My Mother & Father Were Cousins

The title of this post sounds unusual … and maybe even a little sick. But in actuality it is very common.

Ancestors of Katherine Spinney and Frederic Holmes were already present in New England in the early 1600s. The selection of a spouse for marriage at that time was at best slim. It was not unusual for two or three sons and daughters from one family to marry two or three from another family. Even though the American Revolution temporarily separated the families into Patriots and Loyalists, with the Loyalists removing to Canada, it did not matter. The links were already in place.

I have found three such relationships and there are probably more, maybe several more. The three reported are to Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, RI, John Andrews of Connecticut and Sylvester Baldwin of Aston Clinton in the county of Bucks, England. Sylvester never actually made it to New England but died during the passage. His children did make it over.

The ancestry of Frederic Holmes and Katherine Spinney are very similar. Both are descendent from passengers of the ship Mayflower which landed at Plymouth in 1620. Both are descendent from English royalty and both have common genes. However at ten generations removed this commonality is only about 1 part in 1000 parts.