Genealogy-Diamond Shape

While most people think their family tree is going to look like the above, with the generations neatly fanning out, the truth is our family trees are very tangled. It doesn't take too many generations to find that you have one ancestor several times in your family history. For example, I have Maupin ancestors who married cousins, my husband has Morgan cousins that married and one cousin of mine is related to the same person THREE times (in about 150 years time).

Most of us aren't quite as bad as above, but back in the day, the communities were small and if you married within your religion, class and ethnic group, the possibilities were even more limited. So most genealogists will tell you that the family tree is more of a diamond shape. One genealogical mathematician said that everyone is no further apart than a 21st cousin of everyone else. Most of our family trees are more like the one below (not our family trees, just one I found on the internet, but you can see the diamond shape):

With that being said, it won't be terribly surprising if we discover that Dave and I are related---Appalachian, Virginian, English-Scottish-Welsh, Protestants. We already know of several names which are the same---they are very common family names like Brown, Davis, Carroll. For this reason, I have had to change some lables "Brown (Morgan)" means the Brown family on Dave's side "Brown (Long)" means Brown family on my side. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my double Watsons both on Mom's side, since it's unlikely they are cousins---they may be "Watson (Illinois)" and "Watson (Kentucky)". The Maupins and Morgans mentioned earlier are cousins so I won't make any distinction with them--they truly were related to each other and probably knew it.

It reminds me of an old country song I used to love as a child "I'm My Own Grandpa!" Click here for the lyrics.

Ballard Smith and Annie Brown

Ballard Smith and Annie Brown were Ellice Smith Morgan's parents. Ballard and Annie ran a boarding house for miners in the coal fields of Kentucky (Jenkins?). He hired miners and they stayed in the boarding house. One miner asked,"What's the pay?" Ballard replied, "$2.40 and room and board." The miner replied,"Let's just make it $2.00, it is easier counted."

MEMORIES FROM GROVER D. MORGAN AND MASON MORGAN 1985 AFTER ELOISE MORGAN'S MEMORIAL SERVICE
They talked of their grandparents Annie and Ballard Smith whose sketches are above. They lived with the Morgans for a time---they were "hill people". He would apparently go on "binges'---take a horse to town, trade it on an underfed bag of bones and money for moonshine. Then he would come home reeling with a "quilting frame" as his daughter would call the horse---to be fattened up (at his son-in-law's expense) until it was time to trade again.

At 80 years old, Annie would lift her foot to the sink to wash it off although the only one's to see her barefoot were Ballard and the undertaker---she wore high top shoes. In addition to "spargrass" for asparagus, she called Kentucky "Kaintuck." Some of the Browns moved to Arkansas or Missouri for a time but moved back to "Kaintuck"

My husband's father was Grover Morgan, son of Ellice Smith Morgan, daughter of Ballard Smith and Annie Brown.