My husband Jason isn’t a genealogist. It’s not that he doesn’t find it interesting, he does. But he’s busy and doesn’t love it like I do, so it’s not a big priority for him.
Two weeks ago I started a new group of people in my Family History Class at church. He decided to join in. The first week is really basic and talks mostly about why we do family history. This past week we discussed an article and then took a tour of the FamilySearch website.
Several hours later my husband was mentioning something he noticed in the photos section on FamilySearch so we pulled it up and looked at photos of his ancestors that other family members have uploaded. This was the first time I had really looked in his tree. I noticed a name that was familiar for some reason – Ira Stearns Hatch. It only took a moment to decide that I knew where I had seen that name.
I called my sister and asked if she would know a name from her husband’s tree if I mentioned it. She did me one better and pulled out her husband Don’s fan chart to find the very name I was calling about – Ira Stearns Hatch!
A moment of calculating later and this is my conclusion:
- Don & Jason are brothers-in-law & 4th cousins once removed.
- My sister Tara & I are – of course – sisters, but also 4th cousins once removed-in-law.
- Our children are 1st cousins & 5th cousins once removed.
- Don is my kids uncle but also their 4th cousin twice removed.
- Jason is my sister’s kids uncle but also their 5th cousin.
Such a fun discovery!
Ira Stearns Hatch is not my ancestor but it turns out he is the ancestor of my children & my nieces and nephews.
My husband is now wondering how many of his friends he might be related to. I heard recently about the Are we related? app. I have a feeling if I tell Jason about it he just might start asking everyone to log in and see if they are somehow related. 🙂