From the small-world category, my cousin Verne Rupright is running for mayor of Wasilla. He’s a Republican, a secessionist, and a defense attorney. Verne figures the town needs to get back to basics and invest in infrastructure. No word on his position on Sarah Palin.
On a related note, I recently discovered that a) Kyra Sedgwick is a cousin and b) I’m a Boston Brahmin, by virtue of being a Peabody. I’m somebody somewhere! Who knew?
I would say that Vern is a “cousin” in a rather loose, distant sense of the word. His mother was a Jaquith, and we share a common ancestor who was born in 1673.
I was about to say that we’re not “Brahmin” Peabodys, because our folks weren’t rich or upper class (I think my great grandfather was a shoemaker and subsistence farmer in New Hampshire), but then I looked up the definition of “Boston Brahmin.”
Turns out, just being one of those first families to arrive (our DNA arrived on one of the post-Mayflower boats) qualifies you.
We’re related to George Peabody (of UVa’s Peabody Hall fame), but not directly. He was a great uncle or grand uncle or something of my grandmother. She knew him as her rich uncle who “wasn’t good to his own”. I suspect that’s what poor relations always say when they don’t get a handout from their well-heeled relatives!
By the way, I have it on good authority that “Cousin” Vern thinks Sarah Palin is A-OK.
Posted by Janis Jaquith on 16 September 02008 @ 11pm
Those Boston Brahmins were late-comers compared to the Virginians who landed at Jamestown in 1607.
Of course, there are those–like my own family for instance–who can trace their ancestry to the native Americans. My family waved from the shore when your family showed up.
;-)
Posted by The Richmond Democrat on 16 September 02008 @ 11pm
A woman I know once announced at a gathering I attended that she came from “an old family.” What I wanted to say (but didn’t, alas) was that her history was very interesting to me, because my family arose from a Petri dish in 1935.
Raise your hand if you DON’T come from an old family, for chrissake.
That said, I love the idea of Richmond Democrat’s folks waving to my ancestors when they washed up in Boston Harbor! I suspect it was the native Americans who taught them to make fried clams — and I am therefore hugely indebted to them!
Posted by Janis Jaquith on 17 September 02008 @ 12am
Oh Janis, I can pass on lots of wonderful recipes, if you like!
Posted by The Richmond Democrat on 17 September 02008 @ 12am
I like.
(My kingdom for an authentic fried clam in Charlottesville. Don’t wanna cook ‘em, just wanna eat ‘em.)
Posted by Janis Jaquith on 17 September 02008 @ 12am
George Peabody had no children, so he only has great-etc. nephews and nieces; there’s no other way to be related to him. It was a week ago, when I learned that a co-worker is a cousin, that it became clear to me that we’re all cousins. :)
Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 17 September 02008 @ 8am
Considering that our family arrived in America in the 1640’s (Waldo and I are brothers, for anyone who doesn’t know), odds are that we are somehow distantly related to pretty much anyone whose family has been in America for more than 2 generations or so. We’re talking about over 350 years of intermarrying and reproduction. EVERYONE is a cousin.
So can I borrow $20 from each of you random people reading this? Seeing as we’re family.
Posted by Jackson Landers on 17 September 02008 @ 10am
I was excited for a second because I was thinking of Keira Knightley instead. I was all set to ask you to set us up.
Posted by Sam on 17 September 02008 @ 10am
“…we’re all cousins.”
Now, THAT’s what I like to hear.
We are all in this together. (A sentiment I’ve always considered to be the philosophy of the Democratic Party. The philosophy of the Republicans appears to be “Every man for himself.”)
Posted by Janis Jaquith on 17 September 02008 @ 11am
Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator;
I’m now Shot Corrugated Palin
http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html
Posted by perlogik on 17 September 02008 @ 11am
Nice genealogy! If you have a Sedgwick connection, I’d recommend the book In My Blood by John Sedgwick, which I just recently finished and highly recommend. Who knows, you may qualify for burial in the Sedgwick Pie!
Posted by Chris Casey on 17 September 02008 @ 1pm
Always knew you were a mutt, Waldo! ;-)
Actually, in a few weeks, your (distant) cousin and I will have something in common, after I argue my first case before the Supreme Court.
Posted by James Young on 17 September 02008 @ 6pm
As best I can tell, I am the product of successive generations of Baldrick.
Posted by MB on 17 September 02008 @ 8pm
Nice genealogy!
Well, I can’t really take any credit for it. None of us can control to whom were born, after all. :)
Who knows, you may qualify for burial in the Sedgwick Pie!
Mmmm…Sedgwick Pie…
Actually, my connection with the Sedgwicks is just that a Sedgwick married a Peabody, so I’m not a descendent, just a cousin. George Peabody’s nephew, I think, married Kyra Sedgwick’s great-great-grandmother, or something like that.
Actually, in a few weeks, your (distant) cousin and I will have something in common, after I argue my first case before the Supreme Court.
I look forward to a full report, James! That’ll be exciting.
Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 17 September 02008 @ 10pm
Ok, Waldo, seriously, stop posting this kind of stuff. As someone whose family wandered in sometime between the Depression and the end of WWII, with oh, 99.9% of all official information being tossed in the ocean or lost in the immigration records, I find information about people whose families have been in the U.S. forever totally fascinating. I’m sitting here like, “You know who your cousins are? From back then?? That’s CRAZY! I don’t know who my cousins are from now! I don’t know what year my family came here, mostly because records were lost!*” And thus it’s a distraction from getting read to pretend-argue in front of the pretend-Supreme Court on Saturday.
Man, I never thought I’d have something in pretend-common with James Young. :P Good luck, James! That is super awesome.
* Actually, there are some pretty interesting, if irrelevant, stories there about the non-border between Russia and Poland, and exactly why those records were lost, but I digress. Great stuff, Waldo.
Posted by Genevieve on 17 September 02008 @ 10pm
Actually, there are some pretty interesting, if irrelevant, stories there about the non-border between Russia and Poland, and exactly why those records were lost, but I digress.
I knew you’d have an interesting family story. :) Plus, with your family having come to the U.S. so recently, y’all have still-living people with stories about what happened and what they went through. We have generations of nothing really exciting going on, comparatively speaking.
James is totally right in calling me a mutt. I’m Irish/Italian/Swedish for the most part, I think.
Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 17 September 02008 @ 11pm
Hi, Cousin Waldo! It’s another cousin of your’s, Johnathan Line, son of John and Charlotte (Rupright) Line, sister of Verne Rupright (my uncle) and they are the children of Guy and Rebecca (Jaquith) Rupright. I used to go to all of the Jaquith family reunions with my family back in Massachusetts growing up. I have the family genealogy book somewhere around here. My folks are still in Massachusetts where I grew up and the old family first settled.
On the topics in your blog, I too have been following my uncle’s campaign from my home in Michigan and via e-mail with him. We’re all very proud of Uncle Verne…he has done ALOT in his life and even overcame a 7-bypass heart surgery last year (it’s that Jaquith cholesterol…) that got both my grandmother, her brother, and my great grandfather.
I’ve read through the messages here and he did great in the Supreme Court case (as I hope our cousin did as well). As far as our family is concerned, if we prove lineage, we are cousins regardless of how far back it goes….it’s an old Scottish way of looking at things which is tied into our Jaquith lineage as well. In this vien, we just recently found out that Sarah (Heath) Palin is in our Massachusetts family tree. My uncle has been friends with their family since he moved up to Wasilla from Anchorage about 25 years ago. He has known Sarah since she was ‘Sarah Baracuda’ in High School basketball and he thinks she’ll be a great VP.
I visted Anchorage and Wasilla many years ago as a teenager and it’s a beautiful place. My grandparents, Verne, and his brother, Guy, left us in Massachusetts and headed for the Great North in the mid-1970’s looking for work and new opportunity. Our little branch almost ended up there as well but we stuck it out in Massachusetts on the old family land (Jaquith land) and my folks are still there.
Just wanted to drop a line (no pun intended) to another cousin…Peace!
Posted by Johnathan Line on 6 October 02008 @ 9pm
Waldo Jaquith (JAY-kwith) is a website developer and political pundit who lives in the vicinity of Charlottesville, VA, USA. more »
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