It has been said that “everyone with a European connection ends up being related to Charlemagne.” My oldest son sent me that quote after reading my blog where I announced that I, for a day, thought I was of royal lineage. It turns out, maybe I wasn’t so off the mark.

Mathematicians have long concluded that anyone alive 1,000 years ago and who has left descendants is an ancestor of every single European living today. Interesting information, especially in light of a recent discovery made regarding our family tree.

You may remember that I traced my wife’s lineage back to Plymouth Rock. Experience Mitchell married Jane Cooke, daughter of Frances Cooke. His lineage has been traced through the generations until it reached my wife and, of course, through her, our two sons. 

This is where it gets weird. Frances Cooke had other children. And when I began tracing the lineage of Jane’s younger brother Jacob, I discovered that, as we move through the generations, his lineage, which was also passed down from Frances Cooke, ended up at the woman who married my youngest son.

That’s right. My son married a wonderful girl who, as it turns out, was made just for him… by his 14th great-grandfather. Or to put it another way, he married his 13th cousin, once removed. That is not so unusual. The same thing can most likely be said about any couple. If we go back far enough, everyone is related.

It does make me think of a song I heard Ronnie Prophet once sing.  A song dating back to the 1940s that has been covered by many artists including Ray Stevens who you can hear by clicking on the link below.

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