Saturday, April 3, 2010

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Degrees of Separation

Hey there, geneaholics - have you missed SNGF? Well, here it is Saturday Night, time for some Genealogy Fun!!

I'm still operating on jet-lag, so I had to borrow a great idea from Chris Staats (thank you, Chris, for a great post on 6 Degrees Of Separation (Genealogy-Style). Chris asks (paraphrased): How far separated are you from a famous person in history?

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (come on, this isn't Mission Impossible), is to:

1) Find an ancestral line that atretches back to the time of the US Revolutionary War (1775-1783), about 230 years. Define your person-to-person connection (the person actually met the next person on the list) back to a historical figure from that time.

2) Tell us about it on your blog, in a note or comment on Facebook, or in a comment on this post.

Here's mine (from my Carringer line):

1) I (1943-????) knew well my maternal grandfather, Lyle L. Carringer (1891-1976).

2) Lyle L. Carringer (1891-1976) knew his paternal grandfather, David Jackson Carringer (1823-1901)

3) David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902) knew his paternal grandfather, Martin Carringer (1758-1835).

4) Martin Carringer (1758-1835) served in the Revolutionary War in the Pennsylvania 8th Battalion of the Continental Army that wintered at Valley Forge. Surely he saw, and perhaps met, General George Washington.

So I have three degrees of separation from an ancestor that "knew" Washington and four degrees of separation to Washington.

Hmm, I wonder how many degrees of separation I have to someone on the Mayflower?

8 comments:

Martin said...

My contribution: http://mhollick.typepad.com/slovakyankee/2010/04/sngf-six-degrees-of-genealogical-separation.htm

JT said...

Here's mine:

http://filioagnostic.blogspot.com/2010/04/sngf-six-degrees-of-genealogical.html

Jean Hibben said...

Since I know you have so much extra time (oh, yeah, right), I have decided to add another thing to your life and award you with the "Ancestor Approved Award." To find out what this entails, check my blog at http://circlemending.blogspot.com/2010/04/ancestor-approved-award.html and then do whatever you deem appropriate. Glad you're home safely!

Linda McCauley said...

Here's mine: http://lfmccauley.blogspot.com/2010/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-degrees-of.html.

Chris Staats said...

Phew - and here I was afraid that your return would cause me to have to work on a blog post for tonight! Now I can sit back and relax :)

Bill West said...

My blog post is at:
http://tinyurl.com/yhdg6e4

Life Goes On said...

http://myfamilyrootsrundeep.blogspot.com/2010/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-degrees-of.html

Midge Frazel said...

Such genealogical math fun! Actually, I would not know much about my ancestors if most of them hadn't lived to be in their 80's or 90's.

http://midgefrazel.blogspot.com/2010/04/actually-knowing-your-ancestors.html