Could any Dopers be secretly related?

In My Humble Opinion
1

In the last couple of years, I’ve gotten into my family’s geneaology somewhat, and it occurred to me that what with pedigree collapse and whatnot, some of us might actually be related without knowing it! So, just for the fun of it, I thought I’d post a few facts and see if anyone recognizes anything.

On my mother’s side, I have well-documented roots in West Virginia (and, previously, Virginia) dating back to 1801.

The following counties are most represented: Barbour, Braxton, Kanawha, Harrison, Pendleton, Upshur

The following cities are most represented: Kanawha Run, Abbott, Wilsontown, Gypsy, Shinnston, McWhorter, Fall Run, Buckhannon

The following surnames are most common among my ancestors: Williams, Hyre, Hardman, Lane, Casto, Riley, Dennison

The most detailed information I have on a distant ancestor is for Solomon Williams, 1830-1906. Solomon fought for the Union during the Civil War as part of Battery E, First WV Light Artillery, and participated in the Battle of Buckhannon.

Solomon married Rachel Hyre, and they had seven children: Margaret, Mary, Emily, Henry, Delila, Charles and Jackson.

Anyone recognize anything, or want to post information of their own?

2

Brother pldennison!!! :slight_smile:

Hehe…just kidding. Bet I had you scared you there for a second though :smiley:

3

considering the sheer volume of members, I’d * expect * an unknowing relation or two.

4

Well, I know that at least one Doper has the surname of a member of my family (Miller), but considering what a common name it is, I highly doubt there’s a relation.

Zev Steinhardt

5

No Lendervedder throughout the history of our universe has ever learned to read (aside from ol’ Happy here), so if I have any relations on the Internet, they most assuredly are looking at porn.
Happy, off to join his web-surfing relations

6

I had a brief moment of panic when a Doper using a nickname sometimes used by my youngest sister posted asking for advice relating to her sex life. Luckily for my health and peace of mind, the poster also mentioned her age and region, and neither matched my sister.

I asked my sister later, and she said she doesn’t use that nickname online anymore anyway.

7

No one in my family is a computer-addicted as I am, so I’d bet big $$$ that none have ever visited this site.

8

Hmm. Kessler, Murray, Foster, Frieseke, Stookey, Wilkinson, Alden, … I used to know more of these.

Geography-wise, county Cork, Owosso Michigan, various areas of New Jersey, … again, I used to know a lot more.

And as for detailed information, don’t get me started on mini-biographies of my ancestors … my maternal and paternal grandfathers wsere both semi-avid genealogists and my father’;s oldest sister is as well.

It was freaky when I discovered through a book called “Out of the Blue Ridge” that I was related to my roommate freshman year of college…

9

Any of y’all have ancestors from Prince Edward Island or Northern New England?

10

Hmmm, when I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was gonna be the sort of thing like “December and Wildest Bill, switched at birth”.

But, as for relations - well, I’ve only got 6 people in the US who are biologically related to me (that I know of - my mom’s side disowned her, and we don’t have any info about them). Since one of the 6 is over 80, and two are under 14, I really, really doubt any of 'em are dopers.

11

Most common last name, maternal side: Blaney. If you’ve Blaney ancestors from anywhere in the Northeast, especially New York and Ohio (I know that’s not really the northeast, but…), you’re probably related to me.

Most common last name, paternal side: Werkheiser. Pennsylvania Dutch. There can’t be that many people with that odd of a name who aren’t related… ?

12

My paternal grandmother’s family lived on PEI. She was a schoolteacher there until she met my grandfather (would’ve been 'round about 1900-1910-ish), who was pretty fresh off the boat from Ireland. They moved to the Dorchester/Roxbury area of MA, where my dad grew up and met my mom.

My mom’s grandparents were off the boat from Italy, and they and their kids lived in the same area of Dorchester/Roxbury.

13

I do know we’ve got a lot of really distant cousins around here. Well of course I mean we’re all very distant cousins somehow but I mean people who both descend from say, King John I of England and stuff.

As for closer relations (I’m also really into genealogy but my family has never stayed put) none of my closer relatives would be here so I’d have to go for 6th or 7th cousins.

Half of my ancestors came from Vallo de la Luciano in Italy and Sastin in Slovakia. Another quarter is lost and the last quarter is all southern. In every Southern state and not one north of Maryland. But since virtually all threads lead to Somerset Co., Maryland and various places in Virginia I can give these families: Beauchamp, McElroy, Key, Parker, Adams, Bozman, Casteel, Crew, Dixon, de la Fountain, McClendon, Tandy, Truitt, White and Witt. I’d be very surprised if there weren’t a descendant of Edmund Beauchamp, Ambrose Dixon or Nicholas de la Fontaine here somewhere. They are all heads of very large descendant trees and I run into descendants of them everywhere.

14

Most of my family comes from Ireland/England. The surnames of my ancestors are: Ivey, Plant and Colbert. These are the only ones I know of at the moment [never really asked my 'rents].

Anyone here related to me?

15

Osiris, there’s a few Beauchamps in my neck of the woods, but from what I understand it’s a fairly common name.

For my part, my ancestors’ names are:
Anderson (heh. Yeah. Me and a million other Scandihoovians.)
Bergholm
Kranz
Lund(h)
Mayavski
Sandy/Sendy/Sandowski
Sowa

16

Oh, and if you’re related to a Hoschke, let me know!

17

Most common Maternal side:

Holt/Brannon - from Memphis/Arkansas, mixed British & German.

Paternal side is very unusual, and I’m not real comfortable posting it here. But if you’ve had relatives in the Asheville, NC area feel free to drop me a line.

18

Well I was born 6 days after Monty (same year) so we are long lost brother and sister.

kidding…:smiley:

19

Those are probably the French Beauchamps which come by way of Canada I believe. Most northern Beauchamps are. The English Beauchamps were a pretty Southern lot. There are a couple other families but they’re small compared to the these two. If you’ve got any Beauchamp blood from south of Maryland I can almost guarantee we’re related somehow. BTW the French and English Beauchamps are not related and their names come from two seperate sources.

20

Im under the impresssion most of us are related. Assuming most of us have European ancestors, then they came from the same original king & queen. Therefore, we are related. Of course, you could take the biblical idea into account, in that case, we all came from the same original couple ?