Saturday, August 23, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Two Degrees of Separation

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 
 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):

1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?

2)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook or a stream post on Google Plus.

Here are several of mine:

1)  My Seaver/Richmond line:   Me (born 1943) - I met my paternal grandmother once in 1959.  My paternal grandmother Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962, daughter of Thomas Richmond (1848-1917))  knew her grandfather, James Richmond (1821-1912).

 2)  My Carringer line:  Me (born 1943) - my maternal great grandfather, Henry Austin Carringer held me when I was a baby.  Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946), son of David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902) and Rebecca Spangler (1832-1901),  knew his paternal grandfather Henry Carringer (1800-1881) well.  He also knew his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth (King) Spangler (1796-1863). 

3)  My Carringer/Smith/Vaux/Underhill line:  Me (born 1943) - my great-grandmother, Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944) held me (I don't remember it, of course!).  Della Smith (born in Wisconsin), daughter of Abigial Vaux (1844-1931), granddaughter of Mary Ann (Underhill) Vaux (1815-1880) may have met her great-grandfather, Amos Underhill (1772-1865, died in New York), but I doubt it! 

So I can connect, with two degrees of separation, back to a man born in 1772 (but that man likely did not "meet" his great-grandchild).  For the requirement that they actually met, I can get back to a person born in 1796.  218 years ago.  


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-two.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



7 comments:

Dana Leeds said...

I enjoyed tonight's challenge! I'm younger than you and only went back to 1825. But, that's still almost 200 years. Wow!

http://theenthusiasticgenealogist.blogspot.com/2014/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-two.html

GeneGinny said...

Great challenge, Randy, but a bit frustrating. I couldn't get into the 1700s. http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2014/08/sngf-two-degrees-of-separation.html

Michael F Harris said...

Good challenge.

http://mfharrisfamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-two.html

Barbara said...

This was fun! I knew my great-grandfather well--spent my days with him until I was 5. He lived in the same house with his grandfather who died when he was ten. So that puts me back to 1802! Thanks Randy for a new slant!

Shelley Bishop said...

What a fun challenge, Randy! One of my favorites so far. I was amazed to get back to December 1790.

http://www.asenseoffamily.com/2014/08/two-degrees-of-separation-sngf.html

Anonymous said...

What an interesting way to think about your ancestors and who /they/ knew! Here are my results:
http://lifecitation.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/saturday-night-genealogy-funtwo-degrees-of-separation/

Nancy said...

This is my first time playing along: the topic was irresistible! The most distant was only 200 years but, hey, I don't have any control over who was born and died when.

Thanks for the fun challenge, Randy.

My post is at http://nancysfamilyhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/two-degrees-of-separation-sngf.html.