Marrying a cousin – Part 3

In a blog from about two years ago, I documented how my wife and I are 10^th cousins – having a common ancestor who came to the “New World” on the Mayflower (see http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/02/marrying-my-cousin.html). Because that connection was through our common Rogers ancestor, I then looked at other Rogers connections and discovered that when my father’s mother remarried that she and her 2^nd husband were also cousins (8^th cousins twice removed – see http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/02/marrying-my-cousin-part-2.html). I thought that this was all pretty interesting.

But today I was looking at a different part of my family tree and noticed that both of my parents had ancestors with a common name – Beecher. I had already traced each of those connections back several generations, but had never thought to see if the paths overlapped. But I can now confirm that my parents were also cousins. Their family lines both start with Isaac Beecher (1623-1690) who came to this country in 1639 with his father and settled in New Haven, CT. Isaac had two sons and their lines going to my parents look like this:

Isaac Beecher (1623-1690)

Joseph Beecher (1647-1728)

Joseph Beecher (1698-1763)

Titus Beecher (1740-1803)

Joseph Beecher (1779-1840)

Almira Beecher (1803-1858) – married Caleb Barton (1779-1883)

Sally Barton (1835-1922) – married Morgan Cook (1822-1861)

Lois Cook (1855-1883) – married Walter J Russell (1852-1895)

Louis Russell (1871-1946)

Erskine Russell (1894-1970)

Vernon Russell (1920-2006)

Isaac Beecher (1623-1690)

Isaac Beecher (1650-1708)

Samuel Beecher (1687-1756)

Isaac Beecher (1716-1801)

Jesse Beecher (1741-1813)

Enos Beecher (1769-1808)

Sally Beecher (1794-1846) – married Austin Pierpont (1791-1848)

Charles Pierpont (1824-1884)

Wilson Pierpont (1855-1921)

Harold Pierpont (1898-1969)

Sylvia Pierpont (1924-2012) – married Vernon Russell

As an interesting side note, brothers Joseph and Isaac Beecher married sisters Joanna and Lydia Roberts. So in addition to Isaac (1623) and his wife Mary being common ancestors, so were William and Joanna Roberts. 

Thus, my parents were 9^th cousins (although they never knew it). I guess marrying your cousin must run in my family – my paternal grandmother, my father, and myself. But at least they’re getting a bit more distant – going from 8^th cousin to 9^th cousin to 10^th cousin.

This is why I find genealogy so interesting – one is constantly finding new information and new connections.