DNA Snags Another Cousin & a Half Step.

If you follow this blog you know that I have had my DNA tested through Ancestry.com. I have also had my father and sister do the test. Recently I even had a second/fourth cousin take the test too. Ya know, I actually have a lot of family lines that have intermarried giving me a fair share of double cousins; mostly 2 siblings from one family marrying 2 siblings from another family. Anyway...

From time to time I look at the results of my test, my father's and my sister's too, to see what new matches have come along. As more and more people do the test, the more and more matches everyone receives. Recently I looked to see if my father had any new matches and sure enough there was a man who's results indicated that he and my father are third cousins which means they have great-great grandparents in common. That isn't that far back at all. So through Ancestry.com I sent an email to my father's match.

This man has one of those very "old Long Island" last name so I asked him if he had roots in Freeport where my father's "old Long Island" family was from. This man's reply startled me. He said no but that his grandmother was a Hinch. A Hinch? Wait, my great-great grandmother was a Hinch! Annette "Annie" Hinch? "No," he replied, "Sarah Hinch."

Sarah Hinch and Annie Hinch were sisters. Therefor, this man has the same great-great grandparents as my father, just like the test indicated! Our common ancestors are Annie & Sarah's parents; James Hinch (1816-1886) and Jane Kavanaugh-Hinch (dates unknown).

These two sister's lines are even more entangled, though, through marriage.

Annie Hinch was the wife of Victor Henry. Annie and Victor had three children the oldest of which was my great grandfather, Charles A. Henry (1896-1949). When Great-Grandpa Charles Henry died in 1949 he left his wife, Anna Henry a widow at barely 50 years old. Eventually, Anna remarried to her husband's cousin, Frank Stoothoff; a child of Sarah Hinch's from her first marriage. This "new" cousin I found through AncestryDNA is descended from an offspring of Sarah's second marriage.

Confusing, I know, but given that you're already lost I have no reservations in saying that this "new" DNA cousin's grandfather was the half-brother of my grandmother's step-brother; so he is my grandma's step-half-brother's grandson by marriage. He is also, just like the DNA test results stated, my father's third cousin by blood.

Can you tell I am very impressed with this DNA testing stuff??