What a Small World, we live in

When you study genealogy, you quickly learn how small our world is. I started researching family trees around 2010, and every once in a while fun little stories or facts pop-up. It becomes quite addicting, really. 

Within this last year I learned through Gedmatch.com -that my stepdaughters and I are 12th cousins. Which we found really cool- because we all get along nicely.

I also learned from an account that I manage that his parents are 3rd cousins. They didn’t know about it, but didn’t seem surprised either. 

Then today.... I received an email from a nice lady that goes by the name Jackie, looking for information on her mother’s family tree (do to being adopted out). Well, this lady was a match to me, my kids and grandfather. Not unusual- until you look at the distance. She was a (5th - 8th cousin) to me, my mom, aunt and my grandfather - but a 4th cousin to my daughter Michelle. 

Then I realized that the person she was talking about, name Bonke - was in my daughters- fathers family tree. (Her great, great grandmother).

I at first thought! Oh wow! That means..... My grandfather and my daughters great, great grandmother on her dads side of the family might be cousins? That would means that I am a distant cousin (8th - 10th cousin) to my ex!

Luckily... that is not the case - just a very close coincidence. GED match has these wonderful comparison tools that allow you to compare chromosomes. My grandfather, mom, aunt, I and my one daughter (the half sister) match at chromosome 9. Meaning Jackie matching my grandfather has nothing to do with the Bonke tree. (It's a different connection). She matches as a 4th cousin to my daughter Michelle through chromosome 2, 4, 10 and 15. What that means is different chromosomes / different DNA.

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