Friday, October 19, 2012

Dad's cousin married Mom's cousin

I discovered recently that Leroy Henry Stieben, my 5th cousin once removed from my Dad's paternal family line married Juanita Grace Strait, who is my 3rd cousin on my mom's maternal family line. What's so special about that? Nothing. Except that as I grew up, I had no idea that anyone in my dad's family even KNEW anyone in my mom's family. Since my parents divorced when I was a toddler, my dad remarried and my step-mother created quite a chasm between my dad's family and my mother's family. In my mind they existed in two separate WORLDS! So as I've aged and have studied my lineage, I'm still awestruck when I discover that a member of my paternal family was integrated with a member of my maternal family. I think it's cool!

1 comment:

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

Great story, but the big question is "How did you produce that terrific chart?!" I'm intrigued, and it could be handy because I have several convoluted intermarriages, too.