I'm From Alabama, And I Did, In Fact, Marry My Cousin

We spend most Saturday and Sunday mornings playing online while we sip coffee and wake up. It can lead us to doing things like getting our passports the following Monday or planting a dozen shrubs/fruit trees in our yard. Yesterday we looked for travel destinations, so we can make use of those passport. Today we found ourselves looking into how closely related we actually were.

Lee's grandfather, Daddy Jay, could name all five of my grandfather's aunt's and uncles, so I figured it was pretty close. He would list them as follows: Bud, Bratch, Jim, Dock and Dolly, almost like it was a limerick. We share great-great-great-great-grandparents, Moses Cornelius & Cynthia Bynum. On Lee's side their son Joel Cornelius married Polly Easley, who begot William Thomas Cornelius, who married Charlotte Putman and begot Christopher Columbus Cornelius, who married Viola Thompson and begot Jay Pinson Cornelius, who married Dorothy Rutherford and begot Mary Elizabeth Cornelius, who married French O Whitten, Jr and begot Lee (love of my life) Cornelius Whitten.

On my side Moses & Cynthia's daughter, Eliza, married Tapley Bynum and begot Sarah Jane Bynum, who married William Squire Faulkner and begot Samuel Squire (Dock) Faulkner, who married Elma Gallups and begot Euel Otis Faulkner, who married Dorothy Inez Marsh and begot Pearlie Faye Faulkner, who married Charles Edward Crane, Jr and begot me. Whew! So we're 5th cousins.

We were surprised to see how close it was. Growing up I called people who were less closely related than we are cousins, so I found it a little more unsettling than Lee did. We're laughing now because he didn't think he had any living relatives left, but now he realizes that he has mine and not just through marriage. Our research led us to our ancestor, Rowland Cornelius, a Dutch immigrant, who came over on a boat around 1665. We found where the family name was changed from Fortner to Faulkner. Pleasant Fortner moved his family from South Carolina to Alabama and all his children were named Faulkner.

We did take notice of recurring names and I told Lee something wasn't right there. Then we found it. Oh no! Eliza and Tapley were first cousins. Eliza's mother, Cynthia, and Tapley's father, John, were siblings. So, and Lee is in no way owning this crap, my great, great, great grandparents are also my first cousins five times removed. Our family tree looks more like a topsy-turvy with strawberries growing out the top and tomatoes growing out the bottom, with a whole mess of vines instead of branches.