If you go back far enough, you're related to everybody, of
course. Suppose a couple have three children that survive to breeding age and
that each of these marries a 'stranger' and has three children: in fact, assume
all couples have three breeding children. Therefore, in the second generation,
our three siblings have six cousins on their father's side, and six on their
mother's. If the pattern continues then, in addition to 12 cousins, a third
generation child will have 36 second cousins; a fourth generation child will
have 108 third cousins and so on. A sixth generation child will have 2
siblings, 12 1st cousins, 36 2nd cousins, 108 3rd cousins, 324 4th cousins and
972 5th cousins - a total of 1452 'cousins' of that generation. I have not
located all 1452 of my 6th-generation relatives, so who knows what famous or
infamous people I might be related to? It turns out that the Rt Hon Virginia
Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, PC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Bottomley)
is my fifth cousin. In the table below...
- [L] means "known to be left-handed"
- [O] Oxford University
- [C] Cambridge University
- [FOBAD] Fell off bicycle and died
|
Richard POULTON (1719 - 1779) m. Sarah ROUND (1724 - 1758) |
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5th child: Joseph POULTON (1751 - 1818) m. Sarah LANGTON (1749 - 1826) |
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4th child: Cornelius POULTON (1783 - 1856) m. Mary ALBAVETT(?) 1786 - 1869) |
brothers |
5th child: James POULTON (1787 - 1882) m. Maria SWALLOW (1797 - 1863) |
||
| 5th child: William POULTON (1822 - ?) m. Georgina BAGNALL | 1st cousins | 2nd child: John POULTON (1824 - 1903) n. Mary PARSONS (1825 - 1884) | ||
| 2nd child:
Prof. Sir
Edward Bagnall POULTON [L],[O] (1856 - 1943) m. Emily
PALMER This was apparantly not the only marriage between these two families - see here |
2nd cousins | 4th child: Kate POULTON (1865 - 1935) m. Walter GOODCHILD (1872 - 1960) | ||
| Emily, Maragaret or Janet m.
GARNETT. children: Edward, Emily, Margaret, Ronald [L],[O] (1889 - 1915), Janet [L],[FOBAD]. Ronald changed his name to POULTON PALMER after he inherited a fortune from his uncle G.W. Palmer (of biscuit fame) in 1913. GARNETT (first name not known) had two brothers Stuart [C] (1881 - 1916) and Kenneth [C](1882 - 1917) GARNETT. Kenneth was "the tallest man ever to row for Cambridge". The Garnetts' father was William, who worked with James Clark Maxwell [see Maxwell Garnett formula] and wrote a biography of Maxwell. |
3rd cousins | 3rd child: Sarah GOODCHILD (1899 - 1981) m. Claud GIBSON (1886 - 1962) | 4th child: James Poulton GOODCHILD m.
Violet GIBSON Sister to Claud. "Auntie Vi" |
|
| W. John GARNETT ( - 1997) m. unknown
One of Virginia Bottomley's given names is MAXWELL, but whether this indicates her mother's maiden name, Im not sure (see link with MAXWELL above). |
Margaret GARNETT m. Douglas JAY (1907 -
1996) Douglas JAY was Labour MP for Battersea North/Wandsworth (1946-83). Margaret is Peggy Jay. The clan of Jays is described here |
4th cousins | 2nd child: Robin GIBSON [L] | 3rd child: Elizabeth GOODCHILD "Libby". 1st cousin once removed. Awarded MBE on New Year Honours List 31/12/2003: "Elizabeth Kate Goodchild, head, Dorchester Ballet and Dance Club, services to dance." |
| Virginia GARNETT (1948 - ) m. Peter Bottomley [C] (1944 - ) | Peter JAY [C] m. Margaret CALLAGHAN (Baroness Jay) | 5th cousins | David GIBSON [L],[C] | |