Peggy's Related!

Dear Family,

I’ve just had so much fun this week, I have to share a series of events and the end result with you. Eldon started it! He wrote about the fact that one of the "big six" needs to later edit what Dad might tell the reporter should he interview him . . . like, if Dad tells him he was born in Allegany County, New York. Of course, Glen and I agree. We wouldn’t want anyone to remind Dad that it was his father who was born in Allegany County, not him, because it would only embarrass or frustrate him.

Then I got to thinking, I have family from Allegany County and maybe we’re related. So, I googled Allegany County where it gave me some of the history and a link to search for New York ancestry through ancestry.com. I searched for my great-great-grandfather, Loren Cleveland, who was born in Allegany County in 1824. Up came a pedigree chart that someone has submitted. It showed Loren’s great-grandparents Nathan and Lydia Hatch Abbott, which I have in my records, and many more names. But it rang a bell. I remember recently looking at pedigree charts on familysearch.org for Ella Tanner, and there was a Hatch line. So I compared the Hatch line on both the Tanners and the Clevelands and went back to Jonathan and Sarah Rowley Hatch, born in 1625—our 8^th great-grandparents!

Sooo, howdy cousins! I guess the term would more aptly be "kissin’ cousins", since we’re 9^th cousins. However, just to be safe, Glen and I have decided not to have children—wouldn’t want to risk the possibility of bringing idiots into the world!

Of course, anytime you find a pedigree online, whether it be on familysearch or ancestry or anywhere else, it is suspect. You still have to verify the information. However, I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to verify this one because what I found on the Cleveland’s goes back to Adam. I’ve always chuckled when someone tells me they have all their genealogy done clear back to Adam. My first reaction is to ask, "Do you have the documentation?" And besides, even if they did have their direct line back, there are still millions of names out there on the collateral lines. In other words, your genealogy is never done—and won’t be until the Savior comes again. Then we’ll discover that, indeed, we are all cousins!

The interesting thing is, we’re not related through the Sherwood’s, and it has nothing to do with Allegany County. Though since we both have early New England heritage, it would not be uncommon to find other relationships as well.