A.J.'s civil war connections?

Question

I am still documenting it, but I have a Confederate Civil War veteran who is only 12 steps (if I have steps right) from A.J.

I think that's closer to a Confederate than I am, old yankee that I am.

I would be curious how many others there are both north and south, and how close they are to him.

Comments

I now have a Brevet Brigadier General who was killed at Baton Rouge in 1862.

A Union soldier this time.

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Fascinating! I'm a Yankee too, so I didn't expect such a close connection.

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AJ, I am a native Virginian raised by a Connecticut Yankee mother, so my dad's side were primarily confederate, my mom's yankee. I always considered myself a Yank (in spite of the Virginia native thing) and am now getting in touch with my Confederate roots - only to find that a few of my Virginia relatives were on the Yankee side! I don't think anyone should be surprised at a connection to either side of the war - it seems to be quite common!

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I calculated my g/grandparents on two sides and came up with a 33 and a 40. Looks like AJ Jacobs is related to my Confederate Yankee's also.

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Eugene Witter (Witter-45) served with the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry and was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville.

He and AJ are 26 steps apart.

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Okay! I am going to ask a stupid question, because everyone else knows about it. What is the A.J. connection, and why is it important? And how would one check on the connection?

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Lynden, we're referring to the Global Family Reunion and the writer AJ Jacobs who is organizing it:  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Global_Family_Reunion

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It still eludes me. I don't know anything about him as a writer. My reading is usually by authors who lived over 300 years ago. The life of an historian and a Discalced Carmelite, I'm afraid. What has Mr. A.J. written?

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This blog post talks about the Global Family Reunion Project on WikiTree: http://www.wikitree.com/blog/project-spotlight-global-family-reunion/

As far as AJ, this is his site: http://ajjacobs.com/about/

Hope that helps!

Answer 1

That's cool, Toby! Good work :) The timing is great, with last month being the anniversary of the beginning of the war.

Answer 2

I am 28 degrees from AJ.  My GGGrandfather Chellis-57 is 26 degrees of separation, and that is on my father's side. He was a general (from Maine) in the Civil War, as shown in his photo. His son, my GGrandfather, Chellis-1 is also 26 degrees of separation, and was in a Maine regiment that won medals of honor.

My GGGrandfather Haight-82 is also 26 degrees of separation, and that is on my mother's side. He died in Corinth, MS in the Civil War in a prison camp.  He was from Wisconsin/Nebraska.

I found also that my father and mother are 12th cousins.