Cousins Galore!

Last week, Randy from Genea-Musings posted this Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge:

1)  Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2)  Extra Credit:  Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.
HINT:  Make a Descendants Chart with your genealogy software program!

3)  Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to. 

4)  Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names?  Do you care? 

5)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own.  Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work. 

I love my cousins. However, I have no first cousins on my Dad’s side. They’re all on my Mum’s side and live in Texas, so the time that I get to spend with them is rare and extra special for me. The last time I saw my cousins was in June/July 2012, the last time I was in Texas.

Grandparents

1A. William D. D. Gow & Eunice Hazel Dyer had 2 children – my Dad & Aunt. My Aunt has never married nor had children. Hence, no first cousins on this side.

First Cousins & First Cousins 1x Removed
2nd Jan 2011, Texas, USA.
Grandad's 80th.

1B. Nancy Robinson & Herbert K. Renfrow had 3 children – my Aunt, Mum & Uncle.

Aunt Molly has 2 daughters, and my Uncle David has 4 daughters. That’s right, no male first cousins! My brother is the only grandson. Both Molly’s daughters have children. One has 3 boys, and the other has 2 boys. David’s eldest daughter has 2 children – a girl & boy.

1C. My Step Grandmother, Vivian Young, had 2 children – my Step Aunt & Step Uncle.

My Step Aunt has 1 daughter while my Step Uncle has no children.

Total

First Cousins: 7
First Cousins 1x Removed: 7

Great-Grandparents

2A. William Gow & Elizabeth Croal had 2 children – William (my Poppa) & Adam. Adam only lived for 24 hours, so no cousins there.

2B. James Albert Dyer & Eva Florence Mackay had 6 children – Claude, Eunice (Nanna), Earle, Vera, Noel & Enid.

Claude never married nor had children.

Earle had 1 daughter, Lorraine. I met her for the first time at his funeral in 2011. Lorraine has 3 children who I also met at the funeral.

Vera had 5 children – Noela, Shirley, Terry, Peter & Brian.
Brian died when he was 24. I am not sure if he had a child before he died or not.
Noela does have children but I have no idea how many.
Shirley has 2 daughters who both have children and a son who died in his 20’s.
Terry has 2 children, who between them have at least 6 children that I know of.
Peter, well, he has a son that I know of. That son might have children. I think Peter has been married a couple of times so he probably does have more children.

Aunty Vera’s family is huge itself and I have never been able to keep up. I still need to get her to write down a list of all of her descendants for me.

Noel had 3 children – Dawn, Rodney & Stephen.
Dawn passed away a couple of years ago. I am not 100% sure if she had children. I think she did, but not sure. Rodney & Stephen both have children but I do not know how many.

Enid had 4 children – Debbie, Gregory, Kerry & Leonie.
Leonie died when she was a baby.
I think Gregory might have children, but again, not sure.
Debbie has 3 children that I know of.
Kerry has 2 children, one of which has 4 children, and the other I’m not sure about.

Thus far,
Second Cousins (definite): 14
Second Cousins 1x Removed (definite): 10

Who knows what the actual numbers are though!

2C. Wiley Durwood Robinson & Maud Ella Sharp only had one child, my Grandmother, Nancy.

2D. Roscoe Eugene Renfrow & Ethel Eva Thompson had 4 children – Flora Nell, Roscoe Eugene Jr, James Calvin & my Grandad.

The Female Cousins.
Mum is the adorable little girl front right.

Flora Nell had 3 children – Becky, Betsy & Peggy.
Becky has 2 daughters. Between them, they have 5 children.
Betsy has 2 sons. One has 2 children.
Peggy has a daughter and son. The daughter has 1 son.

Roscoe Eugene Jr had 2 children – Terri & Larry.

Larry does not have any children.
Terri has a son and daughter. The son had his own son born in January this year.

James Calvin had 2 children – James Calvin Jr & Michael.

James Calvin Jr. has 3 daughters. One daughter has 2 children, one has 3 and the other has 1.
Michael has 1 son.

Thus far,

Second Cousins: 12
Second Cousins 1x Removed: 15

Total
Second Cousins: 26
Second Cousins 1x Removed: 25

The actual numbers are going to be much higher.

I seem to be more clued up with cousins on my Mum’s side of the family even though I rarely see them! While I was doing this, I updated my tree on Ancestry.com by adding second cousins once removed who I had not listed. I definitely have some homework to do on my Aussie side though.  

A Genealogy Happy Dance.

As a result of Scotlands People publishing my article about my Great Great Aunt Jeannie Gow, I’ve received many messages from others asking if their Gow’s are related to my Gow’s. Two people even recognized the handwriting in the photo. The handwriting is that of my second cousin once removed, Betsy, who lives in New Zealand. Betsy is a descendant of my Great Grandfather William’s brother John. I’ve never met Betsy, but she was in close contact with my Grandfather in the 70’s & 80’s. In the late 80’s, they even travelled to Scotland together. They lost contact during the 90’s, and my Grandfather passed away in 2003.

Before I go any further, here’s a quick back story: My Great Grandfather William Gow was the youngest of 5 – John, Robert, Isabella, Jeannie & William. John immigrated to Ireland, Robert & William to Sydney, and the girls remained in Scotland.

When I started delving into the family history a few years ago, my Aunt always said that we must get in contact with Betsy, but we never succeeded in doing so. About 2 years ago, another distant cousin, John, who lives in Canada (also a descendant of John), put me in contact with many descendants of Robert. One of my new found distant cousins, Heather, who also lives in New Zealand, had an address for Betsy. When I solved the mystery of Jeannie, I posted a copy of the documents to Betsy, but never received a response.

Now, a few weeks ago, I had an email from Carole. Carole’s husband is related to Betsy on the non-Gow side. I was so excited!

I learned that Betsy is 85, and living in a nursing home with early stages of dementia. Hence, she hasn’t delved into the family history for a while. Carole took Betsy a copy of my Scotlands People article which she read, and also helped Betsy with establishing where I fit in her family tree. Betsy had only completed up to my Dad. Betsy gave Carole her genealogy folder full of information on our Gow family for her to scan and send to me.

Yesterday, I received a few e-mails from Carole, and it was not at all what I was expecting. The first contained photos of my Great Grandfather William when he was a teenager. These photos I had not seen before, so I was quite excited. However, my excitement shot through the roof when I discovered that Carole had sent me photos of Isabella, Jeannie & Robert too!!! I had never ever ever seen photos of Isabella, Jeannie or Robert before! I was massively happy dancing!! A little later last night, I realized that I now have photos of all 5 siblings!! And of course, I had my own dance party in my room.

I felt like this moment deserved fireworks. Sadly no fireworks could occur in my room for safety reasons.

I shall be posting these new photos over the next couple of days, so do keep your eyes peeled.

And to Carole, all I can say is thank you!