Unknown Cousins by the Dozens

#52ancestors 2019-03-11
—Week 11 — Large Family

Unknown Cousins by the Dozens 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

One of the largest families in my Vanderpool database has no surname — it is simply listed as [—?—], meaning the surname is unknown. Well, that’s not 100% accurate, because Vanderpool is by far the largest family in the database, but I do have a number of people for whom a surname has not been found. There are way too many Johnsons and Jones in my tree, too, but all-in-all I’m lucky to have many less-common surnames. Of course, there are the numerous “Van—” and “Vander—” names — thanks to my New Netherland Dutch heritage.

 I was not surprised to discover that I have many Mary [—?—] and this includes the Mary Anns, Mary Elizabeths, Mary J., Mary “Polly,” et al ladies. More than 80 of them as I quickly can determine. Next most popular given name is Elizabeth (without a known surname) and all its variants including Eliza, Lizzie, and Betsy. Then comes Sarah/Sara, Nancy, Margaret and Lucy. 

As an unofficial rule in my pedigree it appears my Williams usually married Marys and my Johns married Elizabeths. Some of them even married two Marys and two Elizabeths — not at the same time — but I’m sure they did it just to confuse me. 

Of course, not everyone in my Vanderpool database is an ancestor, in-law, or even blood-related to me. Many are remotely connected and for which I’m grateful that my genealogy software can usually figure out our relationship, if there is one. What fun to learn someone is your 5C3R (fifth cousins three times removed). That’s one reward for working with these one-name databases. I think it is going to help with the DNA connections, too. 

I love my “unknowns” — they challenge me to do more research and see if I can discover their full names and who they are and how they connect. Naturally, there are some days when I wish I had a smaller family of [—?—], [—?—] and [—?—], Marys, or Elizabeths, or Marthas, hanging on the tree. 

 But I keep plugging along enjoying each new find, each new fact, and fresh evidence, because I’ve never known anyone who has completed their family tree and I now understand why.