Six Degrees of Benjamin Reeves 

as always, unapologetically unedited...

(Authors note: Sometimes, genealogy is like a game of Chinese Checkers scratched out on a chalkboard. You just go with what you've got and hope for the best.)

You know, like this:

(I → D) ∧ (I → (Y1 ∧ Y2)) ∧ (D → (Y1 ∧ Y2)) ∧ ((Y1 ∧ Y2 ∧ I) → B) ∧ (D → B) 

                                           ******

Nah, that's not him. That's not Ben.

Not that you were wondering about the guy in the pic - but I gotta tell ya that the dude shown above just isn't Benjamin Reeves (ca. 1761-ca.1851). That's because, the truth is, I don't really have a picture of Ben, and further, this whole post really isn't about old Ben at all... 

Say what??  

Nope. It's about how to get back to Ben, or whatever "degree of separation" it is that separates "us all" from him - Old Ben - or in the end, from each other. Sadly, the picture above is just as close an image of Benjamin Reeves as I could find or come up with, as well, Ben's been dead a long time. (Um, duh...) As near as I can tell, the guy in the picture is likely Ben's grandson Hiram Burson, my great-great-grandfather. What? Remember I said that genealogy could be a lot like Chinese Checkers? Well, maybe I should have said like a game of Horse Shoes instead. Horse Shoes on a chalkboard.

Egads.

                 

But my friends, correct picture or not, this is how you have "the first degree of separation" to him - the guy not in the picture - Benjamin Reeves.

What the Hell are you talking about now, Jeff? Do you ever shut the Hell up about this stuff?

Now it isn't that I don't have anything "all about Benjamin." Actually, I have something nearly better than an "almost maybe isn't" picture of someone I believe may possibly be a youthful image of his grandson Hiram via his daughter Harriet. (Did you get all that??:/) You see, I have Ben's Last Will and Testament. (Can you say how awesome is that? Normally, at this point I would be giving a shout-out for, "Winner, winner, chicken, dinner," but sadly that's not the case.)

                                     

Okay, I probably should just cut to the chase...

Remember, this isn't about Benjamin. (This time.) It's about how to "get there" (to Ben) genealogically speaking. And sadly again, at this point Ben's LW&T is useless, sort of like a finial at the top of the old grandfather clock. 

But as usual, I digress:

Let me introduce the control group. 

                                                     YE OLDE CONTROL GROUP

                               

I guess I had better first mention, Dan Wells. The control group above shows our shared DNA matches or the people that we are both related to. Any of you who might have reluctantly followed the story behind this will know that Dan and are curious cousins, to say the least. Dan and I are genetic acquaintances thrown into a curious combination of a homemade version of Who Do You Think You Are? and Finding Nemo at the same time. I met Dan through our "DNA match in common" on Ancestry.com. Dan has been on an incredible journey genealogically speaking. You may have heard me blather on that with a little bit of due diligence I was able to help Dan discover who his father had been "switched at birth" with as a baby back in 1943. (Now that was a wild one!) It helps too that Dan Wells is a pretty damn good guy interested in his ancestry and the past.

      

                               Dan and family

The curious thing about all of this though has been that Dan Wells is related to me through both my mother and father. But for all the genealogical cheese and crackers in me, I cannot figure the Flock out how.

             

Ah yes, back to the control group. (It sounds so official.:) 

So in light of this, (that is the quandary of my complex "cousin-try" to Dan) I decided to go back to Ancestry.com's DNA results and look at what other matches Dan Wells and I share "in common". In other words, I wanted to check out again who are/were we both related to?

This "control group" showed four matches in common between Dan and me. 

I share two maternal ancestors in common with Dan and two paternal ones. So I took another look at each one of these "slightly lacking and suck-ass" (excuse my language here) family trees that each member of the control group had submitted to see if there was anything that might come out in the wash, point me in a new direction, or genealogically speaking, fall out of the tree. Yuk. Yuk. I'm not trying to bag on anybody's family tree that they're working on. (Dan's is actually really, really well done) BUT some of these folks only take a DNA test to see if they're Finnish, Vulcan, or of Cro-magnon ancestry and stop at filling in the blanks or doing the damn work...

Again, I digress...

Starting with the two (X1 and X2) "maternal connections" I share with Dan, I wondered that since he and I were both related to say "X1" then who else was X1 and I related to? I took a look here and followed up with a look/premise maternal connection X2.

In a nutshell, I got nowhere fast on the maternal matches. 

Sorry, mom, no luck here.

On to the paternal matches.

Starting out with Dan and my shared match of Y1 and Y2 I repeated the same 'procedure." I wondered who else Y1 and I were related to while reasoning that it was "possibly likely" that Dan was related to that person in common too. (Hey, you gotta start someplace, right?)  This time, the results took on a different shape. The results said that my shared matches with Y1 and I had an ancestor in common. They said that our match showed we shared "six instances of matches" in common to, well, you guessed it, the same ancestor in common. 

Yeah, that guy not in the picture above. A guy you might have heard of before. I guy called:

"Benjamin Reeves."

So I tried it again with match paternal match in common Y2.

I got the same answer with six different folks.

I got six more "instances of matches" in common, to, well, of course, Benjamin Reeves.

So, to back the bus up here for a minute: I match to Dan Wells, and he and I both match to two people (Y1 and Y2) who between them both show that I match to "twelve instances of matches in common" to a common ancestor in:

Benjamin Reeves. 

Say what? Twelve?????

Does that mean Dan Wells is six degrees from Benjamin Reeves too? Heck, I'm still trying to figure it out. So in light of this, I decided to take advantage of AI and see what it thought of "my logic." I know this doesn't exactly give me "the proof" I need, but still, it's pretty cool to see my craziness aligned up "properly" if not curiously on the proverbial chalkboard. AI told me this:

"Now, we can translate the statements as follows:

1. I match to Dan Wells: I → D
2. I match to (Y1) and (Y2): I → (Y1 ∧ Y2)
3. Dan Wells matches to (Y1) and (Y2): D → (Y1 ∧ Y2)
4. (Y1), (Y2), and I match Benjamin Reeves: (Y1 ∧ Y2 ∧ I) → B
5. Dan Wells matches to Benjamin Reeves: D → B

Therefore, the expression of logic representing the given statements is:

(I → D) ∧ (I → (Y1 ∧ Y2)) ∧ (D → (Y1 ∧ Y2)) ∧ ((Y1 ∧ Y2 ∧ I) → B) ∧ (D → B)"

Dang, a real expression. My bullshit actually has an expression.

Don't you just love cheating on your brain by using AI?

Now Benjamin Reeves is my fourth great-grandfather. The ancestry algorithm defines Dan Wells as my likely third cousin once removed to a fourth cousin (both for my mother and dad to make things even more weird) which also fits with my relationship with again, Benjamin Reeves.

See what I mean?

The problem is I can't see where the Reeves family is related to Dan Wells - at all.

There is something here though - and not to beleaguer the point - but a good half of Dan's relatives come from Pennsylvania, and specifically, the counties around the area of Philadelphia. And would you just know it, Benjamin Reeves is also stated (in the 1880 census by his daughter Harriett Burson) to have been born in Pennsylvania. There is even some distantly anecdotal proof that the Reeves clan hailed from across the River in nearby New Jersey. The time frame is about the same too...but so hard to pin down. It's so close...and with these other twelve incidental matches shared in common from Ye Olde Control Group...

What the flock can it all mean?

                             

Ben's daughter Mrs. Harriett (Reeves) Burson -

(we think)

So yeah, as you are considering all this useless information, and as you consider that I spend way too much time pondering the ancestral natures of us all, consider that Ye Olde Control Group may have at least pointed me in the right direction of just how my most pleasant and erstwhile cousin Dan and I are related to each other. It seems like that, in this instance, Benjamin Reeves, (or perhaps one of his nephews or uncles) may have stepped out in the town and started a branch of our mutual families that we're never really going to be able to figure out. Did I mention that these people were all predominately Pennsylvania Quakers? 

Nothing like a bunch of randy-ass Quakers to churn up the cookie mix.

                     

Yeah, as far as "me and Benjamin Reeves" go, that might be the proverbial "six degrees of separation" from me to erstwhile Cousin Dan. 

Or, in simpler terms, it might just be how the old ancestral cookie crumbles. Wink!

Until next time.

☮