Great grandpappy

It always confused me that dad’s great grandfather, Stephen Talmadge Byrd, married his wife, Eugenia Mae Byrd, with her last name already being “Byrd.” I just always thought that was a mistake somehow.

Well, it’s not.

Stephen Talmadge married his 2nd cousin, once removed. It looks like this:

Arthur Samuel is dad’s third great grandfather. He had the entire family that came to Alabama. One of his sons, Stephen, is the direct ancestor of Stephen Talmadge. Another son, Jeptha, is the direct ancestor of Eugenia Mae, who Stephen Talmadge later married. That means that for all the folks in the family tree between Arthur Samuel and Stephen Talmadge/Eugenia Mae, there are TWO relationships.

• Stephen Byrd is dad’s third great grandfather AND third great uncle.
• Arthur Phillip Byrd is dad’s second great grandfather AND 1st cousin 3 times removed.
• John Millard Fillmore is dad’s great uncle, great grandfather, AND 2nd cousin three times removed.

And since that had occurred as well in a preceding generation–William Wiley married Amanda Owens, who was HIS second cousin…

Good Lord, Wiley and Amanda, too!?

…it means that in addition to the relationship above, Stephen and Eugenia were 2nd cousins, once removed, in two different ways.  Here’s the other linkage.

…and it just gets stickier from there, because Clifford Curtis (paw-paw, obviously) had a brother named Ollie. (Dad knows this part) Clifford Curtis married Eliza Mae Dewberry, and Ollie married her sister, Carrie. That means that all the sons and daughters of Olle/Carrie and Clifford/Eliza are double first cousins.

Then, just to put icing on the cake: Eugenia Mae remarried after Stephen Talmadge died in 1911 to John Columbus Chavers Sr. They had a large family, too, and one of their sons, John Columbus Chavers Jr. (Uncle JC) married a third Dewberry sister, Katherine, and they had kids, too.

That means that Will and Mary Lou are, to dad, half cousins (through Eugenia Mae), full first cousins (because granny Byrd and aunt Katherine were sisters), AND fourth cousins once removed (going all the way back through Stephen Talmadge Byrd to Arthur Samuel Byrd).

Our family tree has some interesting knotholes and places where the branches apparently have grown together.