Jean Hall and Joan Hall

 
You've seen this picture before, but it was a long way back, so I'll repeat it. On the left is my cousin Jean. We have the same middle name. I am about six months older, and I'm on the right. Her two younger sisters are between us, Lavina (Viney) and Wendy. This picture was taken in the summer of 1956.

I call us cousins loosely. We are related somehow, but had never actually figured it out. We both know that the documentation existed, but hadn't looked it up. Actually, Jean and I haven't seen each other since we were 14, but have connected by email in the past few years. So, now, we are getting interested in figuring this out. We speculated that our grandmothers were first cousins, but after some intensive searching of piles tonight, I now have the actual answer.

Since I scoured the family albums this week for any other childhood pictures I had of her family, I declare this "Family Friday" so I can post it on Chuck's linky. (Since I often have trouble remembering what day it is, I might as well embrace the confusion.)

First of all, here are Jean and me. She recently revealed her face on Facebook, and it's neat for me to see her. She looks like her grandfather's side of the family, but I look more like my mother's.


I have a picture of all our parents together, also taken in 1956. My dad is on the far left, then Jean's dad, George Kilquist. Next is my mom, Catherine Rowe Leary, and then Jean's mom, Nancy. Nancy is still alive and doing well. The blood connection is George and Catherine.



I can do one more generation back with pictures together. The lady on the far left is Mabel Hall Kilquist, Jean's grandmother. Then come her two siblings Mary and Gilbert (Bert). Jean thought there was another, Percy, and she was right. It's in the records, but he had died before this picture was taken, I believe. On the far right is my grandmother Emily Marquerite Fisher Rowe. Did you notice the re-appearance of the "Hall" name?



And that was as far as Jean and I could take it in our heads. But, drum roll, Jean, here is the answer. Percy, Bert, Mabel and Mary were the children of Henry Hervey Hall and Helen Leonard Williams.

Emily (and Lew, Ben and Charlie) were the children of Charles Alfred Fisher and Catherine Louisa Hall Fisher. There's "Hall" again.

Now, we have to go back once more. Henry Hervey and Catherine Louisa are both children of Hervey Smith Hall and Lucinda Cornelia Fisher. (Don't get too confused. It's the same Fisher family as Catherine Louisa later married into, but not a close cousin.)

So... yes, our grandmothers were first cousins, but the generations are a perfect match, so I think that makes us third cousins. Chuck will straighten me out if I'm wrong.

Whew... sorry, no interesting stories about the people, tonight's project was just to figure out the puzzle.

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