You Might Be A Cousin, If...

As my family tree continues to grow, I'm beginning to see how many distant relatives I must have. Simply as a fun exercise, I have compiled a list of surnames for the last 12 generations of my family. Some of these are fairly common, and there is no guarantee that someone with the last name "Wilson" or "Smith" would be related to me, though there are others that are fairly uncommon. Just in case some of you are wondering, you might be a cousin if...

Here is a generational list, putting each surname where it first appears in my family tree. Counting myself as Generation 0, and my parents as generation 1, we have the following results:

1: Ingham*, Kirton


2: Counts, Forthman


3: Bailey, Littlefield, MacCain*, Nelson, Robinson


4: Ballinger, Carney, Gamble, Horner, Moore, Stark, Urech


5: Dillon, Doughty, Henderson, Lacay, Nixon, Silcox, Smith, Tucker, Wallwork, Wilson, Young


6: Austin, Guile (Guild), Hires (Hoyer), Hubbell, Hyler, Karper, Keeney, Kelly, Rogers, Sheppard, Waller, Wiley


7: Burch, Coleman, Cunningham, Davies, Garrison, Keeney2, Kennedy, Martin, Nelson2, Sockwell, Tucker2


8: Babcock, Beeman, Brown, Clark, Crosby, Davis, Davis2, Doxey, Kandel (Kandle), Lamb, Newcomb, Smith2, Whitaker


9: Belcher, Bowen, Brown2, Carmen, Forgison, Gates, Hitchner (Itchner), Hopkins, Ismond, Kinney, Maurer, McCarthy, Pineo, Scott, Thayer, Tracy, Waite, Warren, Webster, Wightman,


10: Babcock, Bangs, Bartels, Bradford, Brown3, Burt, Camp, Chapin, Church, Clark2, Colt, Cox, Culver, Daniel, Frazier, Gulliver, Hartshorn, Hills, Husted, Ismond2, Judd, Lottholtz, Lyon, Miner, Parish, Park, Pepper, Rich, Rogers2, Samson, Sheppard2, Wells, Westcott, Wheeler, Williams


11: Adams, Allen2, Allis, Avery, Babcock2, Baldwin, Barron, Bass, Belden, Billings, Brown4, Browne, Buell, Bushwell, Buswell, Camp2, Carpenter, Curtis, Denison, Elithorpe, Fellows, Fitch, Fuess, Gates2, Gates3, Geer, Geer2, Griswold, Hill, Hinchman, Holmes, Hopkins2, Jackson, Kellogg, Kingsley, Knight, Leonard, Lewis, Loomis, May, Mayo, Merrick, Morehouse, Neale, Newhall, Payson, Raymond, Roberts, Sheppard3, Sherwood, Sprague, Sprague2, Thayer2, Thurston, Tolman, Waldman, Walling, Wattell, Wise, Woodcock, Young2


12: Allen3, Allyn, Allyn2, Ayer, Babcock3, Bailey2, Bassett, Batt, Bayly, Belden2, Brewer, Brigham, Bronson, Browne2, Buck, Burnham, Canfield, Chapin2, Chauncey, Cheever, Cheever2, Clark3, Crooke, Curtis2, Danforth, Darrell, Deeg, Eames, Edwards, Eliot, Fitch2, Foote, Freeman, Goodale, Goole, Greenaway, Greenslade, Griswold2, Hallet, Hansford, Harvey, Hawkins, Hayward, Hilton, Hobart, Hopkins3, Johnson, King, Knoell, Lamb2, Lambert, Leids, Leids2, Lumpkin, Lyman, Marsh, Mason, Meigs, Odell (O'Dell/Udell), Palmer, Pendleton, Phillips, Plummer, Post, Pray, Provoe, Putnam, Rathburn, Rawlins, Reeve, Richards, Riley, Sayles, Seaman, Smith3, Smith4, Stalham, Stephenson, Terry, Thompson, Thompson2, Tracy2, Treat, Turney, Updyke, Waring, Warren2, Weld, Welles, Welsz, Wheldon, Whalen, Whalen2, Wilbourne, Wilcox, Wise2, Wood, Wood2, Wood3, Wood4, Woodward, Woolhead, York, Young3

There you have it; all the surnames I have been able to trace through 12 generations thus far. There are some that go back even further, but I'll leave those for another day and another post.

Perhaps this gets a little carried away, but there it is. Sure, being a 12th cousin might be mostly academic, but it's still neat to be able to look back and see how the lines diverged. This is by far not a complete list, and there are still many lines I haven't been able to trace beyond a few generations. Still, it's already quite a list, as you can see.

See if you recognize any of the surnames listed, and resign yourself to the fact that we might be distantly related! If you have any questions, or want to work on finding any possible genealogical links, let me know.

*The Ingham genetic line extends only to Raymond W. Ingham (generation 2), who was adopted by his step-father, Edward "Ned" Ingham.  His genetic lineage actually comes from Raymond W. MacCain, Sr.  Therefore, any of the "adopted" Ingham genealogy has been excluded from this list.