52 Ancestors Week 38: Cousins

Week 38: Cousins

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Cousins can make our family history more interesting. Whether it's the family stories you share with your close cousins at holiday gatherings or the research you share with the more distant cousins, you shouldn't overlook the impact that cousins make. This week, write something about one of these important people. Maybe it's a favorite memory with a cousin or a research breakthrough you made thanks to one.

Just hangin' out with Nana in the '90s.

Cousins are great and Amy's right. They definitely make family history very interesting and entertaining. I grew up with eight cousins on my mother's side and my dad's first cousins and their kids on his side. The stories I have in my head would probably take ages to tell because I saw them all quite frequently. There was this meme on Facebook a while back which summed up cousins nicely. They're your first friends and no one else can help you understand your crazy family but them.

The same thing could be said for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and even 5th cousins! Cousins are great and helping them out is even better. I've mentioned that before I began my genealogical adventure, two cousins on my father's side sought me out. We talked off and on and I got a great deal of insight about the family from both of them. I'll be forever grateful to them for that. Years later, it was my turn to return the favor.

In March of 2018, I received a private message on Ancestry from a lady named "Jenna". (The names have changed to protect the innocent!!) Jenna told me that she and her biological mother were DNA matches with me. I had just gotten my results that week and honestly I was taken aback! She was the first person outside of Mary Tedesco and my third cousin to contact me. Naturally, I played it cool. I've been talking to people online for years and years. This was no different than talking to someone in a chatroom or a message board at that point.

Jenna explained to me that she was adopted and that her mother was adopted as well. She needed my help in figuring out her connection to me. We share 22 centimorgans and according to Ancestry and Blaine Bettinger's Shared cM Project this put her right in the 4th cousin bracket. She was also in contact with one of my mom's first cousins as she had her DNA tested as well.

In her travels, Jenna found a sister and several matches on both of her biological parents' side. She desperately wanted to know where she came from as she was born in New York and her biological mother was born in Massachusetts. I agreed and said that to really help her out, we needed to talk on Skype. I helped set her up and the adventure REALLY began.

We talked on voice/webcam and she showed me a tree her adoption angel had made for her. It was.....How do I put this nicely? It was a giant mess. For some reason, the adoption angel put Jenna as a descendant of Austin Charles Felker. Austin was my grandmother's brother and he lived quite largely. He had many wives and lovers. While it could've been possible that she descended from Austin, the logistics made it a downright impossibility for these reasons:

1. He spent most of his life in Florida and never went to New York.
2. He would have been too old to have had a fling with Jenna's birth mother. Plus Jenna was born in the '80s. The time scale didn't make any sense.
3. The centimorgan count would have been much, much, MUCH higher than 22 cMs had she been a product of Austin's philandering. And she would have shared so much more cMs with my mom's cousin.

The following conversation took place:

Me: So, this tree is wrong. So very wrong.
Jenna: What do you think I should do?
Me: Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Jenna: Aliens reference?
Me: Yup.

She deleted the tree the adoption angel made for her. All wasn't completely lost. She had duplicate trees which linked to her DNA test and her research. This was just one adoption angel tree and it was a giant mess. As luck would have it, my mother's DNA results came in about a month or so after my results did. Naturally, she shared more DNA with her, her mother and her sister. There was still the matter of finding out where she fit into the family.

Figuring that out was a bit of a trick. Fortunately, Jenna received a few documents which were keys to solving our puzzle. These were, of course, a letter from her adoption agency and a copy of her birth mother's birth certificate.

On it, she found that her maternal grandmother was a woman named Marilyn Ella Lewis. She had me look her up on Familysearch to see what information I could find about her. According to the 1930 census, she was the daughter of a woman named Josephine Robidoux.

From there, things just fell like a row of dominoes because there was a LOT of information about Josephine Robidoux. She married twice. First to a man named Leslie Angus Lewis and then to a man named Frederick Russell Longway. She was born in Massachusetts to Noah Robidoux and Josephine Cadran.

Noah Robidoux and Josephine Cadran, Jenna's
2x great-grandparents.

That last name was very familiar to me because my 2x great-grandmother was a Cadran as well. Her name was Lucie and she was the daughter of Pierre Cadran and Eulalie Bibeau. I already had Josephine in my tree because I tend to add everyone's brothers and sisters. It's great cousin bait! I smiled. I finally figured out how she was connected! All I needed to do now was confirm everything. So, I dug a bit deeper and found Josephine's marriage to Noah in 1882. It listed Pierre and Eulalie as her parents. I found Eulalie's obit in Haverhill, which again listed a "Mrs. Josephine Robidoux" in it. Everything fell into place.

Back on Familysearch, I looked for Noah and Josephine again and found a picture of the couple living in what I assume to be Haverhill in the early 1900s. They look quite young in that picture. I sent a private message to the person who uploaded the picture and explained Jenna's story to her. She said I could take it and give it to her with her blessing. I was so happy!

I quickly messaged my newly confirmed 4th cousin and told her everything I found. I presented the picture and I wish I had the camera on because it sounded like she had tears of joy. She was happy that she found our connection. I was happy that I helped her out. I just wish I had Lucie's picture. But, that's a battle for another day.

In the end, I'm glad that I helped out my cousin because she really needed someone to guide her through the bumpy road that is the genealogical adventure. We did find she was still connected to my mom, my mom's cousin and myself. Just had to kick it a generation or two back in time before we had something that made sense.

Helping people is great and it's what I like most about genealogy. You meet all kinds of people and hear all kinds of stories. Some good. Some heartbreaking. I'd like to think that this adventure went a long way to helping her find the answers she was looking for.

She went from having no clue about her French-Canadian roots to having a face to go with the names of her 2x great-grandparents. That's just amazing and makes me feel pretty good as well.

See you next time!

A lot can happen in ten years....