Okay, a lot of people do a lot of research into their family history. In one line of descent I can document my seven greats grandparents. They are, of course, deceased.
But recently, while watching a show on PBS, I saw an historian who had the same surname as that distant relation. I googled her, and surprisingly she responded, refering me to her husband, who is indeed also descended from that same ancestor. We will be corresponding about family history, but my best guess is, if this person is descended from a child of my ancestor that my own line did not come down from, we are what would be called eighth cousins.
Or, in other words, total strangers. But it is still fun to see how that one couple, who came to these shores in 1722, had a family that still goes on and on.
On both sides of my family I know some third cousins. Some have my name, some, on my maternal side, do not.
What is the most distant living relationship you can claim knowledge of?
Children of a first cousin (would that be second cousin?) on my mother’s side, whom I have not seen for years.
On my dad’s side… Um… there was this thing called WWII, and those what were left and their very few descendants are now are also deceased except for me and my siblings. Just me and my two surviving sisters, and the two survivors out of the original four of the next generation.
I’m sort of family deficient at this point. I’m trying to make more friends to stave off a lonely old age.
I grew up in a family that stayed tight enough that I was good friends with most of my first cousins and some of my 2nd cousins. My kids are old enough to be friends with their 3rd cousins, I should follow up on that.
On ancestry.com I ended up being pen pals with a 4th cousin. There’s really no family stuff in common there, but it clicks in some strange ways.
Prince William and I are 26th, cousins 5 times removed. We don’t have much of a relationship. Our common ancestor died in 1307, King Edward I of England.
I did the ancestry DNA test, which gave me access to a bunch of people in the 5-8th cousin range. One of them reached out, but it didn’t go past a halfhearted and unsuccessful attempt to figure out how we were related.
Children of a first cousin are, to you, called first cousin once removed. The removed means they on on a different generation level. Second cousins are the children of first cousins.
I know of one deceased relation, in that family I spoke of in the OP, who is a third cousin five times removed. The only relation we share is that 1722 ancestor.
I have a large number of DNA-matches that are no closer than 6th cousins on paper, a handful that are 7th cousins, and some that only have known matches in the 9th-11th cousin range, but for the latter, our trees are not complete enough to rule out closer relationships existing.
I had a girlfriend that turned out to be a 4th cousin. I also met a stranger on an airplane who was a 4th cousin as well, also from the same ancestor but a different branch.
It’s not uncommon Utah, with so many polygamous families. That ancestor had three wives and 23 kids. Each kid probably had an average of six kids, and that average held until my generation.
I have 29 first cousins on my mother’s side. No time to worry about anybody further than that.
My wife’s sisters don’t have kids, so they only have second cousins here in Taiwan.
Those would be first cousins, once removed.
My children and the children of my first cousins are second cousins.
I can’t tell for sure, even whether they are actually relatives. We share a very unusual last name; our respective same-last-name ancestors came from Germany in the middle of the 19th century (my ancestor was my GGrandfather). They are convinced that those two guys were brothers, but there is no evidence for that; they have the first name of the father of their ancestor wrong (I was able to find baptism records for their ancestor in the LDS archives, but not mine). So I remain unconvinced that they are relatives. But if they were, I would be third cousin once removed to the closest of them and thrice removed from the youngest of them.
In terms of people with whom I interact on a semi-regular basis: a solid handful of second cousins twice removed, third cousins, and a couple of third cousins once removed. The seconds twice removed call me “aunt,” and my children call their mamas “aunt.”
In reality, though, I know for a fact that I have a lot of friends who are distant family. Every branch of my family has been in the SE quadrant of Georgia forever - the earliest non-indigenous ancestor arrived in the colony in 1734, and my potato famine g-grandfather arrived from County Clare no later than 1846. Given the fairly small population of the area, every family married into every other family. It’s no exaggeration to say that I am probably distantly related to half of the people I went to school with. I just can’t be bothered to pinpoint the exact connections.
True story #1: Hubby and I are both descended from families that lived in the same very small, very rural areas. I actually put together his lineage back to third grandparents before we started dating, because who wants funny-looking children?
One of my gg-aunts on my maternal Grandmother’s side was married to one of his paternal granduncles, and another of my long-dead aunts on my maternal grandfather’s side married into husband’s maternal family. I was honestly amazed that there weren’t any genetic connections!
True story #2: A couple of years ago, I invited my mom and a social friend (parent of one of my son’s school chum) to an event they’d both enjoy. During the event, I abandoned them to their own conversation for a minute while I hit the head. Came back to a damned family reunion. Friend’s g-grandfather and my gg-grandfather were brothers. (Which means that my son hangs out with regularly with his 4th cousin once removed, if I did the descent right?)
I’ve just quit shaking the family tree, 'cause nuts keep falling out!
My Dad is the family historian. I haven’t met or talked with all these people but he has sat down with people whose great great great granddad was his as well, and borrowed their ancient crumbling family bible to get dates of birth and death (people used to write that stuff in their bibles for some reason). On a sheet of paper somewhere I have names of people born in the freaking 1500s and a line of descent explaining how I’m connected to them. (Fortunately it doesn’t appear to be a long line of chicken thieves and paid torturers and snake oil salesmen, but no earls or bluebloods either as far as I know)
How specific do you want the answer to be? There is a branch of my family still living in Germany. One of my mother’s aunts spent a few months there traveling about and meeting some of them, and I sent letters back and forth with one of them for a few months also. What the actual relationship beyond a semi-formal “cousins” is, I don’t actually know. More locally, I have a cousin in Philadelphia I’ve met once. A paternal cousin once removed in Manhattan KS and more family in New York that have never met any of the family from further west than Bismarck until my sister broke down on a highway there going Maine and needed rescued.
For those with an intense genealogy bug, this question leads to absurdities! I’m 7th cousin thrice removed of President Jimmy Carter, and 6th cousin of Brad Pitt. Those are using “certain” links; linkages explode in number if you believe all the pedigrees published on the 'Net.
I’m 13th half-cousin with the present Duke of Cambridge …
I have a very distinctive family name, so much so that people here ask me regularly where I come from, and are puzzled when I tell them “Here, like you”. As matter of fact, it’s a an old name which can be traced back to one man in a small town in Eastern Belgium and was first recorded in the 16th century.
Sometimes a colleague or friend asks me whether I’m related to a certain someone with the same weird name that they’ve just met and my answer is always “No, never heard of them”. There was even a girl in my class in primary school and a boy in my brother’s class in secondary school who had the same name but were not “family” as far as we knew. But the thing is, since it can be traced back to single man who lived almost 500 years ago, I guess that they are all related to me actually.
Since surnames generally follow the Y-chromosome, it might be fun for you and one of the same-named males to get tested.
Tu as fait de douloureux et de joyeux voyages
Avant de t’apercevoir du mensonge et de l’âge
Tu as souffert de l’amour à vingt et à trente ans
J’ai vécu comme un fou et j’ai perdu mon temps
I don’t actually know many of my distant living relatives. I have two second cousins whom I’ve met and am in touch with.
My wife is Egyptian, where extended family is more important than the U.S. and people are not so spread out. She has relatives that she’s not even sure how she’s related to them, but we often get visits here from her second cousin once removed who lives in SC. I’m sure that she knows a few third cousins once removed back in Egypt.
I’ve met my father’s second cousin once removed who, appropriately, is the family historian.
And I’m Facebook “friends” with my wife’s uncle’s stepson’s stepson’s stepson. It’s a very confusing side of the family. Nice kid though. He just went to his high school prom a few weeks ago.
I’m in email contact with my 13th cousin, once removed. Our common ancestor was a diplomat and spy who died in 1536 and is interred in the church nearest to where I live now.
But it is still fun to see how that one couple, who came to these shores in 1722, had a family that still goes on and on.