I detailed in an earlier post how my wife and I are 10th cousins. But this is not the only cousin connection in my family tree. My grandmother, Vera [Levvy] Russell divorced her first husband, Erskine Russell, and later re-married again - to a man 30 years her senior. Since her new husband's name was Charles Rogers and my grandmother's grandmother was also born a Rogers, I wondered if there was any other Roger's connection. And there was!
The Thomas Rogers who came over on the Mayflower with his son Joseph came from a Rogers family in England. His grandfather was John Rogers (1507-1555) and his father was William Rogers (1542-1585). But John had another son, an older brother to William, who was also named John (as I noted in my other blog, they tended to use the sames names quite often). Here is a family line starting with the older brother.
- John (1538-1601)
- John (1570-1636)
- James (1615-1687) - came to Massachusetts in 1635
- Samuel (1640-1713)
- Daniel (1678-1773)
- Nathaniel (1729-1786)
- Orin (1770-)
- James (1815-)
- Oren (1840-)
- Charles (1866-1959) - my step-grandfather.
Thus, because of the difference in ages, as well as some of the individuals in this line having children a bit later in life, my grandmother was marrying her 8th cousin, twice removed. I guess marrying your distant cousin must run in the family.
It was always interesting to me when I was growing up that I had a grandfather who had been born the year after the American Civil War ended. It made that part of US history very real to me.
Correction - John Rogers (1507-1555) is NOT the grandfather of Thomas Rogers. Thus, it is not confirmed that my grandmother married her distant cousin. There were multiple William Rogers living in the same area of England at about the same time, thus the confusion.
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