Remember: July 2018

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

More Famous Ancestors: American Presidents

Cousin Richard
From Biography: https://www.biography.com/people/richard-nixon-9424076

I'm still checking for famous ancestors via the WikiTree Relationship Finder, and am surprised to learn how many U.S. Presidents are my relatives.

I went down through the whole list of 45 in order, while nervously eyeing some of the more modern Presidents at the end of the list. It was almost a relief to find that the family trees from Jimmy Carter to the present are all private. However, Richard Nixon turns out to be my 10th cousin. He might be yours, too--I'll be happy to share him.

Here are my famous Presidential relatives, in chronological order:

William Henry Harrison. 7th cousin, 5 x removed. *

Millard Fillmore. 7th cousin, 5 x removed.

Ulysses S. Grant. 5th cousin, 4 x removed.

Rutherford B. Hayes. 6th cousin, 4 x removed.

James Garfield. 11th cousin, twice removed.

Grover Cleveland. 8th cousin, 4 x removed.

Benjamin Harrison. 9th cousin, 3 x removed.

Theodore Roosevelt. 8th cousin, 3 x removed.

William H. Taft. 9th cousin, twice removed.

Calvin Coolidge. 8th cousin, once removed.

Herbert Hoover. 6th cousin, 3 x removed.

Franklin Roosevelt. 8th cousin, once removed.

Richard Nixon. 10th cousin. We share a 9th great grandfather, John Newhall, who was born about 1557 and died about 1605 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.

Gerald Ford. 8th cousin, once removed.

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*Understand the Difference Between Second Cousins and Cousins Once Removed. https://www.simplemost.com/difference-second-cousins-cousins-removed/

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Degory Priest, Mayflower Passenger--Related to Me?

From Wikimedia Commons: Pub. by Smith's Inc., Plymouth, Mass. Tichnor Bros. Inc., Boston, Mass. - Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection #61532, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46122563

Is it possible that I am descended from one of the 102 Mayflower passengers who sailed in 1620 from Plymouth, England to the shores of America? Perhaps, or perhaps not--but it's an intriguing thought.

WikiTree, a free online collaborative database for genealogists, has published a list of Mayflower passengers and a way to find their relationship with anyone else. Here are my results:

Degory Priest (c.1579-c.1621) is the 9th great grandfather of Clair (Uncertain)

1. Clair is the daughter of Elva (Crabtree) Rodriguez
2. Elva is the daughter of David Jewett (Crabb) Crabtree Sr.
3. David is the son of Sarah Ann Kinney
4. Sarah is the daughter of John Shepherd Kinney
5. John Shepherd is the son of Stephen Kinney
6. Stephen is the son of Israel Kinney
7. Israel is the son of Daniel Kenney
8. Daniel is the son of Mary (Richards) Kinne
9. Mary is the daughter of Susan Sarah (Pratt) Richards [uncertain]
10. Susan is the daughter of Marah (Priest) Pratt [unknown confidence]
11. Marah is the daughter of Degory Priest [unknown confidence]

This makes Degory the ninth great grandfather of Clair.

***

Why the uncertainty and "unknown confidence?" Since I haven't researched those relationships, which were supplied by the WikiTree database, I can't really say, but I am guessing that there is no clear documentation proving them.

You must remember that according to Family History Daily there are probably 35 million living Mayflower descendants. Although I am honored to possibly be one of them, I have lots of company!

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

How I Am [Somewhat] Related to Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

If you have ever wondered if you might be related to someone famous, just visit WikiTree, a free and collaborative genealogical community, and enter the information for your family tree. WikiTree has a cool feature that will spell out your relationship with practically anyone you can think of.

Of course, there are two ways people can be connected--by blood or through marriage. American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and I are not connected by blood, but WikiTree has laid out how we are connected by marriage through my father's line--and we are just 17 degrees apart.

According to WikiTree: "14,141,698 people are connected within 100 degrees of each other on our global family tree."

For an explanation of how the Connection Finder works, just go to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Connection_Finder.

Alexander Hamilton's connection to me:

Alexander Hamilton ➡️ his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler ➡️ her brother, Philip Schuyler ➡️ his wife, Mary Sawyer ➡️ her father, Micajah Sawyer ➡️his father, Enoch Sawyer ➡️
his father, Stephen Sawyer ➡️ his sister, Ruth Sawyer ➡️ her son, Philip Morse ➡️his daughter,
Mary Morse ➡️ her son, Asa Emerson ➡️ his daughter, Lydia Emerson ➡️ her son, George
Tupper ➡️ his daughter, Juliaett Tupper ➡️ her husband (my great grandfather), Oscar Ellis ➡️ his daughter (my grandmother), Eva Ellis ➡️ her son (my father), Daniel Harris ➡️ his daughter,

Clair Harris Zarges (me).

We can also look at the relationship with photos, paintings, and links to profiles of some the people involved:

Alexander Hamilton
→