The Great Nepotism Experiment
By Ceil Wendt Jensen, Joan Sloan Broglin, and Jana LloydIt started with a simple conversation: a few coworkers talking about their family trees and their links to Denmark—some had ancestors from the same small towns. “I’d be surprised if we weren’t related,” someone quipped. That’s when it got ugly.
Accusations of nepotism started to fly (especially from the lone non-Dane in the group). It got even uglier when none of the coworkers could figure out how they’d benefited from some distant though unbeknownst-to-them family relationship.
Yet from all the flying dirt arose a phoenix: we would challenge teams of coworkers to prove whether they were actually cousins—three teams to be exact, including the one that caused all the fuss in the first place: Ancestry Publishing. The other teams chosen to play along would be a group of Washington State mental health workers and employees at Berea College in Kentucky. Each would get a professional family historian to help them eke out the secret connections in their family trees. And if there were no family connections, maybe someone could determine if ancestors had at least crossed paths somewhere and maybe said, “Hi.”
We’re all related somewhere, but does somewhere have to be the workplace? Here’s what we found. And how we found it.
Team 1: Mental health professionals
Team members: Trish Sowards, Linda Bowman, Heather Estep, Delores Fitch, Tony Screws
Location: Washington State
Researcher: Ceil Wendt Jensen
Ceil’s approach: Attack from all fronts
Sources stressed: Local libraries, historical societies, and on-the-ground researchers who could find primary documents
Whenever we have a question about Polish ancestry, Ceil Wendt Jensen is our go-to family historian. The author of numerous books on Polish and Michigan family history topics, what Ceil doesn’t know, she finds out from her intercontinental network of on-the-ground researchers. She may be one of the most well-connected people we’ve ever come across.
But for this experiment, we decided to test Ceil a little—sure, she knows everything Polish, but what would she do with a random group of mental health professionals with zero known Polish ties, living way out west in Washington?
Ceil’s first step was to learn a little more about each member of the group. To do this, she set up a basic MyFamily site at
Fortunately they each found time. And ultimately answers.
Ceil Starts
“Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!”
That was Ceil’s first report to the Washington team. It came after her request for background information on each team member that included all family history research they had done, known facts about their families, family history problems they were trying to solve, and any stories or legends they may have heard about ancestors—known or not.
As for that Englishman? Says Ceil, “All of the coworkers have an English line. In fact, three lines come from southern England: Devon, Wiltshire, and Portsmouth. We have one from Shropshire, one from Liverpool, and the Smalls most likely hail from England as well.”
First stop—U.S. census records. “But when we get into the 1830s we need to start using local histories. That’s when the local history rooms at regional public libraries become so important. Ancestry.com also has a number of pioneer histories that will be great for leads. Perhaps we will get [the Washington team members] all back to the Doomsday Book.”
Ceil’s Subjects
Team member: Linda Bowman
Surname: Small
Linda provided a family tree with the following note:
“Some of the documentation is great; some is, shall we say, done with creative license.”
Linda wanted to find William Small, born in or near New Jersey around 1808 and later moved to Ohio with his brothers. Said Linda, “I don’t know where William Small lived in Ohio, but I doubt this will get us anywhere anyway. The uncle who sent me this info … had actually gone to Ohio and searched library records. I hired a genealogist to go to Ohio and look for more info. She found nothing new.”
Ceil’s first step was the public library. “I make it a point of contacting them when I begin a new project.” In this case, it was the Mary L. Cook Public Library in Waynesville, Ohio, first, then the Burlington County Public Library, and finally the Burlington County Historical Society. In each case, the libraries researched and returned answers that pointed Ceil to her next step.
Results: “We found the names of parents for the Smalls of Ohio and found their county and village in New Jersey.”
Next step: “Look at wills and other data. Make positive connections between siblings. Review online histories and family trees like this one:
Team member: Delores Jones Fitch
Surname: Jones
Delores had heard quite a bit about her family but had little to back it all up. Her father, Elmer Warren Jones, was born in Eureka, California, on 30 August 1907; her mother, Marigold Juanita Hamilton, was born in Tacoma on 23 July 1920. Delores’s grandparents were from England, but she didn’t know where, and there was a rumor that they were related to Alexander Hamilton. Her father was said to be half Native American. She wanted to know the tribe and the hometowns—for future family history vacations.
Ceil started with the rumors. “I checked out the U.S. and Canadian censuses and did not find any Indian ancestry for Delores’s ancestors that would make her one-quarter American Indian. I also checked the Indian rolls. I also looked up Hamilton’s lineage for her. He was born out of wedlock on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean,” says Ceil. Strike two.
Ceil moved next through the Ontario Genealogical Society (Delores’s paternal grandfather arrived in America via Canada) and online Canadian indexes and histories. Her efforts yielded plat maps, a possible town name for the family in Ireland, and biographical sketches. Problems, however, arose because neither Ceil nor researcher Jenny Hansen could find birth records back in Ireland—even Salt Lake City’s Family History Library came up short.
Results: “We found a Canadian genealogical society in Hillier, Prince Edward County, Ontario, that can help Delores network and find additional information on collateral lines for the Jones family. We still need to identify the towns in Armgah and learn about the history of the Welsh (this line originates in Wales) in this north county of Ireland.”
Next step: Delores should focus on finding the Jones children who were born in Ireland and married and died in North America to learn more about their lives across the pond.
Team member: Tony Screws
Surname: Screws
Tony started by giving the following information. “John Screws migrated to the American colonies in the early 1600s. The Screws started plantations and migrated across the Southern states, with my great-great-grandfather Jacob Screws having a plantation in Barbour County, Alabama.” He also noted a rumored Michael Jackson connection—Prince Albert Screws, a documented Jackson relative, was said to be tied to Jacob Screws. Additionally, there appear to be a number of surname aberrations, ranging from Scruse to Crews.
Ceil’s first stop was the Crews/Screws DNA project for more information about the two Screws lines in Alabama. She hit pay dirt with the project’s owner, Bill Crews, a descendant of Allen Screws, the brother of Tony’s relative Jacob Screws. Bill didn’t know about the Michael Jackson connection (although he was intrigued by it). He did, however, provide a wealth of information about the family and how the Crews side of the family discovered they were actually Screws, courtesy of a perfect DNA match.
Results: “Tony suggests the father of the first ancestor in the States was Herclus Scruse. We identified a cousin who is already involved in a DNA study of the surnames, and we hope Tony will be able to contact the descendants of Prince Screw’s line in Natchez, Mississippi, and document their findings.”
Next step: Once Tony gets his own DNA test results, he can compare them to the numerous others posted in the Crews/Screws DNA project to see how closely they’re related, genetically speaking.
Team members: Heather Estep and Trish Sowards
Surnames: Estep and Sowards (respectively)
While Heather had the least family history experience and Trish had the most, they both had found quite a bit of information already written about their families. For Ceil, this was a mixed blessing. “A researcher begins to find a way to call that [prewritten] history their own. And along the way the inevitable happens—you’ll find two ancestors with the same name born the same year, born in adjoining states.” The problem, says Ceil, comes because it’s much easier to adopt the set of ancestors who have the written history rather than ones who have nothing documented.
“Both Heather Estep and Trish Sowards … have a unique genealogical journey to properly document their families back to the written family history. And then, they need to document the written history if that hasn’t been done,” says Ceil.
Ceil opted to focus on Trish’s Soward family, which had a variety of surname spellings. Trish had information that placed this family back in England, but documentation on that line went only as far as an 1892 baby picture of her grandfather. Said Trish, “I don’t have English records.”
Ceil turned to the Maryland Archives for Seaward documents, including plats and surveys. She also found an extraction of a will that contained the names of the plantations given to a number of the sons of one of Trish’s ancestors, Thomas Seaward. She tapped into British Isles information on the Internet, including an online database with birth information for Thomas Soward. Period histories, however, came up short on documentation or facts.
Results: “Trish’s Sowards are her toughest, but there are several historical groups in Indiana who would benefit from her documented research.”
Next Step: Join an early settlers society like the DAR, which could help her with her research. Document—prove—other people’s unsourced research.
Heather’s prewritten family history turned out to be a fantastic find. “In Heather’s case many researchers wish they had a familial gift like the one created by Russel Adin
Estep in his book Estep, Genealogy & Family History (self-published, c. 1947),” says Ceil.
Results: “Heather’s Estep line has riddles to solve, such as the origin of her surname. The family historian, Russel Adin Estep, suggests Catalan roots, the surname pronounced as Es TEP with the accent on the second syllable, but the first vowel sounding like the E in Eh.”
Next step: For Heather, the family history newcomer, it’s a matter of looking at and confirming the documents Russel already found. “For instance,” says Ceil, “a military record is cited as National Archives Bureau, Washington, D.C.- Bounty Files. Act of 55-80 et 47, 234. Veteran misfiled under Daniel Estep. Correct James Estep, 1812. Service Capt. Idm Goodall, Kentucky Mil. Co. No. 287 Bundle # 88. With this information, it would be easy to obtain a copy of the record for the researcher’s own documentation.”
Are They Related?
The short answer is no, at least not that Ceil could tell. “There is still the possibility that the lines converge in the distant past. We only skimmed the surface. Several of the coworkers have more than 300 years of history in the United States, but they have the possibility of getting back to 1086 and linking with one of the 268,984 individuals listed in the Doomsday Book.”
Team 2: Employees of Berea College
Team members: (l to r) Bridget
Carroll, Normandi Ellis, Julie
Moore Sowell, Tim Jordan
Location: Kentucky
Researcher: Jana Sloan Broglin
Jana’s approach: Go to the big sources—Jana focused on published histories and sources available at the Allen County Public Library to help each team member move family lines further back in time.
Ohio family historian Jana Sloan Broglin is a Midwestern pro, so it seemed natural to put her with our team from Kentucky’s Berea College—a group we nicknamed the “dream team.” Members of the team with less family history experience were quick studies, especially with the help of more experienced team members. They worked on their family histories at night, and on weekends they contacted family members and delved into obscure databases. They ended up making discoveries they hadn’t even thought of looking for before the project began.
Each of the team’s four members introduced him- or herself to Jana Broglin with a five-generation family group sheet (some more complete than others). And each knew some of the how’s and where’s of family history research. A close-knit team already from working together, they were intrigued to see if they were actually related somehow. And even if they didn’t connect, they knew they would all be rewarded with new family and ideas for future research.
Still, there were a few problems. “Members had ancestors in both the North and the South. Two members had ancestors in early Kentucky. Two of the participants had Irish ancestors,” says Jana Broglin. But there was a lot of Civil War service—maybe that could be the connection.
Team member: Bridget Carroll
Surnames: Louden, Jones, Reauchard/Ruschardt, Flanagan, McGrath,
Dyer, Kennedy, Burke, Cusack, O’Brien
“Bridget kept everyone on task. She was instrumental in getting the group to furnish information. She went back seven generations, all footnoted,” says Jana, who notes that Bridget’s family hailed mostly from Connecticut and New York—the only family in the group with these geographic areas. The plan then became to get everyone else’s research closer to Bridget’s.
Jana Broglin did request one thing: “I sent a note to Bridget asking for possible Civil War soldiers [in everyone’s family].” This would turn out to be one of the most important requests she made.
Team member: Tim Jordan
Surnames: Musgrave, Clayworth, Allison/Ellison, Patrick, Hampton, Graham, Jordan, Huffman, Henderson, Odell, Hiatt, Proctor, Estes, Stollings
“Tim has two Quaker lines, the only one to have them,” Jana reports. “His great-grandfather had the middle name of Wade [David Wade Patrick], and David’s mother was Frances Hampton. With these names, we looked for information on [a potential] tie-in to Wade Hampton, a South Carolina brigadier general in the Civil War, who was wounded at Gettysburg.”
In Jana’s search of census records, Tim’s Musgrave family just never showed up. Finally she found other records indicating they were living in Ohio in 1850. At the Allen County Public Library, Jana continued on Tim’s Quaker connection. “I checked both William Wade Hinshaw and the books of Willard Heiss. I couldn’t track the family,” she confesses.
Team member: Normandi Ellis
Surnames: Barstow, Marshall, Bryan, Fitzgerald, White, Davis, Ellis
Normandi hails from Kentucky, as do a number of her ancestors. Jana opted to first find out if Normandi’s two sets of Fitzgerald families connected—they didn’t. Normandi also has family lines from England. Jana attempted to cross this family’s path with Tim’s English ancestors; although they emigrated within five years of each other, Jana found no geographic match.
“I was able to locate quite a few death records for her families from the RootsWeb Kentucky Death Records, online,” says Jana. “And I did find her Stockton family in Anderson County, Kentucky. Normandi only had the name of William Clayton Stockton and wife, Lydia Bailey, with birthdates. For their daughter—[Normandi’s] line—no more was known.” Jana discovered that William was a direct descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and served in the Mexican War. She also discovered Lydia’s parents’ names and the names of their children all listed in the book History and Families of Anderson County, Kentucky. Score another point for local histories.
Team member: Julie Sowell
Surnames: Moore, James, Sphar/Spah, Wells, Mountjoy, Scott, Quinn
Julie’s family also hails from Kentucky. Her early mention of a Civil War soldier was a big factor in Jana’s desire to find more information about soldiers related to members of the group. Unfortunately, Julie has a lot of family members with common surnames, but even unique surnames like Mountjoy remained elusive.
Additionally, Jana attempted to find a male stand-in for a Y-DNA test, but male relatives that follow the right path in Julie’s family are pretty hard to find. “We tried to find a male line for [Julie]. I searched census records for Aldrich Moore, Julie’s grandfather. I located [his brother], Merrill Moore, who … died young,” says Jana.
Are They Related?
The answer is … maybe, but it’s a pretty big stretch. And even with extensive research, a motivated and knowledgeable team of family historians, families in close geographic proximity, a known presence at a historic event, and more, you just can’t make a strong family connection when there isn’t one.
After exhausting her pen-and-paper methods, Jana turned to technology, uploading each member’s tree to Ancestry.com to see if she could find any common famous relations. She did—between Julie and Tim, whose famous kin ranged from U.S. presidents to notorious outlaws. However, while the famous relations at Ancestry.com are fun and can be a great starting point to finding a family link between multiple people, they rely on user-submitted trees. To be certain that there is a connection, you still need to do good old-fashioned research.
There was, however, another, more colorful link. News of it arrived in an e-mail from team member Bridget:
I think that I found a connection!
Tim Jordan’s lateral ancestor Wade Hampton was a big deal—a brigadier general for South Carolina. He headed Hampton’s Legion. Wikipedia has a GREAT page on him. It mentions his “wild ride” with J.E.B. Stuart on the way to Gettysburg. I’m very familiar with the history of that “wild ride”…. I owned a three-story home in a small town, Wellsville, Pennsylvania. They stopped in the town to steal fresh horses. The horses were all moved from the town and hidden at Round Top which is now a ski area. J.E.B. apparently “visited” a number of the homes there. My home was supposedly one of them. I can still remember the Civil War cannonball gate closer we had.
Tim’s common ancestors with Wade Hampton are Margaret Wade and John Hampton II. Of course this has to be verified, but this looks like a connection that might work out quite well: my lowly private John A. Lowden and that mean old Wade Hampton [fought at Chancellorsville].
And if Wade WAS accompanying J.E.B. Stuart through Wellsville he probably took a shot at my house to try to stir up some horses and food.
—Bridget
Team 3: Ancestry Publishing
Team members: Jana Lloyd, Tana Pedersen, Matthew Rayback, Paul Rawlins, Jennifer Utley
Location: Utah
Researcher: Jana Lloyd (two Janas on our research team—what are the odds?)
Jana’s approach: Let the computer do it
This is where things get a little tricky. But it sure seemed to us—employees of an Internet family history company—that there had to be technology out there that would do the comparing for us. After asking around a little, we found it.
We put Jana Lloyd, editor of the Ancestry Monthly newsletter on the case. A great researcher in her own right, she lucked out too: this group was the ringer. Each member had extensive family history research (and it was digital); almost everyone participating had roots in Utah, England, and Scandinavian countries; we had the benefit of technology; and the team was surrounded by an office full of genealogists. We figured with all that going for us, we had to have a match, too.
Jana started by collecting GEDCOMs for herself, Tana, Matthew, Paul, and Jennifer; importing them into Family Tree Maker and running place-name reports, which show every location named in a family tree. “I compared reports, looking for similar locations, thinking that would be a good way to start searching—if any of our relatives hailed from the same spot.” The results? Disappointing at best. “The only thing I discovered was that Jennifer was born in the small town in California where I went to high school. But I didn’t show up until 21 years after she was gone,” says Jana.
Jana turned next to cheating—a rumored website that would do the comparisons for her. The website was Digital Roots
To use Digital Roots’s Relationship Finder, you enter the AFN of a person in your family tree as well as that person’s relationship to you. You can then enter the same information for the person you want to compare trees with. Jennifer, Paul, and Tana found AFNs for all eight great-grandparents. Jana and Matthew could each find only six. “Still,” Jana says, “it was a pretty comprehensive search of most of our lines.”
Are They Related?
Finally a yes. But not as extensively as they thought—and they had to go way back to get to a common ancestor. Here’s what Jana found.
Jana:
9th cousin with Paul (Common Ancestor: Abraham Anthony,
1650, Rhode Island)
9th cousin once removed with Matthew (Common Ancestor:
Thomas Parks, 1628, England)
11th cousin once removed with Jennifer (Common Ancestor:
Dolar Davis, 1602, England)
Paul:
See Jana
11th cousin once removed with Matthew (Common Ancestor:
John Hopkins, 1614, England)
10th cousin with Jennifer (Common Ancestor: John Page, 1614,
England)
Matthew:
See Jana and Paul
10th cousin once removed from Jennifer (Common Ancestor:
Harlan Harland, 1649, England)
Jennifer:
See Jana, Matthew, and Paul
Tana:
No common ancestors. (Jana has a theory on this: “I suspect this was because Tana’s trees weren’t as large in the Ancestral File—i.e., they didn’t go back far enough for us to hit ninth or 10th cousins. The success of [the Relationship Finder] depends a lot on how much information was included in the trees that were submitted.”)
The closest relationship was between Paul and Jana. The Relationship Finder shows this relationship through a chart that starts with the common ancestors and goes through the descendants until it gets to the person today. (For a link to the site and to Jana and Paul’s Relationship Finder results, visit
Fast, simple, and successful—provided you have someone in the Ancestral File, which hasn’t accepted new submissions in more than a decade. Plus, unless you submitted the tree to the Ancestral File, you can’t guarantee accuracy. But it only takes about half an hour to gather your info from the Ancestral File, figure out how to get it in the Relationship Finder, and run the reports. Then you can start on the verification process.
We also discovered two other programs with similar features: GENMatch and Gedsmart, both of which compare GEDCOMs. Jana tested each with free trial versions and the closest relationships she had found—her family lines that met up with Paul’s and Matthew’s.
The results? “Neither program showed any matches,” says Jana. Why no match? “Our connections in Relationship Finder go pretty far back—nine or 10 generations— and I don’t think we all have trees going back that far in our GEDCOMs. People who submitted to Ancestral File oft en submitted the most comprehensive trees they could, going back many generations. And because they go back further, there is more chance of a connection.”
Lesson Learned
So we might all be related, but finding a relationship to any acquaintance might not be as easy as any of us thought it would be. Maybe it’s just another good motivator to learn more about our family histories, since the further back your tree goes, the better chance you have of finding a connection to someone else. And the better the odds are that you’ll discover you and your coworkers, neighbors, golf foursome, bowling team, and Pilates class are one big happy family.
