Anomilies

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GENEALOGY TIP FOR TODAY: Anomalies

We recently talked about reasons why folks do genealogy. Mysteries are sometimes the reason folks get into researching their family tree. Sometimes those mysteries we see pop up in our tree are anomalies that what have us puzzled. They can come in all sorts of combinations. There are three in my tree that stand out, in my Dad’s family. It was their last names in every situation that tipped me off.
 
One situation was a mother and daughter that had the same last names – twice! And that’s beyond the mother’s maiden name. Their names were something like this: Alma Wagner Lockwood Jones and the daughter – Jane Lockwood Jones.
 
No one in my family, my Dad in particular, knew why. I hadn’t done genealogy for very long when I came across this but I knew this was not a normal situation. Research finally revealed that the mother’s first married name was the daughter’s maiden name – as expected. The daughter’s married name was the mother’s second married name, because Mama married the daughter’s widowed father-in-law! No problem there when it came family holiday dinners who side of the family to visit.
 
That was one anomaly. The second one was when I was researching a man – a distant uncle of my Dad. The name of the gal he married sounded familiar – like I had come across that name before. Sure enough, I had. He married his niece – his sister’s daughter! Wow! That surprised me. That’s closer in relationship than first cousins. And this was in the 1800’s – recent enough that I was surprised it was allowed.
 
Another little odd thing was this one gentleman who kept marrying women with the same last name. When I got the pieces of that puzzle put together I discovered he had married – not sisters – but first cousins! He sure must have liked the whole family to have done that – not once, not twice, but three times! Maybe that family had very attractive young ladies!
 
Now here is another odd trivia – these were all in my paternal grandfather’s family!! –One fourth of my entire tree! I can’t really think of any other situation anywhere else in my tree.
 
Oh – I thought of another one. My half-brother married sisters. Not at the same time, but one after the other. This really isn’t all that uncommon, but isn’t the norm, either.
 
What about your tree? Have you found some out-of-the-ordinary situations? Kinda makes you think of the song: “I am my own grandpa!”

 

 

 

Now You Know!