My mother-in-law could be my eighth cousin. My mother-in-law is a stereotypical mother-in-law so that's enough reason to cringe right there.
It means I married my eighth cousin once removed too. It also means my kids are not only siblings but also their own tenth cousins.
Ok. That's enough.
The McConnell family that first came to Ohio in 1798 traces back to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Alexander McConnell was was my 7th great grandfather. It appears he was my mother-in-law's 7th great grandfather too.
Links from Alexander and his children are hard to show with certainty, but DNA evidence is showing common ancestors on both my kids' mom's side and their dad's side.
It has me convinced this is truly the case. And it has me cringing.
I think that sharing a common ancestor is not all that uncommon. The difficult part is finding the trail back. I have suspected for some time that Jayme and I had a common ancestor. Last week I discovered that WIlliam Hills (one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut) was that common ancestor. That makes my mother-in-law also my tenth cousin. I just wish she was still alive so I could have seen her face when I told her that we were related. She would have loved being tenth cousins.
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