A Cousin So Great He's an Ancestor

Bob Engel's explanation why he started up his piano store in California is a bit confusing.

“I was born in San Jose, so there was a draw to come back to California. And I have a strong heritage in Castro Valley as a direct descendant of James Harvey Strobridge, a great-great cousin who engineered the railroad between California and Utah.” [Link]

Girl's Blood Tests Negative for Acting

At summer camp, Haley Wilcox, 9, snagged the role of a reporter covering the trial of the Big Bad Wolf. She says that she's genetically disposed to tread the boards.

"I have acting in my blood because my ancestors are Lillian and Dorothy Gish," Wilcox said.

Wilcox, the daughter of Kelly and Curt Wilcox of Galesburg, said she's done plays in school before but this is her first "real performance." [Link]

Sisters Lillian and Dorothy both died childless and—unless the father who abandoned them planted his seed elsewhere—had no siblings aside from each other. Since she's only 9, I won't relentlessly mock Haley for her dubious claim, and will concede that she could be a far-removed cousin of the two actresses.

Good Story, Poor Genealogy

From the New Jersey Herald:

A civil rivalry, without the war

Sunday, July 17, 2005

By JEANNETTE SCHEIN
Herald Staff Writer

The competitive spirit of Civil War adversaries Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee has stretched into the 20th and 21st centuries in Hampton. That's where Jennifer Rosen, 17, a descendant of Lee, and Kira Grant, 18, a descendant of Grant, have lived across the street from each other in Hampton Commons.

Friends virtually since birth — Rosen says Grant "was at my house from the day she was born" — the two have had their eyes on similar prizes often.

"We compete for everything," she said, laughing. "It's amazing we're still friends."

[snip]

According to Kira's father, William Grant, Ulysses S. Grant was his great, great, great uncle, once removed.

"My father kept a lot of records about it," William Grant said. "Our family came over on the second trip of the Mayflower."

[snip]

Rosen, who said Lee was her "great uncle from way, way back," admits she and Kira Grant both found their Civil War connection interesting.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

A nice story, but the girls are not descended from Grant and Lee (though the generals could be called collateral ancestors), I'm not sure how a great-great-great-uncle can be "once removed," and the Mayflower didn't make a second trip.