Sunday, December 03, 2006

I may eventually be able to claim common ancestry with someone not very popular

Renee Zamora wrote about BYU's Relationship Finder last week and I figured there would little chance I could use it. Then I remembered that the AVERY family of Connecticut was likely included.

As I've written before here and on my site, connecting myself to the AVERYs is a bit tenuous. It all depends on some admittedly thin evidence found on the SHIPMAN family. The SHIPMANs as a whole aren't exactly a researcher's dream, unless you're into that frustrating, hair-pulling kind of self-inflicted abuse. The conclusion reached by myself and others seems reasonable, but it's far from a slam dunk.

Anyway, I looked up the AFN for Margery AVERY, believed to be the grandmother of Charles SHIPMAN, who is the earliest SHIPMAN I know I descend from, and waited for the results.

I don't know what I expected to find, but at the bottom of the list were John HANCOCK (3rd cousin, once removed), George H. W. BUSH (4th cousin, 6 times removed) and George W. BUSH (4th cousin 7 times removed). The connection is through Richard INGRAHAM, someone I apparently need to research if/when I ever get serious about my New England and British roots.

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