Family Historian User Group

I have traced back several generations for me and my wife and have found (according to FH) when I run the 'How related' routine that we are very-very distant cousins. Most of which are from our England connections.

My question is: Has anyone else run into this situation; and should I trust those old records. Note: most of these records stem from the family trees by others in Ancestry.com.



ID:6504

I would say 'Beware other peoples work' I don't trust anything from other trees, People copy others work wholesale without any checking, especially on Ancestry.
I have only taken part of a tree from an Australian tree which tied in with my daughters Australian in-laws, but I found my own sources for that data, some of which I discarded as being irrelevant.
Downloaded trees don't often have the source of the data.

Isn't that normal, to find common ancestry at some point?  

My wife (Florida born and raised) and I (west coast dad and a german mom) share some colonial New England ancestors.  

I am as closely related to George W. Bush, and she to Barack Obama, as we are to each other via this colonial ancestry, so it's nothing extraordinary.

Why do you expect there to be a problem with this?  Cousins marry, so why not distant, and very distant cousins?  The Habsburgs made a point of marrying within the family.

Also consider among our farming ancestors that they were apt to marry within five miles of home.  (The distance they could travel to go courting and get back in time for morning chores.)

Just because you found a connection doesn't make it wrong, or anything unusual.  Confirm with sources of course.

Thank you both for the replies. I did not think the connections were wrong, just surprising. I do have some cousins who married (verified by contacts with family members).

Oh, by the way, Stewartrb, my wife is a 17th cousin once removed of Barack Hussein OBAMA Jr., so that makes her and your wife distant relatives. Small world isn't it.

Thanks again.