What? Mom and Dad are related?

Howard, Judith, and son John in 1980. Photo by John’s sister Karen.

One of the more interesting aspects of genealogy is finding unexpected connections. I’ve written about this a number of times over the past year because for me it’s never boring. Cousins abound everywhere. They hide beneath every nook and cranny and around every corner. They sit there, patiently, waiting to be found. When I do find them, I’m thrilled.

This feeling happened to me a year or so ago when I discovered that my mother and father were related.

Yeah, I know: it’s not normal to feel “thrilled” about finding your cousins but, hey, I couldn’t help it. Making that connection reinforced my feeling that we are all connected – in more ways than one.

My father passed away in 1987 and my mother in 2006. Neither one had any idea that they were cousins. I often wonder what they would have said if they had known…

Anyway, before you get the wrong idea, mom and dad were distant cousins. As far as I know, there are no laws against 15th cousins marrying 15th cousins.

At least I hope not. I’d be willing to bet that many of the married folks reading this blog are related, too.

Below is the relationship chart that shows how my mother and father were cousins. Clearly their connection is distant since we begin our journey in the fifteenth century…

Relationship Chart: Judith Ellen Hinton to Howard Theodore Cole