines . I looked into the family to help an adoptee
But we did work out probable connection to a Scottish gold miner
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=838188.msg7036929#msg7036929
-
Don't forget, Diana, I'm still working on 'em!
TY
Thanks TY, but this is another branch, doubt if there is any connection with the Burrows' lot until my great grandparents married in the early 1880's.
My family line in Chipping is Kenyon and OH is Parkinson (lots of those in the area, I had a bit of luck with his ancestor's obituary in Guelph, Ontario to help figure out which John Parkinson was her father).
-
One of my son’s best friends is distantly related to him, and they have been friends since they were three years old, since 1990. Their fathers both moved to Ontario from the same area of Quebec, although they didn’t know each other - but my then mother in law knew all about the connection.
OH and I both have ancestors from Chipping, Lancashire from the early 1800s. Not unusual for locals in Lancashire perhaps but I was born in Quebec and he was born in Michigan. His Chipping folk came in Canada in 1842. Am sure if we could trace them further back we would have ancestors in common. Ancestry DNA shows we share at least one distant cousin.
After posting the above I had a look at OH's DNA results and found a new connection for him. The surname is Fairburn and one arrived in Ontario before the 1851 census. I had theorized that he was from Bridlington, Yks. The new connection indeed connects to that family in Bridlington. And wouldn't you know it, I have an ancestor born in Bridlington who ended up in Halifax, W. Yks. His family wasn't long established in Bridlington, though - parents from two small towns to the east. His father was a ship's carpenter.
-
Somewhat the same thought. My wife and I have ancestors that together examined the body of Thomas Becket after his murder.
-
My OH's maternal line and my maternal line both go back to a "Riches" family in Norfolk, but I haven't searched for a connection.
Maybe that was why I could usually finish his sentences for him lol.
-
Several years ago, a new colleague at work mentioned in passing that some of her ancestors were from a specific area in Maine. I asked what their surnames were and she didn't respond. When she mentioned the area again, in the same conversation, I repeated my question. She tried to brush me off, but I persisted, and what do you know: we're distant cousins!
It was a funny coincidence, because at the time we were both living within walking distance of each other in a city in Canada, far removed from where our ancestors lived, and we were working in an area that was quite a distance from where we were living. If we hadn't both been into genealogy, we'd never have known we were related. We became friends and it's fun to have the added connection of cousinhood.
-
I was retired when I first started researching my mainland European ancestry. Eventually I came across a chap online who was also researching his European line. We weren't trying to trace the same surname but I just had a feeling that I should stick close to him and told him so. Eventually I learnt his surname and mentioned that I knew a girl at school in the same year as me who had the same surname. It turned out that she was his much older sibling. I privately reminisced about my schooldays and recalled that we did have similarities in height, hair colour, etc. I didn't normally attend the annual old pupil gathering but that year I went and waited for my new found female cousin to walk through the door - the long and the short of it was that I was the titchy desk bound one and she was a virtual tall athletic healthy Amazonian
-
One of a sister's grandsons and a cousin's grandson, now in their mid twenties, buddied up at college and unaware they were related. There wasn't a name connection being down the female lines from our grandmother, with her daughters, their daughters and daughters all changing surnames and the boys and their mothers hadn't previously met. Niece though had met our cousin at earlier gatherings and recognised her straight away once they were eventually together and realised the coincidence.
-
I helped a late colleague born 1944 do his family tree. We both descend from 2 men called Peter Archer in Suffolk in the 1700s. However no connection between the 2 has yet been established. :(
If it was 2 men called Cornelius Bracegirdle-Arbuthnot, then the connection would be easier to pin down.
-
Once I did my dna in March this year and started putting together my family tree, I made a rather shocking discovery. My late 2nd husband was the father of my only child. I found that he’d been my fifth cousin once removed. This makes my son my sixth cousin. I suppose if I ever get truly annoyed with my son, I can refer to him as a “distant relation”. :)
-
Once I did my dna in March this year and started putting together my family tree, I made a rather shocking discovery. My late 2nd husband was the father of my only child. I found that he’d been my fifth cousin once removed. This makes my son my sixth cousin. I suppose if I ever get truly annoyed with my son, I can refer to him as a “distant relation”. :)
LOL, that's too cute. :D
-
I've a DNA match with the mum and therefore daughter wife of a friend I grew up with locally and know well. The mum contributes to ancestry magazine/blog articles notebly Hewitson's Diaries in Preston, Lancs. Met up for a coffee and shared our thoughts. I felt like an amatuer newcomer to all this, she's been on the ancestry trail since 1960s. The connection is likely Westmorland or Yorkshire.
Simon
-
The mum contributes to ancestry magazine/blog articles notebly Hewitson's Diaries in Preston, Lancs. Simon
Ah, Atticus!
I first came across him in an 1871 newspaper article about Mawdesley, where he mentioned my ancestors, the basket-making Benthams.
When my great grandparents Alice Bentham and James Rigby married in 1904, I'm certain that they were unaware of being fifth cousins!
-
Ah, Atticus!
I first came across him in an 1871 newspaper article about Mawdesley, where he mentioned my ancestors, the basket-making Benthams.
When my great grandparents Alice Bentham and James Rigby married in 1904, I'm certain that they were unaware of being fifth cousins!
Just clicked that Atticus was his nom de plume. A controversial character on The Herald and Chronicle.
https://hewitsondiaries.wordpress.com/