Riddles make sense of family ‘removal’

Here’s a riddle for you. How can siblings be fifth cousins, once-removed?

First, let’s make sure we agree on what “once-removed” means. If you and I are first cousins, then my children are your first cousins, once removed. You and I are the same generation, but my children are “removed” from that by one generation.

Back to the cousins.

It’s not uncommon for a husband and wife to find out they’re somehow related, especially if they’re from the same geographic area.

Friends of mine told me about a possible connection they were wondering about. Let’s say his name was Smith, and a sister of one of his long-ago Smith ancestors had married a Jones, a surname that has turned up in his wife’s family. Moreover, some of her Joneses were buried in a cemetery near his Smiths. We decided to check it out.

Between the Internet and census records at the University of Maine’s Fogler Library, it took me just four hours – driving time to Orono included – to trace out what I believe to be their connection.

First I used the online records of the Maine State Archives – marriage indexes 1892-1966 and 1976-1996, and death index 1960-1996. Go to the Web site at www.state.me.us/sos/arc/, and click on Genealogy.

I easily found the marriage dates for her Jones parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, and then the death dates for her great-grandparents.

Death dates in hand, I dashed up to Fogler and found their obituaries on microfilm of the Bangor Daily News, clippings that gave me the parents as the earliest pair – a total of four great-great grandparents for the wife. The Bangor Public Library also has the BDN on microfilm, but I was going to Fogler anyway.

The great-grandparents each were born in the late 1890s, so they should be with their parents in the 1900 census. They were.

That census told us that the Jones’ great-great grandfather was born in August 1868. He would be a

young child in the 1870 census, and I knew just where to look for his family on the microfilm because Fogler just had obtained the two-volume index to the Maine census for 1870.

Sure enough, the index gave me the town, volume and page number for Jones households, and I found the Jones child, his parents and other children on the census microfilm. Moreover, they were living with the in-laws – who we already knew were the husband’s Smith ancestors.

I also confirmed the marriage of the Jones couple – including the wife’s maiden name, Smith, through the www.familysearch.org Web site of the Mormon Church.

There are other steps I will take to confirm all this, but you get the picture. So what kind of cousins are my friends?

He is descended from one of the sons of the Smiths, and she’s descended from a daughter. But it turns out she is one more generation removed from the Smiths than her husband. The early couple are her great-great-great-great grandparents, whereas they are great-great-great grandparents to him.

The husband and his mother-in-law are fourth cousins. He and his wife, therefore, are fourth cousins, once removed.

In their father’s line, the couple’s children actually wind up in the same generation as their mother. They are fifth cousins to her.

But, they also are fifth cousins, once removed, to her children – themselves. And to each other, for that matter.

If you think this is confusing, don’t be alarmed. Banks and other such institutions use charts to figure out the degree of relationship for inheritance purposes when someone dies without a will.

3046. CLOUTIER-CLUKEY-FOLSOM. Would like to contact the group in the Orono-Old Town area that is doing research on the Cloutier-Clukey genealogy. My grandmother was Sadie Clukey Folsom, b. July 27, 1881; d. Dec. 25, 1973. She was daughter of Augustus Clukey, b. 1828, d. Oct. 10, 1918. He was one of eight children of Fabien and Marie (Tardiff) Cloutier. Augustus md. Adele Bouile in 1861. They moved by wagon to Dexter, and changed name to Clukey. The family descended from Zacharie Cloutier, 1590-1680, and wife Sainte or Xainte Dupont, 1596-1680, who came from France to Quebec. They had six children, five of whom arrived in Canada with them. June W. Kittredge, 25 Mainwood Ave., Orono, ME 04473-3834.

3047. RUSSELL-DEAN. Seeking ancestry for Rebecca Russell of Dedham, Mass., wife of Luke Dean, who was son of Joseph and Hannah (Barker) Dean. Marriage intentions for Luke and Rebecca Aug. 16, 1771. Their children, all b. Dover, Mass., except John, were: Rebecca, b. 1776, md. Aremans Adams; Catherine, b. 1778, md. Abner Atherton; Richard, b. 1781, md. Carolina Herring; Betsey, b. 1783, md. the same Abner Atherton; Molly, b. 1786, md. Simon Plympton; Joseph, b. 1788, d. young; Faxon, b. 1791, md. Polly (Adam?); Hannah, b. 1794, md. John W. Adam II; Roxana, b. 1797, md. Edward Breck; Colburn, b. 1799, md. 1) Temperance Blake, 2) Mary Wilbur (my line); John, b. 1801, d. young. Danny W. Howard, DECF Box 428, Machiasport, ME 04655.

Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or e-mail familyti@bangordailynews.net. Full name and address of sender required, even if e-mail is used.