Thursday, February 2, 2012

Family Connections: When Cousins Marry!

Okay, the title of the post sounds worse than it actually is . . .

While researching the Page branch of my family tree - for the record, Bethia Page married John Swett - I discovered an interesting thing: not one, but two members of the Page family, siblings in fact, are ancestors.

It goes like this . . .

Robert Page (born about 1579) married Margaret Goodwin. They had ten children: Robert, Anne, Francis, Thomas, Phillip, Rebbecca, William, Alice, Agnes, and Henry.

Robert Page II married Lucy Ward.
Anne Page married Edward Colcord.

Thomas Page, the son of Robert Page II and Lucy Ward, married Mary Hussey.
Hannah Colcord, the daughter of Anne Page and Edward Colcard, married Thomas Dearborn.

Thomas and Hannah, through his father and her mother respectively, have the same grandparents, which would make them first cousins.

Bethia Page, daughter of Thomas Page and Mary Hussey, married John Swett.
Thomas Dearborn, son of Hannah Colcord and Thomas Dearborn, married Mary Garland.

Bethia and Thomas, through her father and his mother respectively, share the same great-grandparents, which, according to the new way cousins are figured, makes them second cousins (or, in the old way, I believe it's first cousins once removed).

Nathan Swett, son of Bethia Page and John Swett, married Mary Dearborn, daughter of Thomas Dearborn and Mary Garland.

Nathan and Mary, through his mother and her father respectively, share the same great-great grandparents Robert Page and Margaret Goodwin, which makes them third cousins, and, in a warped way, brings the family line separated by Anne and Robert back together.

To put it in a more direct line:

Siblings = Robert Page and Anne Page
First Cousins = Thomas Page and Hannah Colcord
Second Cousins = Bethia Page and Thomas Dearborn
Third Cousins = Nathan Swett and Mary Dearborn
Fourth Cousins & Siblings = the children of Nathan Swett and Mary Dearborn

Okay, you can have a big eeeeeeeeewwwwwww moment right about now.

S

No comments:

Post a Comment