Saturday, January 13, 2018

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Many Degrees of Separation

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  
Find an ancestral line that atretches back to the time of the US Revolutionary War (1775-1783), about 240 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 (doesn't have to be famous).

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, my grandfather) knew his paternal grandfather, David Jackson Carringer (1823-1901)

3) David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902, my 2nd great-grandfather) knew his paternal grandfather, Martin Carringer (1758-1835).

4) Martin Carringer (1758-1835, my 4th great-grandfather) 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" George Washington and four degrees of separation to George Washington.

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


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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver

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4 comments:

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Worked my way back on the Lancaster family.

https://mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com/2018/01/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

I tracked the Gauntt family to the American Revolution.

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2018/01/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here's my four degrees back to the Revolutionary War: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2018/01/sngf-how-many-degrees-of-separation/

J Hansen said...

My 4 degrees back to someone who met George Washington:
1. me! I knew my mother
2. my mother (1919-1975) knew her grandmother Susan M. Stokes
3. Susan M. Stokes (1861-1934) knew her great-grandmother, Eliza (née McKinne) Gardner
4. Eliza McKinne (m. Gardner) (1784-1872).
According to a family story I heard as a child, Eliza was a young girl in Augusta, Georgia, when George Washington visited her school. The children formed a circle around him and sang a song, after which George patted each child on the head.
Later, when she had her own family, Eliza would pat her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren on the head saying, “George Washington patted me on the head and now I’m patting you.” Her children in turn would pat their descendants on the head saying the same but inserting their own link in the chain, including me in my turn.
In my effort to confirm what I could of the story, I learned that George Washington, during his 1791 tour of the southern states, did indeed visit Augusta, and while on this tour, he did visit local schools. So it’s possible and I have no reason to doubt the story.