Just like your favorite TV shows, genealogy often surprises us with its own "crossover events." These aren't always easy to find; you won't get previews or promotional shorts like with prime-time dramas. But they're out there, waiting to be discovered, like some elusive WikiTree fandom page you've been hoping to stumble upon for your favorite star in an obscure corner of the internet.
I mean, who wouldn't want to be related to this gal?
Talk about a genealogical fandom page. Wow!
Recently, the concept of these "family tree crossovers" truly captured my attention. I'd been researching the ancestry of Paige Dunham and her husband, Kevin O'Neal when it happened. As we began sharing the stories of family history, I recall Paige lightheartedly texting me, "Kevin and I are probably related to each other, but don't worry, we're not breeding..." Her comment stuck with me. I immediately resolved to keep an eye out for any evidence supporting her hunch, aiming to uncover their precise connection beyond the often-confusing (and frankly, sometimes ridiculous) configurations found on FamilySearch.org.
After all, it's a widely accepted truth: everyone is related; it's simply a matter of figuring out how.
Discovering a direct common ancestor or a close blood tie is incredibly exciting, but without strong DNA matches, it doesn't always happen. What does frequently occur, however, are those serendipitous genealogical crossover events that link people in delightfully unexpected ways. It's a bit like when your cousins become my cousins, even though you and I aren't related.
(Yes, I know, it makes my head hurt too!)
Image: The Annals of Newberry relevant page showing mention of the Murdock, Plunkett, and McClung families living close to each other.
In this particular case, I became curious about a possible link between Kevin's "McClungs" and Paige's connections to them through the associated families of Murdock, Plunkett, and McClung. All three of these families are mentioned as living nearby each other in The Annals of Newberry, as the image above vividly illustrates.
Seeing this, I couldn't resist digging deeper.
I continued to focus on common surnames and geographic overlaps, such as those highlighted in The Annals of Newberry, along with additional names elsewhere, like King, Pearson, and, of course, McClung. My hope surged when I located the 1904 edition of William McClung's The McClung Genealogy. I was already deep into studying the McClung ancestry for Kevin's alleged (though not yet definitively proven) five-times great-grandmother, Margaret Alexander (McClung) Tate (1755-1839) mentioned above. (See: FindAGrave.com memorial no. 37798667)
[Images: The McClung Genealogy and Ten Thousand Plunketts book covers, or relevant pages showing specific entries]
It was within The McClung Genealogy, though, that I serendipitously spotted the names "Martha McClung" and "Reece Plunket" on one of its pages. The entry explicitly stated: "Martha McClung married Reece Plunket." I instantly recognized "Reece Plunket" as a relative of Paige's. Without hesitation, I turned to Emma Plunkett Ivey's 1974 work, Ten Thousand Plunketts, a comprehensive genealogy that traces the Plunkett line directly down to Paige herself. There, in that other book, was the identical phrase: "dau. Rees Plunkett and Martha McClung."
I truly believed I had cracked the crossover event relationship between Paige and Kevin. How could I not?
It seemed it would simply be a matter of tracing back through the Plunketts and the McClungs to arrive, if not at a shared common ancestor, then at least a set of ancestors that definitively linked both Kevin and Paige. I would have my undeniable crossover event. I would finally be able to genuinely geek out with verifiable knowledge on that WikiTree genealogical fandom page.
However, the genealogical gods proved less benevolent.
While it initially appeared that "All McClungs are created equal," they unequivocally are not. As the astute author of that 1904 tome well understood, little has changed since. There are countless Scots-Irish McClungs. Some descend from "James McClung" or his more obscure brothers, some from the "Greenbriar" McClungs, and then, perhaps the most obfuscated of all (and precisely what was necessary for my cause), some descend from "The South Carolina McClungs." All of them are, in some way, connected, but the precise how and why of their relationships remain as unclear today as they were over a century ago.
All I could think was: Can you say, "Beam me up, Scottie?"
Nevertheless, and without wishing to be ungrateful to the book's author, The McClung Genealogy at least generously categorizes the various McClung lines. The book successfully mentions Kevin's now alleged kinfolk and their connection, via the South Carolina McClungs, to Paige's kinfolk, the Plunketts, who married into their line. For this insight, I am truly grateful. Given that the same McClung name appears no fewer than twenty-eight times in Ten Thousand Plunketts, well, yes, I am certainly optimistic that I am in the right church, even if I'm sitting a few rows back of the precise pew.
I've undeniably moved further along in my quest than I was before, at least with better questions.
And yes, if it all holds water, as I hope it will, I hope it will eventually show, Kevin and Paige may not be direct cousins to each other but share common cousins. (Again, pass the Tylenol.)
So, I've compiled a very incomplete pedigree chart - but I am not including it. I won't send over work that I am not 100% behind. It's too tempting even when it feels like I am this close to the truth...While there are records (such as the FindAGrave.com notation) that Margaret Alexander (McClung) Tate is an ancestor of Kevin's, the proof for it falls short. She was indeed married to a "Robert Tate," but other records show she did not have a son called Aaron Tate, who is a proven ancestor of Kevin's.
While none of this serves to resolve the exact relationship between Kevin and Paige, it does lay out how a connection is possible—indeed, how one is even likely. It will be back to nearly square one for me as I try to map three likely branches of McClungs intertwined with some ten thousand Plunketts!
And now the Tates have been added to the mix.
I'll leave you with that for now. Suffice it to say, we are one step closer to unraveling exactly how those two lovebirds connect in the vast ancestral lands of time.
But hey, they're not breeding, right? AND, they already knew it!
Wink!
☮
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