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January 23, 2014

52 Ancestors: I Think I am My Own Cousin

Amy Johnson Crow has a new challenge for geneabloggers called Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy challenges genealogists to write about one ancestor once a week. I'm having fun with this and I hope you are too!

This week I am going to tell you about my ancestor Cornelius Vollick and his wife Eve Larroway. Cornelius, my 4th great grandfather, was born in 1761 in New York. He fought for the British during the American Revolution in Butler's Rangers. After the War he came to Ontario Canada as a Loyalist and settled in the Niagara area. There he married Eve Larroway who was the daughter of another Loyalist.

Interestingly enough, Cornelius Vollick's great grandmother Sophia Uziele, was the sister of Eve Larroway's great grandmother Maria Uziele. Since Cornelia and his wife Eve shared the same set of great-great grandparents, that makes them 3rd cousins. 

Here's the surprise:

Cornelius and Eve shared TWO sets of common 2nd great grandparents, not just one!  Cornelius' great great grandparents were Jochem & Eva (Vrooman) Van Valkenburg. So were Eve's. Cornelius' other set of great great grandparents were Pierre & Cornelia (Damen) Uzielle. So were Eve's.

Two of Jochem & Eva's grandchildren (through their son Isaac and daughter Jannetje) married two grandchildren of Pierre Uziele and Cornelia Damen.

The Van Valkenburg grandchildren were Isaac Van Valkenburg (who married Maria Bradt the daughter of Storm Bradt and Sophia Uziele) and Marytje Van Alstyne who married Petrus LeRoy the son of Maria Uziele (who was Sophia's sister!) and Leonard Le Roy.

Here's a chart which might show the relationships in a less confusing way


When I used an old version of FamilyTreeMaker some years ago my father was listed as my father AND as

my 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th cousin once removed
Phew! What cousin relationship that does that give me to Cornelius, Eve and my own children? I confess it confuses me and I've not yet figured it out. And I don't have that older version of FTM anymore. All I know is that genealogy is always full of surprises!


3 comments:

  1. Haha! I just wrote about discovering a common ancestor between my husband and me on my blog as well! My husband's eight great-grandfather is also my tenth great-grandfather which makes us cousins (a couple of times removed, of course). Funny how connections appear!

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  2. My daughter and I laughed out loud when I read to her what the program said was your relationship to your father! :)

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  3. Trust me, I am my own cousin multiple times over! Oy! From my 7 x Great Grandparents Thomas & Mary (Aisquith) Hagan I have descent through four of their children.

    So their Great-Great Grandson William Henry Boone married their Great Great Granddaughter Rosena Hagan.

    I actually had to do an Excel worksheet to track the various Hagan branches. I have the same issue with my Page line.

    So, yes, I am my own cousin . . . and then some.

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