It's a small world

It sure is a small world.  I mean, I already kind of knew that.  But this past weekend I was reminded of it again.  Claire’s friend from preschool, Will, and his family came over Sunday to play and have dinner.  I may have already mentioned this before on here, but Will’s mom Caroline and I actually were friends in elementary school.  She moved away to another town and I started going to private school, so we didn’t see each other probably after 3^rd or 4^th grade.  When I saw Caroline at Claire’s preschool open house she looked familiar to me.  So I started trying to figure out how I knew her without making her think I was completely crazy.  I asked where she went to elementary school and then we realized that maybe we did know each other.  Then she said she had a picture that included her and me from another friend’s birthday party!  Anyways, so we figured out that we had been friends many years ago and now our children were friends. 

So if that wasn’t coincidence enough, when they came to visit this past weekend, Caroline mentioned that her Dad said he was related to the Scott’s that lived where we lived.   We started talking about different names and I recognized them from the family history research I had done a few years ago on Trent’s family.  So then I was on a mission to figure out how we are all related! 

I figured out that each Scott family had about 10 children so it’s really difficult to put together a family tree that you can actually read the words on.  Also, about every other child in the Scott family was named William, Benjamin, Julia, or Edward.  So you have to go by birth dates to figure out which one is which.  So I started putting the tree together with the research I had done before Claire was born and realized that Trent and Caroline are actually 4^th cousins!  Trent’s great, great grandfather William Henry Scott and Caroline’s great, great grandfather Brice Scott were brothers.  To take it even further – Trent’s great grandfather Henry Edward Scott and Caroline’s great grandmother Julia Scott Pridgen were 1^st cousins, Trent’s grandfather Carl Edward Scott, Sr. and Caroline’s grandfather Roland Scott Pridgen, Sr. were 2^nd cousins, Trent’s Dad Carl Edward “Eddie” Scott, Jr. and Caroline’s Dad Roland Scott Pridgen, Jr. were 3^rd cousins, and now Claire and Will, and his sister Catherine, are 5^th cousins.  And Trent and Caroline’s great, great, great grandparents, Benjamin and Narcissa Scott, are actually buried on our farm.  I know that is a lot of useless information for a lot of you, but I mainly included it so next year when I cannot remember, I can look back!  Or Claire can look back and know the lineage.  Also we discovered that Caroline and her family live in a house that the Scott’s built and lived in many years ago.  It is funny how things come full circle, isn’t it? 

We had a blast letting the kids play on the tractors and eating supper and just visiting.  Caroline’s chocolate dessert was the talk of the evening for Trent.  I think I will have to get that recipe and make it for his birthday!