Back on Dec. 22, I sent out an annual report, titled "Campbell Clan
2006". I sent it to people directly, not via this mail list, because I
didn't want it archived on a web site. If I missed sending it to any
desc. of Joseph and Mary Harper Campbell, let me know, and I'll forward
it to you.
Double First Cousins.
I just encountered that term, and don't remember running into it
before. I saw it on a family tree published by researcher Tim Nenno.
It appeared with the record for Sarah Alzuma Baxter (1827 - 1902),
mother of Charles W. Mourey [spelled variously] (1851 - 1935), husband
of Campbell Cousin Laura J. Bosard (1851 - 1928). Alzuma Baxter married
twice, 1st to Wm. Mourey, Charles' father.
Mr. Nenno gives a quote from Bailey Family History, Paul Johnson Slate,
Essex Mailings,Newark, NJ, May 1952, page 9, para 20, about Alzuma's
marriages: "She had two children by her first husband Willaim [sic]
Mowery. No further information is available about these children.
Four years later, she married Myron Johnson by whom she had fivechildren.
Her older brother married her husband's younger sister. The children of
these two marriages would be double first cousins which means they would
be like brother and sister since they would have the same chromosome
makeup."
In the quote, Mr. Slate was referring to the marriage of Philena Johnson
and William Henry Baxter. I should confess that altho I had both Myron
and Philena Johnson in our tree, I had not realized that they were
siblings. I'll add their parents to the next update.
Slate's statement immediately brought to mind brothers Sam and John
Hazlett marrying sisters Sarah and Jane Campbell. Which is slightly
different from brothers Joseph and James Campbell marrying half sisters
Ann Clinch and Mary Blackwell.
Except for identical twins, siblings are not genetically identical, so
some may wish to accuse Paul Johnson Slate of imprecise phrasing, but
precise or not, we know what he meant.
But Sam and Sally's children and John and Jane's are not the only
occurrence of double first cousins in our tree -- at least in the
version I published on the Internet. That might be a good "puzzler"
question to ponder on a cold winter night, curled up in from of the
fire, and with a bowl of pop corn --- How many other sets of double
first cousins can you find, or think of, in our tree?
Of course, there can be more cases like Myron and Philena, where the
individuals are in the tree, but I haven't discovered that they are
siblings. You may know of some double first cousin instances that will
be news to me. (But no fair making some up, just to win.).
Happy New Year, and to any of you who observe the Julian calendar, Merry
Christmas.