I heard my parents were 4th cousins, is this true

Question

I heard my parents, Judith Rae Wright Postell was a fourth cousin of my father Charles Stanley Postell, but I don't know how this is.

Answer 1

Much more information is needed to determine that. Parents, grandparents and great grandparents. As we are all related some way or the other, it is possible that they are related. My parents were like 14-15th cousins. How many 4th cousins can you name? You have several- some near, some far. I find names of cousins frequently that I had no idea that I was related to. I met a 4th cousin from Colorado last week, would not have had a clue, if not doing genealogy.

Comments

Hey Robin, thanks for the best answer. Fourth cousin sound weird, but it's not. You have several hundred 3rd cousins you will never meet or know. Several families, like mine, have lived in the same area for two hundred years. Several of my ancestor moved from Kentucky to Missouri. When I play the name game, I find myself often times a distant relative to who am talking to. I had great aunts and uncles i never met. Only in the last couple months, I learned I was acquainted with a brother-in law of a second cousin I never knew.

Answer 2

Start by building your tree back with as much documentation as you can find.  Fourth cousins would mean that your parents share 3rd great-grandparents, so that’s fairly far back. It wouldn’t be surprising that your parents don’t (or didn’t) know who their grandparents grandparents were.

Answer 3

They do appear to be.  You can see for yourself if you click on Find at the top of the screen, then click on Relationships.  Enter your father's ID as Postell-41 in one of the empty boxes and your mother's ID as Wright-40910 in the other empty box.  Then click Find Relationship.  Apparently they have a common ancestor in Sarah (Davis) Sineath.

Comments

Thank you, Rob, for the star.

Answer 4

Hi, Robin

Thank you for being a Guest Member of WikiTree.  Check out the Membership info and consider upgrading.  WikiTree is always 100% free, and you might find many cousins in WikiTree to help you add profiles to the one-world tree.

Please take a look at the other answers you received here - some good advice for you!

 Welcome!  We look forward to working with you!