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One Maryland branch of my ancestral family tree doesn't "branch" as much as it might. Evidently it was quite common in Colonial and Early America to marry within the extended family, probably to preserve family wealth and other assets. Thankfully, this custom seems to have ceased about five generations ago in my line of this family, but prior to that, first cousins, first cousins once or more removed, and and other fairly close kin married each other quite frequently. There are certain surnames (and middle names) which repeat over and over - I still haven't figured out where some of them fit in. Toss in repeated use of given names to close relatives around the same age and living in the same area, and genealogical research becomes extremely difficult.
I and the other descendents of this old Maryland family are all our own cousins several times over, thanks to our ancestors' marital habits!
Thanks to three cousin marriages in the distant past, my father and I are also fifth cousins once removed (twice), eighth cousins twice removed, ninth cousins, ninth cousins twice removed, and tenth cousins!
That makes me and my brother also cousins several different ways.
My sons and I are cousins ...
My grand daughter and I are cousins ...
Anyone else noticed this?
My maternal grandparents are third cousins on both their paternal lines and their maternal lines. My grandfathers mother's mother was the sister to my grandfather's uncle's wife. There are definitely other cousin connections. My maternal grandparents had the same surname which was and still is so common in their region that if you are not an X, you are married to an X or related to someone married to an X lol.
I contacted someone once who needed help with their family tree who were from the same region as my relatives and their family tree was evern more convoluted lol. There is a family history book with thousands of names and quite often people are in more than one part of the book because of their parents being cousins of some sort. The book has certainly helped to lessen confusion when trying to sort out relations because many people do have similar names. Even on the grandparents maternal sides, there are quite a few online family trees.
There were lots of cousin marriages in colonial New England.
That's so true. I've got a bunch of them and it gets kind of complicated. I have one case where it seemed to be for political reasons and they married within the family. The men were all fighters in the French & Indian War in Vermont and they married each others brothers and sisters who went on to marry their cousins.
On my paternal side, in England, if I go back further than I can even imagine, I get a young girl who married her own uncle. They were great landowners in medieval England and wanted to keep the money and property in the family.
Of course, in more recent times, I married someone who was somehow related to me. We shared a surname in Vermont --our mothers figured out how we were related. Distantly!!
My maternal grandparents are third cousins on both their paternal lines and their maternal lines. My grandfathers mother's mother was the sister to my grandfather's uncle's wife. There are definitely other cousin connections. My maternal grandparents had the same surname which was and still is so common in their region that if you are not an X, you are married to an X or related to someone married to an X lol.
I contacted someone once who needed help with their family tree who were from the same region as my relatives and their family tree was evern more convoluted lol. There is a family history book with thousands of names and quite often people are in more than one part of the book because of their parents being cousins of some sort. The book has certainly helped to lessen confusion when trying to sort out relations because many people do have similar names. Even on the grandparents maternal sides, there are quite a few online family trees.
Well, in my case it simplifies things a bit. Fewer lines to research!
I think once you get to the third cousin, the ewww factor is significantly removed. Once you reach the fifth cousin stage, it kinda becomes totally okay.
I met a man who shared my rather unusual surname at a party once - turned out we were half first cousins, thirteen generations removed. Fortunately for our family's members, one of my father's first cousins did considerable (and accurate) research several decades ago and published it in a state genealogical journal. Without Cousin George's assistance, it would be much, much harder to trace our roots.
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