Cousin to Boris Johnson - Oy Vey!

American Ancestors – the website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) – has released a press release on “The American Ancestry of Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Is Revealed by American Scholar”

The American scholar is Gary Boyd Roberts, Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at NEHGS. The press release and Gary Boyd Roberts' research suggests Johnson is descended from Samuel Lathrop and Elizabeth Scudder. I have posted before that I am not related to all Lathrop descendants, but I am related to Samuel Lathrop’s descendants through his wife Elizabeth Scudder. 

The American Ancestors article states:

Lathrop descendants include U.S. First Ladies Edith Kermit (Carow) Roosevelt and Nancy (Davis) Reagan; Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Laird Borden; the traitor Benedict Arnold; politicians William Jennings Bryan, Thomas E. Dewey, John Foster Dulles, and George and Mitt Romney; poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Jr.; inventor Eli Whitney; financier J. P. Morgan Jr.; artist Georgia O’Keeffe; composer Charles Ives; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith Jr.; Cecil B. DeMille and Agnes de Mille; aviator Amelia Earhart; and, among actors, Julie Harris, Clint Eastwood, Cissy Spacek, and Ben and Casey Affleck.

I’d have to conduct some research on those listed to see which Lathrops were their ancestors. From past research I’ve read, I believe Longfellow, Romney, and Holmes are all among my list of cousins.

We're Related Notable Kin Update

It's been a year since Ancestry released their We're Related mobile app.

The app has identified 151 celebrities who might be related to me.

• If the alleged ancestry for me is correct. 
• If the alleged ancestry for the celebrity is correct. 

It is based on Ancestry's collection of online family trees which are of highly variant accuracy.

Here is a selection of alleged kin Ancestry has identified for me. In the below cases, I have confirmed our alleged shared ancestor is actually my ancestor. (I haven't researched the alleged ancestries of the celebrity.) The alleged shared ancestor is emboldened.

Betts, Capt. Richard 1613-1713
1. Elizabeth Montgomery
2. Jim Varney
3. John Kerry
4. Johnny Depp
5. Mark Twain
6. Newt Gingrich
7. Tom Hanks
8. Truman Capote

Chamberlain, Joanna 1620-1711
[Note: Joanna Chamberlain married Capt. Richard Betts. Ancestry isn't consistent when choosing which spouse to list as the shared ancestor.]
9. Meryl Streep
10. Mitch McConnell
11. Bill Clinton

Chamberlain, Robert 1590-1639 
[Note: Robert Chamberlain married Elizabeth Stoughton. See below]
12. Stephen King
13. Theodore Roosevelt

Frederickse, Myndert 1640-1706 (Son of Frederick Van Iveren)
14. Vincent Price

Horton, Barnabas 1600-1680
15. Henry Fonda
16. Humphrey Bogart
17. Norman Rockwell

Horton, Barnabas 1666-1705
18. Tobey Maguire

Horton, Penelope 1690-1746
19. Robin Williams

Magdalena, Anna 1679-1734
20. Lindsey Buckingham

Rosenberger, Heinrich 1680-1746 
21. Blake Shelton

Schauer, Michael 1679-1710
22. Les Brown

Stoughton, Elizabeth 1600-1647
23. Ulysses S Grant

Swazey, John 1621-1692
24. Owen Hart
25. Amelia Earhart
26. Roy Orbison

Swazey, Joseph 1653-1717
27. Richard Gere
28. Warren Buffett

As I have noted in the past, I have not been able to research my ancestry back to John Lathrop, through his daughter Abigail, as the app alleges. However, John Lathrop's son, Samuel, married the daughter of my ancestor, Elizabeth Stoughton. Here are the celebrities that the app claims are Samuel's descendants. [While the app indicates our shared ancestor is John Lathrop, I know if the celebrity ancestry is accurate, we do share Elizabeth Stoughton as an ancestor, at an equal distance.]

1. Alec Baldwin
2. Billy the Kid
3. Carrie Underwood
4. Edgar Allan Poe
5. George H.W. Bush
6. George W Bush
7. Mitt Romney
8. Paul E Brown

There are a total of 36 individuals listed above. The other 115 allege an ancestor for me that I haven't yet been able to confirm. Nor have I found a workaround similar to the Lathrop-Stoughton connection. (It doesn't mean the app is wrong. I'm not claiming that my end-of-line research is anywhere near complete, but it does suggest a lot of the allegations are based on family trees where the researcher has made leaps without documentation.)

Ancestry "We're Related" Mobile App and Private Ancestors

I haven't blogged for awhile about Ancestry.com's mobile "We're Related" app for finding celebrity kin. Shortly after my list reached 100, I re-focused the app to find cousins for my wife. Lately it has been producing several ancestries that include "Private" ancestors. This makes no sense to me since the ancestors in question are all obviously deceased. I have "communicated" with Ancestry about it. By that I mean I have sent comments through their mobile app's feedback feature. I have received no responses. No indication anyone has read my queries. And this has been over a several month period.*

Anyway, today's "Possible Relative" is the most egregious of the examples. The "Common Ancestor" is marked private. So are the next two ancestors in both my wife's descent, and the celebrity's descent.

It would be cool if my wife did share a common ancestor with William Butler Yeats. It looks like the common ancestor might have the surname Taylor. However, in my opinion, whatever computer algorithm allows the app to even consider connections with ancestors that are marked 'private' should be eliminated from the code. Assuming the information comes from someone's Ancestry family tree, that they marked an obviously deceased individual as 'Private' should be a red flag that the information is questionable.

That said, my favorite part of the We're Related app is that it provides me with something to research. I like puzzles. In a fashion, this reminds me of diagramless crossword puzzles - which provide an even greater challenge than regular crossword puzzles.






* I sent feedback on this topic on March 21, April 29, May 8, and May 18. It's now been two months since the first message. None of these messages which I sent to the Ancestry Mobile App Team have received a response. The feedback on April 29 specifically requested some response to indicate someone was reading my feedback. The conclusion that I reach is that Ancestry has ceased supporting the app, even if they haven't made that announcement.

We're Related App - Categorization Error

Apparently, Ancestry's We're Related app places Richard Nixon in the "Politicians" category and not the "U.S. Presidents & Vice Presidents" category.



I'm fairly certain this is a coding error and not a political statement. But it is humorous.
Almost makes up for the appearance of him as a possible relative.
I have informed Ancestry using the Feedback app.

Including Nixon, the app has now informed me of 17 Presidents to whom I may be related. I am unable to verify both halves of the ancestry on any of them.

• Abraham Lincoln
• Barack Obama
• Bill Clinton
• Franklin Pierce
• George H.W. Bush
• George W. Bush
• George Washington
• Harry S Truman
• James Earl Carter
• James Madison
• Richard Nixon
• Ronald Reagan
• Rutherford B. Hayes
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Thomas Jefferson
• William H. Taft
• Zachary Taylor

There are two other presidents - FDR and Grant - to whom I am fairly certain I am related, but the app, so far, hasn't found. For these connections, I am trusting the research done by Gary Boyd Roberts in Ancestors of American Presidents, and my own research for my own ancestors. 

Degrees of Separation - Genealogical

Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are related Ancestry.com researchers recently announced.

Common Ancestor: John of Gaunt (1340-1399).
16th cousins, twice removed. 18 degrees of separation.

Media have reported John of Gaunt relationships before.
For example: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are 19th cousins.

If you have to go back to pre-Colonial aristocracy to find a common ancestor, the connection isn't noteworthy, in my opinion. 

Here are the fifty-one celebrities Ancestry’s We're Related app has currently alleged are related to me, sorted by degree of relationship. While I don't know for certain if it's true for everyone, for me at least, the app hasn't indicated any cousin relationship greater than 10th cousins, which limits cousins with a degree higher than 11 to mostly historical figures. (If a limit is coded for either cousin and/or times removed, 10 is psychologically a very likely choice.)

14 degrees (1)
• George Washington (6th cousin, 8x removed)

13 degrees (1)
• Benjamin Franklin (4th cousin, 9x removed)
• Jane Austen (7th cousin, 6x removed)

11 degrees (17)
• John Brown (4th cousin, 7x removed)
• Zachary Taylor (5th cousin, 6x removed)
• Helen Keller (8th cousin, 3x removed)
• Henry David Thoreau (8th cousin, 3x removed)
• Walt Disney (8th cousin, 3x removed)
• Ann Coulter (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Avril Lavigne (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Bill Clinton (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Britney Spears (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Carrie Underwood (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Elon Musk (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Jake Gyllenhaal (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Johnny Depp (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Kate Upton (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Meghan Trainor (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Peyton Manning (9th cousin, 2x removed)
• Willie Nelson (9th cousin, 2x removed)

10 degrees (19)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (6th cousin, 4x removed)
• Rutherford B Hayes (6th cousin, 4x removed)
• Thomas Edison (7th cousin, 3x removed)
• Abraham Lincoln (8th cousin, 2x removed)
• Johnny Cash (8th cousin, 2x removed)
• Warren Buffet (8th cousin, 2x removed)
• Bill Gates (9th cousin, 1x removed)
• Harry S Truman (9th cousin, 1x removed)
• Matt Damon (9th cousin, 1x removed)
• Sarah Palin (9th cousin, 1x removed)
• Virgil Grissom (9th cousin, 1x removed)
• Christina Aguilera (10th cousin)
• Elvis Presley (10th Cousin)
• Harry Reid (10th Cousin)
• Jessica Simpson (10th cousin)
• Lady Gaga (10th cousin)
• Mitch McConnell (10th cousin)
• Ronald Reagan (10th cousin)
• Stephen King (10th cousin)

9 degrees (8)
• Mark Twain (6th cousin, 3x removed)
• Edgar Allan Poe (7th cousin, 2x removed)
• Barack Obama (8th cousin, 1x removed)
• Dolly Parton (8th cousin, 1x removed)
• George HW Bush (8th cousin, 1x removed)
• Mitt Romney (8th cousin, 1x removed)
• John Kerry (9th cousin)
• Marilyn Monroe (9th cousin)
• Meryl Streep (9th cousin)

8 degrees (1)
• Kevin Bacon

I do find it somewhat ironic that the celebrity of the closest degree of separation for me is Kevin Bacon. The We're Related app appears to lean slightly towards living celebrities. However, Patrick Swayze, if he gets added to the database, will be a 7th-degree relationship for me. (7th cousins)

While he wrote the screenplays for Murders in the Rue Morgue and Captains Courageous, among others, Dale Van Every may not quite have the celebrity status necessary to appear in this database. If he did, he'd only be five degrees separated. (3rd cousins, twice removed) It's possible my grandmother met her third cousin, but that's a different post.

We're Related: Elvis Presley?

The latest celebrity kin Ancestry's mobile app has suggested for me is Elvis Presley. This interests me primarily since this is the first Dutch shared ancestry that has appeared.

All of my celebrity kin are through my maternal grandmother's VanEvery ancestry, but most of them branch off from the VanEvery line with my second great grandmother Abigail Stuart, who married Samuel VanEvery. A few branch off with Sarah Showers, my fourth great grandmother, wife of David VanEvery. However, while those lineages travel through my VanTock ancestors, they end up with alleged ancestors named Pierce, Cole and Rice, suggesting we're still in the Commonwealth.

My alleged connection to Elvis travels through Elizabeth Meyer, wife of my 7th great grandfather, Burger VanIveren.  Meyer isn't necessarily a Dutch surname, and I notice that the information above doesn't include a date of birth or death for Elizabeth, suggesting that the connection to Henrickje Hermans might not be heavily documented. There's also the issue of the possible Non-Paternity Event in my VanEvery line around McGregory VanEvery.

****

I've revised the spreadsheet I've created for documenting the celebrity kin from the Ancestry app. I am now indicating the furthest ancestor I have confirmed in my alleged lineage, and how many generations there are between that ancestor and the alleged shared ancestor. This will tell me where I need to begin my research.

Since I wasn't writing this down at first, before the App reinitialized my data, there are several blanks. I assumed I would have the charts the app provides for future reference, but this was an incorrect assumption.



It appears, if my goal is to confirm the most celebrity kin, I should focus my attention on Abigail Clark's ancestors. (That isn't actually my goal.)

Note: Some genealogy bloggers have indicated that their biggest complaint with the App is that it extends their lines back further than they have researched. (Using connections they either know are wrong, or at least highly unlikely.) I admit, that's my favorite part of the App. I certainly don't trust the information the App provides, but it provides me with something to research. And it is partly my joy of researching (almost anything) that propels my genealogy obsession.

Also, I haven't done a lot of "End-of-Line" research on some of these ancestors so I am more likely to be helped in this regard than some other researchers.

Ancestry We're Related Update

It’s been two weeks since the software glitch that reinitialized my We’re Related celebrity connections. I haven’t heard back from the customer service team beyond  their initial response that they hoped to have a fix within a week. However, my connections have been rebuilding at their former pace, and as I suspected, a handful of new connections are being presented along with some they had previously informed me about. (In addition to two new alleged celebrity cousins, several of those in the first batch have been presented to me with new, closer, shared ancestors.)

Current matches, relationships, alleged shared ancestors, and notes:
1. Bill Gates – 9th cousin 1x removed – Hannah Gore (A)
2. Meghan Trainor – 9th cousin 2x removed – John Lathrop
3. Lady Gaga – 10th cousin – Sarah Purrier (B)
4. Britney Spears – 9th cousin 2x removed – John Smith
5. Marilyn Monroe – 9th cousin – Ruth Wheldon (C)
6. Johnny Depp – 9th cousin 2x removed – Capt. Richard Betts
7. Matt Damon – 9th cousin 1x removed – James Clark
8. Jessica Simpson – 10th cousin – Gabriel Wheldon
9. Christina Aguilera – 10th cousin – Barnabas Wines
10. Walt Disney – 8th cousin 3x removed – Rice Cole (D)
11. Ronald Reagan – 10th cousin – Thomasine Constable
12. John Kerry – 9th Cousin – Capt Richard Betts (E)
13. Bill Clinton – 9th cousin 2x removed – Mary Iddenden (F)
14. Stephen King – 10th Cousin – Robert Chamberlain (G)
15. Ben Franklin – 4th Cousin 9x Removed – Sir William Jones (H)
16. Ralph Waldo Emerson – 6th cousin 4 x removed – Gabriel Wheldon (I)
17. Carrie Underwood - 9th cousin 2x removed - John Lathrop
18. Abraham Lincoln - 8th cousin 2x removed - Thomas Taylor
19. Mark Twain - 6th cousin 3x removed - Capt. Richard Betts

A) Bill Gates had been listed as my 9th cousin 2x removed with Susannah Hinckley as our alleged shared ancestor. A closer relationship appears to have been found.
B) Lady Gaga had been listed as my 10th cousin with Thomas Mapes as our alleged shared ancestor. I think the new relationship is the same, except they have now decided to provide Thomas Mapes’ wife as the shared ancestor.
C) Marilyn Monroe had been listed as my 9th cousin 1x removed with our alleged shared ancestor Thomas Burgess. Here too, a closer relationship appears to have been found.
D) Walt Disney had been listed as my 9th cousin 1x removed with Rose Kerrich as our shared ancestor. I consider 8th cousin 3x removed to be more distant, but it is possible the app doesn’t.
E) This is the confirmed relationship that I already knew about for John Kerry, with shared ancestors Capt. Richard Betts and Joanna Chamberlain (daughter of Robert Chamberlain and Elizabeth Stoughton). Closer than the alleged 9th cousin 1x removed with shared ancestor Thomas Clarke.
F) Bill Clinton is a new alleged cousin. Mary Iddenden doesn't appear in his ancestry in the 2009 edition of Ancestors of American Presidents. I haven't confirmed Mary Iddenden as my ancestor, either.
G) Stephen King is a new alleged cousin. I can confirm my descent from Robert Chamberlain and Joanna Stoughton. Stephen King appeared on Finding your Roots, and the app's suggested lineage for King carries the ancestry researched on the show back several more generations, and the ancestry at several online sites stops where Finding Your Roots stops. So I find the lineage for him alleged by the app to be doubtful.
H) Ben Franklin had been listed as my 6th cousin 7x removed with alleged shared ancestor Cecilia Nevill. I consider 4th cousin 9x removed to be equidistant, but I suspect the app considers it closer.
I) Emerson had been listed as my 6th cousin 4x removed with alleged shared ancestor Mary Durrant. This is equidistant.

Ancestry We're Related Sofware Glitch

Saturday I checked my Ancestry We’re Related app and was told I had 0 celebrity matches.

Here’s the chart of 40 celebrity matches I had on Friday.

I spent four years as a programmer in a corporate IT department and understand software glitches happen. I sent some feedback. Was told they were hopeful to have a fix this week. I’m cool with it. It's not like I'm paying anything for the mobile app, and I consider it mostly entertainment. Though I am researching the shared ancestries to see if I can add on to my ahnentafel.

Later Saturday I received an initial 5 celebrities which are up to 7 this morning. If the fix doesn’t restore the former matches as a bunch, but instead at the former rate of approximately one match a day, it will be interesting to see if new matches are added in with the old, as one might expect if the process is random, or whether there is some method to the order in which the matches are announced. Currently, all 7 were part of my original 40. (Though they are not a 1-1 match of my original 7)

I have also noticed the relationships aren’t exactly the same for all matches.
It is conceivable that the changes and the software glitch may be connected.

Current matches, relationships, and alleged shared ancestor:
• Bill Gates – 9th cousin 1x removed – Hannah Gore (*)
• Meghan Trainor – 9th cousin 2x removed – John Lathrop
• Lady Gaga – 10th cousin – Sarah Purrier (**)
• Britney Spears – 9th cousin 2x removed – John Smith
• Marilyn Monroe – 9th cousin – Ruth Wheldon (***)
• Johnny Depp – 9th cousin 2x removed – Capt. Richard Betts
• Matt Damon – 9th cousin 1x removed – James Clark

* Bill Gates was listed as my 9th cousin 2x removed with Susannah Hinckley as my shared ancestor. A closer relationship appears to have been found.
** Lady Gaga was listed as my 10th cousin with Thomas Mapes as our shared ancestor. I think the relationship is the same, except they have now decided to provide Thomas Mapes’ wife as the shared ancestor.
*** Marilyn Monroe was listed as my 9th cousin 1x removed with the shared ancestor of Thomas Burgess. Here too, a closer relationship appears to have been found.

Lathrops, Scudders and Stoughtons (oh my!)

Gary Boyd Roberts (GBR), NEHGS researcher, in his article, #22 Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources: Notable Descendants of the Immigrant Stoughton Siblings of Massachusetts writes:

[Referring to Samuel Lathrop, 1623-1700]

Samuel’s first wife, the mother of his children, was Elizabeth Scudder, a sister of John Scudder of Barnstable, and known through the will of an English divine to be related somehow to the Scudders of Long Island. The new discoveries and immigrant kinsmen that vastly expand this clan are through Elizabeth Scudder, and the initial report of these discoveries appeared in the 75th anniversary issue of The American Genealogist (October 1997) in an article by Register editor Jane Fletcher Fiske.… 

Jane Fiske discovered from Strood, Kent parish registers, the will of Reverend Henry Scudder, a marriage record of John Scudder and Elizabeth Stoughton, and other sources, some already published in TAG or in publications of the Scudder Family Association, that Elizabeth Scudder, wife of Samuel Lathrop, was the daughter of the above John Scudder and Elizabeth Stoughton, a sister of Thomas and Israel Stoughton of Dorchester, Mass.

I have traced my ancestry back to Rev. Thomas Stoughton and his wife Katherine, parents of Thomas, Israel, and Elizabeth above.

Rev. Thomas Stoughton's daughter, Elizabeth, had two husbands:
1) John Scudder
2) Robert Chamberlayne

I am descended from Elizabeth and Robert Chamberlayne

All of Samuel and Elizabeth (Scudder) Lathrop's descendants are kin to me through her mother, Elizabeth Stoughton Scudder Chamberlayne.

I have been unable to prove my Ancestry We're Related mobile app alleged connection with Samuel Lathrop's father, John Lathrop. However, for those celebrities with whom I'm alleged to share him as our common ancestor - if Samuel is their ancestor - I know I would also share the ancestor, Elizabeth Stoughton. The same distance. (Though some could argue we don't share the same husband of Elizabeth so it isn't exactly the same relationship. But I think #Cousin xRemoved stays the same.)

This could also explain why Ancestry is giving me the Lathrop connection (which I can't confirm), and not the Stoughton connection (which I can).

So far, according to Ancestry's mobile app, I am kin in this manner to Edgar Allan Poe, Carrie Underwood, George HW Bush, and his offspring. However, William Addams Reitwiesner, and GBR's Ancestry of American Presidents (2009), indicate George HW Bush's ancestor wasn't Samuel Lathrop, but his brother, Thomas. So Ancestry's mobile app is wrong, and I wouldn't be related to the Bushes unless John Lathrop were my ancestor. I am uncertain about Edgar Allan Poe or Carrie Underwood.

Ancestry We're Related Famous Kin

I have created a table containing the celebrities that Ancestry's We're Related app has told me might be kin, including the alleged shared ancestor, alleged relationship, and whether I have confirmed my half of the ancestry, disproven my half, or more research is needed. (I have no desire to spend time researching the ancestry of celebrities just to see if they share my ancestors. However, I do find it worthwhile to research my own ancestors and see if what Ancestry family trees suggest might be accurate.) 

Celebrity	Alleged Shared Ancestor	Alleged Relationship	Y/N/?
Warren Buffett	Swazey, Jospeh 1653-1717	8th Cousin 2x Removed	Y
Mark Twain	Betts, Capt. Richard 1613-1713	6th Cousin 3x Removed	Y
Johnny Depp	Betts, Capt. Richard 1613-1713	9th Cousin 2x Removed	Y
Marilyn Monroe	Burgess, Thomas 1601-1685	9th Cousin 1x Removed	?
Winston Churchill	Clark, James 1608-1674	8th Cousin, 1x Removed	?
Matt Damon	Clark, James 1608-1674	9th Cousin 1x Removed	?
Thomas Paine	Clarke, Katherine 1515-1553	7th Cousin 6x Removed	?
John Kerry	Clarke, Thomas 1570-1627	9th Cousin 1x Removed	?
Henry David Thoreau	Clarke, William 1553-1624	8th Cousin 3x Removed	?
Ronald Reagan	Constable, Thomasine 1605-1682	10th Cousin	?
Ralph Waldo Emerson	Durrant, Mary 1599-1631	6th Cousin 4x Removed	?
Bill Gates	Hinckley, Susannah 1625-1675	9th Cousin 2x Removed	?
Helen Keller	Jewell, Thomas 1608-1654	8th Cousin 3x Removed	?
Walt Disney	Kerrich, Rose 1572-1627	9th Cousin 1x Removed	?
Carrie Underwood	Lathrop, John 1584-1653	9th Cousin 2x Removed	?
Meghan Trainor	Lathrop, John 1584-1653	9th Cousin 2x Removed	?
Lady Gaga	Mapes, Thomas 1628-1687	10th Cousin	?
Benjamin Franklin	Nevill, Cecilia 1488-1573	6th Cousin 7x Removed	?
Kate Upton	Pierce, Timothy 1673-1748	8th Cousin 3x Removed	?
Kevin Bacon	Smith, Samuel 1644-1719	7th Cousin 1x Removed	?
Justin Bieber	Smith, John 1614-1710	9th Cousin 2x Removed	?
Britney Spears	Smith, John 1614-1710	9th Cousin 2x Removed	?
Abraham Lincoln	Taylor, Thomas 1574-1618	8th Cousin 2x Removed	?
Zachary Taylor	Taylor, Thomas 1574-1618	4th Cousin 6x Removed	?
Jessica Simpson	Wheldon, Gabriel 1600-1655	10th Cousin	?
Christina Aguilera	Wines, Barnabas 1600-1679	10th Cousin	?

Notes

1) All of the above alleged shared ancestors are ancestors through my maternal grandmother, Myrtle Vanevery, and all but two are ancestors through my second great grandmother, Abigail Stuart, who was the second wife of Samuel Vanevery. Timothy Pierce (my shared ancestor with Kate Upton) and Thomas Jewell (my shared ancestor with Helen Keller) are alleged ancestors of my 4th great grandmother Sarah Showers, who married David Vanevery.

2) Perhaps more interesting to me than the links that have been provided are the links that haven't yet been provided. I have long known I am related to several celebrities through my Stoughton ancestry. (Also ancestors of Abigail Stuart) The Stoughtons are in my database. But none of these celebrities have appeared. (John Kerry has, but through a different alleged shared ancestor.)

3) I'm sure I have famous kin through the lines of my other three grandparents, but the documents necessary to trace my (and their) ancestry back far enough is currently undiscovered in Eastern Europe, if not completely lost. I know of three paternal cousins with Wikipedia pages, though not quite with the name recognition of the individuals above. Two more are already mentioned several times on Wikipedia, and separate bio pages could probably be written by someone, and not be deleted.

Hillary and The Donald are 19th Cousins? Yawn.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are allegedly 19th cousins
Let's just say, even if true, this isn't very surprising.
The genealogists had to go back to the 1300s to find a common ancestor. (John of Gaunt, son of Edward III)

I believe I am 11th cousins, or closer, with, among others:

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Ulysses Simpson Grant
• George Romney (and his son, Mitt Romney)
• John Kerry
• Anthony Perkins
• Cary Elwes
• Ann Bradford Davis
• Clint Eastwood
• Shirley Temple
• Debbie Reynolds (and her daughter, Carrie Fisher)
• Patrick Swayze
• William Holden
• Viggio Peter Mortensen, Jr.
• Ashley Judd
• Fred Rogers
• Lillian Gish
• Hart Crane
• Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Orson Scott Card
• Alfred Kinsey

I am happier about the relationship with certain individuals above than I am others.

Note: All of the above, and I, allegedly share a common ancestor, Thomas Stoughton (1557-1620)

If someone can trace their ancestry back to 17th century New England, it is very likely one can find similar relatives to the ones I listed. Maybe not the same ones, but similar ones.

There was a website that claimed Geoffrey Chaucer was my 18th Great Grandfather. They were almost definitely wrong. Lots of genealogical information on the internet is wrong. (I might be descended from William de la Pole, 1st Duke of  Suffolk, who married Chaucer's granddaughter, but the descent would be through his illegitimate offspring. However, there are other problems with the alleged descent.) I am confident I trace my ancestry back to the Stoughtons. I am not confident that all of the famous people listed above can do so. But others claim to have done the research. (Note: I am most confident about Patrick Swayze, since I have Swayze ancestors, as well. We're 7th cousins.)

SNGF: Relationship Calculator

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission:

1) Open up the genealogy software program of your choice.
2) Think about two special people in your family tree (your parents? your spouse? a famous person? a distant cousin? yourself?).
3) Use the Relationship Calculator in the software to determine the relationship between the two special people. If you don't know where to find the Relationship Calculator, go to the Help button and find out. Follow the directions!

I was going to plot the relationship between my maternal grandmother, Myrtle Van Every (who chose to follow Christian Science) and Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.  I hadn't entered Mary Baker Eddy into my database, but I figured perhaps I would.  First step was to actually see if a quick internet search turned up any possible holes in Ancestry Family Tree's relationship chart.

Ancestry Family Trees has their relationship as 7th cousins, once removed.  (Link is a list of all the notable individuals to whom they claim my grandmother is related.  You can then follow the links it provides to the relationship charts.  Some of them are more likely than others.)

I had high hopes for Mary Baker Eddy, but even quick research suggests Ancestry may have it wrong.

Gary Boyd Roberts, Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the New England Historic Genealogical Society has an article including some of Eddy's ancestry.  In his notes he states that an earlier work [The Ancestry of Mary Baker Eddy (1924)] is flawed on the Pikes, Ambroses and Lovejoys.  However, the ancestors he lists matches Ancestry's for the first three generations of Ambroses, and one generation of Hoyts.  That's where his list ends.  [Even though his stated goal was to go five generations, where possible, so it seems he isn't sure of the next generation.] In his sources he lists: [A Genealogical History of the Hoyt, Haight and Hight Families (1871, reprint 1984)] which I found in Google Books.

Even though Gary Boyd Roberts doesn't appear sure of Hannah's parents, Ancestry trees says Hannah Hoyt's grandfather, Thomas Hoyt married a Mary Brown, daughter of Richard Brown and Hannah King.

The Hoyt, Haight and Hight Families says that Thomas Hoyt married a Mary Brown, daughter of "William and Elisabeth Brown of Salisbury."  Putting this link in doubt, unfortunately puts my grandmother's relationship to her 'spiritual leader' in doubt.

Here's a post I wrote last year on how I and Patrick Swayze are seventh cousins.  That relationship is much more likely.  Though, interestingly, Ancestry Trees doesn't know about it. [Patrick, for some reason, doesn't appear in OneWorldTree, which I think is a requirement for someone to be listed under 'famous relatives'.]

Sometimes I think to myself, "You should just accept everything you see on the internet; it's much more fun that way."  Unfortunately, I have an interest in the truth.

How Patrick Swayze and I are Seventh Cousins

Actor, Patrick Swayze died today, September 14, 2009, at age 57. [source] This didn't come as a surprise, as the world has known he was struggling with Cancer since March of 2008. Still, many had hoped he would find a way to evade the disease.

Two years ago, I confirmed the Swayzes in my family tree intersected with his ancestry.

Below, using the ahnentafel numbering format, is our relationship:

1 Patrick Wayne Swayze 2 Jesse Wayne Swayze 3 Patsy Yvonne Helen Karnes 4 Jesse Elijah Swayze 5 Mamie Bell Johnson 8 James Wesley Swayze 9 Sarah Elizabeth McDonald 16 Alexander P. Swayze 17 Amanda M. F. Littleton 32 James Swayze 33 Elizabeth Starke 64 Samuel Swayze Jr. 65 Elizabeth Putnam 128 Rev. Samuel Swayze 129 Hannah Horton 256 Judge Samuel Swayze 257 Penelope Horton

1 Me 2 Dad 3 Mom 6 Martin Joel Deutsch 7 Myrtle Van Every 14 Melvin Van Every 15 Mary Jane Denyer 28 Samuel Van Every 29 Abigail Stuart 58 Elihu Stuart 59 Johanna Swayze 118 Israel Swayze 119 Abigail Coleman 236 Israel Swayze 237 Mary Pitney 472 Judge Samuel Swayze 473 Penelope Horton

Judge Samuel Swayze's record at sweezey.com

[You should be able to trace backwards Patrick's lineage from there, and mine to Abigail Stuart.]

Canadian Ancestry

I missed the first edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival back in September. My entry for the second edtion will actually be appropriate for both topics.

First Edition: Introduce us to your Canadian ancestors.
Second Edition: Tell us about famous Canadians in your family.

"The first Loyalist settler in Upper Canada may have been Michael Showers. On May 30, 1781, Captain Walter Butler reported from Niagara that 'an old man in the Rangers named Michael Showers' had been permitted, although still fit for service, to build himself a house, and had begun planting and 'Commencing Farmer'" -- From "Loyalist Narratives from Upper Canada", by James J. Talman, 1946, p. xl

Michael Showers' daughter, Sarah, married David Van Every, the son of McGregor Van Every, another early Loyalist settler of Niagara. David and Sarah Van Every were my 4th great grandparents. Their son, Andrew Van Every, lived and died in Canada. Andrew's son, Samuel, returned to America in the mid-19th century, though he had siblings and cousins who remained in Canada.

Does First Loyalist Settler of Upper Canada qualify as a 'famous ancestor?' Some might accept it. Others might ask for some broader name recognition. In that case I need to move away from direct ancestors, and toward the Stoughton Descendants I've blogged about before. If I need a famous cousin, that will always be a good place to start. Through my Stoughton ancestry I am related to the Marquesses of Dufferin. While this is an Irish peerage, it began with Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Earl of Dufferin, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, who served as Governor General of Canada.

Lord Dufferin served as Governor General of Canada during a period of rapid change in Canadian history. During his term, Prince Edward Island was admitted to Confederation, and several well-known Canadian institutions, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Royal Military College of Canada, and the Intercolonial Railway, were established.

I will assume that satisfies any definition.

I am as proud as any American can be of their United Empire Loyalist heritage. As I like to point out, there is nothing wrong with loyalty. It is usually the loyal who are considered patriotic. The Revolutionaries were the ones who committed treason. Of course, when the treasonous are successful, they get to write the history and instantly they become the patriots.

I also have some Newmark ancestors who were in Canada for 3 months in 1907.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin's genealogy

I thought I could focus my attentions elsewhere, and then Tom Kemp on his GenealogyBank blog says he's a cousin to Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, and that she is descended from a Rev John Lathrop. I remembered Lathrops interconnecting with the descendants of Rev. Thomas and Katherine Stoughton, of which I am one as well. Kemp provided no links to any sources, so I had to go looking myself, and I didn't find anything I could trust.

I found her in the Dowling Family Genealogy at WorldConnect. Dowling doesn't have her descended from the Stoughtons. And I found Dowling's pedigree for my ancestor Samuel Swayze, and our lines as he has them don't seem to intersect.

Why don't I trust Tim Dowling's research? I have no idea who he is beyond his heady claim to be related to every single president of the United States. His pedigree for my ancestor Samuel Swayze says that Robert Chamberlain, who married Elizabeth Stoughton, is descended from the first three Kings Henry. Which is all well and good. But William Addams Reitweisner doesn't make the claim that John Kerry is. He provides no known parents for Robert Chamberlain. even though he carries Kerry's other lines a couple more generations. Surely if Reitweisner could find some reliable sources for Chamberlain's parents, he would have.

Further, I lack confidence in Dowling's attention to sources, as he often doesn't provide sources, especially with earlier generations. Since I don't trust his claim of Heath's ancestry, and I can't find her genealogy anywhere else, until I do find a source with a little more credibility, I am happy to accept that I might not be related to the Alaskan Governor.

Note: I missed a post at GeneaMusings on Friday. Randy linked to Robert Battle's Ahnentafel for Sarah Palin. Battle provides sources, and notably doesn't go any further back than 1600.

More Famous Kin

Several months ago I browsed through Gary Boyd Roberts' Ancestries of American Presidents.

Gary Boyd Roberts is an American Geenalogist known for his scholarship in Americans of royal descent, the ancestors of American presidents, and notable kin. Roberts is the retired Senior Research Scholar of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). (Wikipedia)

Today I discovered this article he wrote: Notable Descendants of the Immigrant Stoughton Siblings of Massachusetts

This provides some documentation to extend the ancestry of Joanna Chamberlain (mentioned a couple posts ago) a couple more generations back, and provides an extensive list of cousins. In this article Roberts doesn't provide detailed genealogies, but does provide a long list of names filled with fun. (And maybe, since Roberts himself is a descendant, I'll be able to find some more detailed charts in one of his books.)

While I insist I am more interested in other genealogical pursuits, I can't deny that it is fun to find out I am distant cousins with all of these individuals. A personal genealogy page at FamilyTreeMaker Online has a detailed descent chart, with even more names. It quotes the Gary Boyd Roberts article, but I'm not certain where the details come from, so I can't be as confident with the information.

Here's a selection of Stoughton descendants according to the sources above.

Presidents
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Ulysses Simpson Grant

Other Political
Mitt Romney
George Romney
John Kerry
Patrick Buchanan
Adlai Stevenson III (son of Presidential contender)
John Foster Dulles
Thomas Dewey
Pierre Dupont IV
Hamilton Fish

Actors
Matthew Langford Perry (Chandler, Friends)
William Christopher (Father Mulcahy, M*A*S*H)
Kyra Sedgwick (Brenda Johnson, The Closer)
James Osgood Perkins (Johnny Lovo, Scarface)
Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates, Psycho)
Osgood Robert Perkins (Young Norman, Psycho II)
Cary Elwes (Westley, Princess Bride)
Ann Bradford Davis (Alice, The Brady Bunch)
Clint Eastwood (Harry Callahan, Dirty Harry)
Barbara Babcock (Dorothy Jennings, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Tuesday Weld (Thalia Menninger, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis)
Shirley Temple (Marthy Jane, Little Miss Marker)
Robert Bushnell Ryan (John Claggart, Billy Budd)
Debbie Reynolds (Kathy Selden, Singin in the Rain)
Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia, Star Wars)
Thomas Edward Hulce (W.A. Mozart, Amadeus)
Patrick Swayze (Johnny Castle, Dirty Dancing)
William Holden (David Larrabee, Sabrina)
Jane Wyatt (Margaret Anderson, Father Knows Best)
Viggio Peter Mortensen, Jr. (Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings)
Ashley Judd (Linda Porter, De-Lovely)
Amanda Peet (Jack Barrett, Jack and Jill)
Margaret Sullavan (Patricia Hollmann, Three Comrades)
Fred Rogers (Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood)
Malcolm Atterbury (Al Malone, The Birds)
Lillian Gish (Elsie Stoneman, Birth of A Nation)
Dorothy Gish (Nell Gwyn, Nell Gwynne)
Ralph Bellamy (FDR, The Winds of War & War and Remembrance)

Poets, Artists, Novelists
Hart Crane
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Orson Scott Card

Other
Benedict Arnold
Alfred Kinsey

Anyone should be satisfied with this list of cousins, so now I can focus my genealogical attention elsewhere.

Who's Correct?

WARGS has the ancestry of Jane Wyman

My parents have told me before that I am not related to Jane Wyman. Of course, they were talking about my paternal ancestry at the time. I recently posted a photograph of my great grandfather, Morris Blatt, who married a Belle Wyman, who died in Poland.

Reagan's former wife wasn't born with the name Jane Wyman, though. She was Sarah Jane Mayfield.

According to WARGS, however, she is descended from:
472 Caleb Horton
473 Phoebe Terry

Caleb's sister was Penelope Horton, who married Samuel Swayze. You see them in my descent in the previous post.

However, LongIslandGenealogy.com, says the parents of Penelope and Caleb Horton were Barnabas Horton and Sarah Wines (This Barnabas being the grandson of Barnabas Horton and Mary Langton mentioned in my previous post)


WARGS says that Caleb's parents were:
944 Jonathan Horton
945 Bethia Welles

At least one of them is wrong.

Related to...

Randy at Geneamusings writes about his lack of cousinhood to Joe Biden.

I've been to WARGS before. (Acronym for William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services) However, I didn't browse through the lineage of every politician and celebrity he's researched on the site. (That would take awhile, and I still haven't.) However, spurred by Randy's post, I searched a few more genealogies today. Trusting his research, I am ninth cousins with Senator John Kerry. (This would have been nice to know 4 years ago.)

Below is a table illustrating our shared ancestry, with ahnentafel numbers.

John Kerry's Descent

My descent

8th Great Grandparents 1578 Capt. Richard Betts 1579 Joanna Chamberlain 7th Great Grandparents 788 Capt. Joseph Sackett 789 Elizabeth Betts 6th Great Grandparents 394 Joseph Sackett 395 Hannah Alsop 5th Great Grandparents 196 Col. Jacob Blackwell 197 Frances Sackett 4th Great Grandparents 98 Joseph Blackwell 99 Mary Hazard 3rd Great Grandparents 48 Col. James Grant Forbes 49 Frances Elizabeth Blackwell 2nd Great Grandparents 24 Rev. John Murray Forbes 25 Anne Howell Great Grandparents 12 Francis Blackwell Forbes 13 Isabel Clark Grandparents 6 James Grant Forbes 7 Margaret Tyndal Winthrop Parents 2 Richard John Kerry 3 Rosemary Isabel Forbes 1 John Forbes Kerry

8th Great Grandparents 1890 Capt. Richard Betts 1891 Joanna Chamberlain 7th Great Grandparents 944 Joseph Swazey 945 Mary Betts 6th Great Grandparents 472 Samuel Swayze 473 Penelope Horton 5th Great Grandparents 236 Israel Swayze 237 Mary Pitney 4th Great Grandparents 118 Israel Swayze 119 Abigail Coleman 3rd Great Grandparents 58 Elihu Stuart 59 Johanna Swayze 2nd Great Grandparents 28 Samuel Van Every 29 Abigail Stewart Great Grandparents 14 Melvin Van Every 15 Mary Jane Denyer Grandparents 6 Martin Deutsch 7 Myrtle Van Every Parents 2 Dad 3 Mom 1 Me

After showing Kerry's ancestry, Reitwiesner takes selected ancestors and mentions other people descended from the same, and behold, he chooses Betts and Chamberlain. So I know I am also related to actors Thomas Edward Hulce, and William Franklin Beedle (better known as William Holden.) I already knew about Patrick Swayze. And apprently, Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Henry Seward (Responsible for the purchase of Alaska), is also a descendant.

Interestingly, Reitwiesner doesn't talk about other descendants of Kerry's ancestors:

3534 Barnabas Horton
3535 Mary Langton

I am also descended from them (as is Patrick Swayze, William Holden, and William Henry Seward) All of us are more closely related through Betts and Chamberlain. However, descended from Horton and Langton is also Anna Tuthill Symmes, the wife of William Henry Harrison, and grandmother of Benjamin Harrison. At least according to the research at Sweezey.com