How many first cousins do you have? Most people have 4-6 first cousins. Those are your parents-siblings-children. You know your aunt and uncle’s kids. The ones you played with when you were a kid but kinda lost contact with except for at your grandparents funeral.
Ok let’s assume each family has 3 kids (we know way-back-when the families were WAY bigger) look at how our cousins list grows! And an example of 6 kids per family to boggle your mind. It’s amazing how fast our families grow when we consider this.
3 kids per family 6 kids per family
1st cousin 9 36
2nd cousin 27 216
3rd cousin 81 1,296
4th cousin 243 7,776
5th cousin 729 46,656
6th cousin 2,187 279,936
7th cousin 6,561 1,679,616
When God said go forth and multiply he wasn’t kidding.
Now, not all those cousins are alive in your life time, but if your family kept good records (like mine did) you have a chance to know your 1st, 2nd, 3rd cousins. And now with DNA test results I have made connections with 7th cousins!!!!
Long ago, I learned a lesson about cousins. Originally from the Pacific Northwest I spent one year in Denver, Colorado. I attended a music history class at a local community college. The story is published in the July/August 1990 Genealogical Helper.
My Cousin, Jeanette hadn’t always lived in Denver either. We were both so surprised our paths crossed there. While The Genealogy Helper Magazine is no longer being published you can find an index to some years on MyHeritage.
So, you’re guessing you have cousins by the dozens who you want to get to know or you think may have genealogical information that you don’t. Here are some tips:
- Ask the cousins you do know.
- Read the obituaries of your great grandparents looking for names listed.
- Research on line.
- Contact your local genealogy society.
What a small world it is. I bet you have a relative living your town and you didn’t even know it. That makes a good reminder to treat everyone like your cousin, it is basically a good way to treat all people. After all what the world needs now is love, more love and kindness.
Here is one example of how to find family history information about your people. I know my family lived in Waumandee, Buffalo County, Wisconsin so let’s look at Buffalo County Online. bchsonline.com/web/family-history-list/
The Buffalo County Historical Society has many resources available for viewing in our office. You can look at newspapers or Buffalo County Census Records on microfilm. We also have many family histories on file.
From their webpage – Family History List
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF FAMILY HISTORIES THAT HAVE BEEN COLLECTED IN THE BUFFALO COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICE. THESE HISTORIES RANGE FROM SHORT NEWS ARTICLES TO PROFESSIONALLY PUBLISHED BOOKS.
There are hundreds of books and documents listed – here are the ones related to MY family tree.
Double Cousins By the Dozens; by Roger M. Goetz, (1982), names: Heck-Heike, Horn, Kuehn, Lauterbach, Linse, Otto, Pfund, Richter, Rick, Schultz, and Steinke primarily of Buffalo and LaCrosse Counties
Linse-Schlegel/Schlagel from Germany With Love To…Ontario, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Washington; by Bette Schlagel Rogers and Jan L. Rogers Jorgenson, (June 1984), names: Linse-Schlegel/Schlagel
Oral History Interview with Lois Linse Gleiter; by Dale E. Treleven, (1974), names: Gleiter
Events of My Life. Born February 14, 1913 To ?; by Hilbert George Michael Kochenderfer, names: Kochenderfer
Kochenderfer House “Oldest Building in County Nominee”; names: Kochenderfer
Excerpts from Trempealeau and Buffalo County Papers in doing Family History and Helping Others; by Millicent A. Hild, (January 1997), names: Faulds, Luetscher, Buehler, Ristow, Saxer, Muhleisen, Genealogy in Buffalo and Trempealeau counties of the authors own families.
Johannes STEINER Family in Wisconsin (1846-1996); by Mary Anne Falk, (August 1996), names: Steiner
Leonard and Katherine Hardt Blank Descendants; by Alethea Blank Keller, (2002), names: Blank
Note: The Buffalo County Historical Society also can do genealogy research for you for a fee! The research rates are $10.00/hr if you are a current member of the society and $15.00/hr if you are not a member (there is a one hour minimum). We also charge $0.50/copy for the first 10 copies made and $0.25/copy for each copy after that as well as postage. If you would like to have some research done, please contact us by e-mail or you can send your check or money order with your request to: BCHS, PO Box 394, Alma, WI 54610.
If you’d like my help finding your cousins, drop me a line! And, of course, once you have your story written up share it with your local genealogy library for others to learn from!
Ps/ are you my cousin?
Geneographer 