Way back in the mid 18th century, my 6th great-grandparents, Sarah Wreford and John Wreford, married. Sarah and John were 1st cousins – their fathers were brothers.

This kind of situation leads to what is known as ‘pedigree collapse’.

A typical pedigree assumes each set of parents are unrelated to each other and each generation doubles (since each person has 2 parents).

Pedigree collapse occurs when two people who share ancestors reproduce.  

This is demonstrated in the pedigree of Sarah and John’s son (and my 5th great-grandfather), John Wreford:

Instead of having four distinct sets of great-grandparents, Sarah and John’s children had only three.

Their children had only 6 great-parents instead of 8; 12 second great-grandparents instead of 16; 24 third great-grandparents instead of 32; and so on. (The number of ancestors lost each generation doubles: 8 -2; 16 -4; 32 -8; etc.)

This got me wondering. What knock on effect would 2 less ancestors have on my overall ancestor count?

My pedigree is typical until the 11th generation, where I lose 2 8x great grandparents. So instead of 1024 8xGGP, I have 1022; instead of 2048 9xGGP, I have 2044 ; instead of 4096 10xGGP, I have 4088; and so on.

My ancestor count (so far) looks like this:

Further calculations will need to be made if/when I find more kissing cousins.

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Father and son, Alexander and Andrew Strachan, were presented as connected to me via Elizabeth Buchan (b1874). Elizabeth was shown as a granddaughter of John (Park’s Jockie) Buchan (b1792). However, it turns out that her father was not Peter Buchan, the son of ‘Park’s Jockie’, but actually Peter Buchan, the son of ‘Park’s Pet’. ‘Park’ was a tee-name for their father, Peter Buchan.  (If you’ve never heard of tee-names, Ian Kenn gives a good explanation on his site Portal to Portlethen.)

The following updated chart shows the closest way the five men were connected to me (based on current knowledge):

(Note: Andrew Bruce was the nephew of Charles Bruce but he’s more closely connected to me through his wife, Ann Buchan)

Posts in this series:

Five Men Drowned – Connections
Five Men Drowned
Five Men Drowned – Two Recovered
Five Men Drowned – Three Buried at Sea
Five Men Drowned – One Survivor

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I can imagine how Brock and Freed could look similar in faded, pre-regency period handwriting. This was one of three John STILINGs that came up in the search but the only one with a Grace for a bride. Their oldest child was born in 1811 so the dates also fit.

Oh, how I wish I could see the original record right now.

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The same names tend to keep cropping up. Often in trouble, William Livermore at one time received 4 strokes for throwing a lighted match at a girl. This didn’t seem to deter him as he was given 2 more strokes a month later for ‘Striking matches’. The Livermores seemed to be a difficult family as Stanley Livermore (possibly William’s sibling) was once given 2 strokes for biting J. Newman and Ernest Livermore was also punished a few times.

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I had a bit of a hunch and it seems I was correct.

As Jane seemed to be the one looking after Agnes, I wondered if she was the daughter Agnes thought people believed she had killed. I searched the death records and found she died in 1886. 2 years before Agnes was admitted to the asylum.

Her brother John informed the death as well as petitioned for her admittance. I presume Agnes stayed with him until it got too much for him and his family. Her address prior to admittance was 12 Charleston (a nearby village). If I can find evidence of John living at this address, it seems to be the most likely scenario.

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My mother migrated to Australia with her parents and younger sister when she was 9.

As a result, I know little about that side of the family but my mother remembers the time with her grandparents fondly.

In 2001, I was able to make a short trip to Belgium where I met my grandfather’s brother and his wife, who are wonderful people. Amongst many other activities, they took me to the grave of my great grandparents near Charleroi (which as you can see contains VERY little information).

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While in Devon I paid a visit to the lovely village of Broadhembury. I had hopes of finding the graves of my STILING forebears to give me some new leads – this wasn’t to be. I did however, find the graves of some other Stilings. These Stilings are bound to be related somewhere along the line so I post these photos of their gravestones to help out distant family members who may be looking for these guys.

*note* – These inscriptions were extremely difficult to read. Most of the last one was deciphered through touch and educated guesswork so may not be entirely accurate.

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