While Helping Co-Worker Find her Family, Turns out SHE IS MY COUSIN!

Question

I have to thank WikiTree and all members for this discovery!

Quick read: I profiled a co-worker's family, looking for her relative Daniel Boone. I didn't discover Daniel Boone...I discovered ME!  

Long winded story:

I live in Bloomington Illinois, retired, but have a great retirement job at Home Depot.  I was talking up WikiTree to my co-workers because I work in the power tools department and was bragging how I was related to Tim Dick AKA Tim Allen, TV Series: Tim Allen Show (TOOL TIME TIM!) Home Improvement

One girl approached me to help her find her family. She recently graduated from Illinois State University, but has not found that killer job yet, so she works as a sales consultant.

She said her grandmother always told her she was related to Daniel Boone!  That peaked my interest, so I decided to help her.  I spent 20 hours and created at least150 profiles and brick walled with a James Boone, but he was only connected to Daniel Boone through marriages.

Thinking I might have missed something, I went down another of her grandparents rabbit hole, creating more profiles, and then duplicated a profile of an Obadiah Estes!  In the process of getting that profile merged, a flag then popped up on my screen that says Obadiah is my cousin!  That means my co-worker is my cousin!  She is from Connecticut!  Is this True?  OMG IT IS TRUE!

She is a solid 8th cousin (no removed)

This is one of those unbelievable but happy stories I thought you might like to hear!

(If she ever gets that killer job she worked her butt off in college for, I want a piece of the pie!  bahahahahahaha!) 

Answer 1

Oh wow! Discoveries like that are great to hear.

Comments

100K- Let me be the first to say congrats

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Thanks K Smith

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K Smith is Your 22nd cousin once removed

• Your common ancestor, Margery Basset (abt.1240-1280), is his 21st great-grandmother.
• Your common ancestor, Nicholas (Stapleton) de Stapleton (1236-abt.1290), is his 21st great-grandfather
  • Your common ancestor, Margaret (Totehill) Thornhill (-bef.1412), is her 25th great-grandmother.
  • Your common ancestor, Warin (Vesci) de Vesci (abt.1170-1205), is her 22nd great-grandfather.

• • Liza Gervais is Your 18th cousin 8 times removed

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Liza shows as 18c1r on relationship finder when I looked- it's all good. I had one of those horse rides when I was about 12. I guess that's why I chose motorcycles over horses. Short of a wheel falling off, it was my fault. Not some dumb animal that outweighed me 10-1 and was smart enough to know I didn't trust it.

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K. Smith is referring to a childhood story I put in my biography about a horney horse trying to hump a mare in heat while I was riding it. That horse took this small town boy for a ride I was not prepared for into the Twilight Zone!

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David and Gary are 25th cousins once removed

David Draper and Gary Burgess are both descendants of Ralph Basset II (abt.1155-1211).

K and Gary are 15th cousins

K Smith and Gary Burgess are both descendants of Anne (Bromwich) Warnecombe (1499-1549).

Liza and Gary are 19th cousins three times removed

Liza (Macklem) Gervais and Gary Burgess are both descendants of Henry (Scrope) le Scrope (1312-1392).

sorry about the font size, had difficulty copying and pasting

Answer 2

I had a similar experience, comparing notes at dinner with a friend I'd known for over 25 years, posted her tree to Wikitree and found out she also had Cornish ancestry, turned out we are 13th cousins.

Comments

You are Dave Draper's 25th cousin once removed

• Your common ancestor, Ralph Basset II (abt.1155-1211), is his 25th great-grandfather.
• Your common ancestor, Helewise (Murdac) de Stuteville (abt.1122-abt.1183), is his 27th great-grandmother.

MORE

Answer 3

That is one of the coolest Genealogy stories I have heard! How exciting for the 2 of you.

Comments

Elayine and Dave Draper are 25 degrees from each other!

Answer 4

Great story, David! You and I are also 8th cousins, (but twice removed). 

Comments

You are Dave Draper's 8th cousin twice removed

• Your common ancestor, Mary (Mcmurray) Means (abt.1630-abt.1725), is her 9th great-grandmother.
• Your common ancestor, Josiah Means (1616-1708), is her 9th great-grandfather.

Answer 5

My grandfather and his parents came from your neck of the woods, GGF was even the mayor of Normal for a while.

Comments

You are Dave Draper's 10th cousin twice removed

• Your common ancestor, Rebecca (Hilton) Roberts (1602-bef.1673), is her 11th great-grandmother.
• Your common ancestor, Thomas Roberts (abt.1600-aft.1673), is her 11th great-grandfather.

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Sorry, put this in the wrong place

Answer 6

Thank You all for your comments.  This post has sort of gone viral, as far as posts go around here!

Not only that, seems we all are related to each other!  It makes it difficult to choose the best answer.  So, I'm going to hold off on that for now, so I don't make most of you mad at me for not choosing yours as best answer!

Update:  I made an 8 x 11 poster to hang by the punch clock at Home Depot which states Genealogy Day is coming up on March 11, 2023. The poster also shows exactly how my co-worker/cousin and I share the same grandfather (Abraham Estes 1647-1720 WikiTree ID: Estes-65)

Last but not least, the poster also shows how to get started finding their family by joining WikiTree.  Many have been asking how I find all the famous cousins that I have, and especially how I can have a cousin who works at the same store, a college graduate from Connecticut (which is about 1000 miles from Bloomington, IL)

I hope this will help sign some people up to WikiTree!

Thanks again for making this site the absolute best place to park our family history and genealogy!

P.S.  I made a note of all of you who are related, and sorry for not getting back to you, but I will, in time! 

Comments

David, I (an Australian) have blood related cousins (not connections) who live in various places in the United States — the ones I remember most clearly are paternal line cousins in Colorado, Chicago, and Kansas (maybe also California).  There are also maternal Swedish-line cousins somewhere in the US, but I've only e-chatted with them on FamilySearch and ancestry.
I also have at least one known 4th cousin in England (who is a WT member).
Both the above — US and England — are a lot farther apart than Connecticut to Illinois.  (Disclaimer: I currently live in the US, but the distances get even greater if I start listing my cousins in Australia and how far apart we are now, and how far apart we would be were I still there.)

So, you can tell your co-workers that distance is no obstacle to being blood cousins with someone.  It all depends on where the ancestors were from, and where they went!   

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Melanie is 24 degrees from Dave Draper

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But not blood related.

Answer 7

There are many wikitreers that are related to me. Come on over to my wiki cousins space page Space:Richard Thomas Ryker - Wiki Cousins and let me know how we are related.

Answer 8

My wife met her friend in 1983. I became her friend when I met my wife in 1996. A few years ago our friend asked for help finding out the identity of a baby in a photo that she found in a drawer of her late mother. It turns out that the baby in the photo was her mom's younger sister.  The aunt of our friend is 6 months younger than she is. I also found out during my research that our friend is my cousin!