It’s a fact that we’re all related to each other. However, some people are more closely related than others. This post describes another case of complex interrelationships between two people. In particular, let’s look at how Hendrik Bernard Wentink (1904-1957) and Johanna Geerlings (1906-1991) were related to each other.
(As in previous posts, you might find it useful to open the chart in another browser window. People marked in red are ancestors of mine, those in blue are distant cousins.)
Hendrik Bernard and Johanna were married 1930 in Rheden. Likewise, most of the people in this chart lived in the area around Rheden, east of Arnhem, in the Dutch province of Gelderland.
When looking at a marriage record, I often do a search on their parents and grand-parents to see if any of them are already in my database. Doing so, I quickly realized that Hendrik Bernard and Johanna were 2nd cousins once removed, with common ancestors Gerrit Brinkhorst (1766-1831) and Paulina Petronella Dieterink (1768-1831).
I also realized that they both had van Zadelhoff ancestors. Mapping out their ancestors took a bit of effort since their common ancestors were quite a few generations back, well into the 17th Century. Johanna had a single path back to Steven Berends van Sadelhof and Hendrina Willems. But Hendrik Bernard’s ancestry was much more complicated. His parents, Jan Hendrik Wentink (1873-1946) and Hendrika Wentink (1873-1934) were first cousins. Likewise, both sets of his grand-parents were also cousins, paternally 1st cousins once removed, maternally 3rd cousins.
So there were three distinct paths from Hendrik Bernard to Steven Berends van Sadelhof. So along that side of the chart, Hendrik Bernard and Johanna are 6th cousins twice removed in two ways and also 7th cousins.
We’re not done yet. Once I noticed that both had Kets ancestors, I had to investigate further. So it turned out that Hendrik Bernard and Johanna had another pair of common ancestors, Gerrit Kets and Jantje Geurts. As before, there are three distinct paths from Hendrik Bernard to Gerrit Kets, resulting in relationships of 4th cousins once removed and 4th cousins twice removed.
Finally, we come to another pair of common ancestors, Hendrik Brinkhorst and Catharina Turgels. From this pair, Hendrik Bernard and Johanna were 5th cousins.
If you’re keeping track, we have a total of eight different sets of distinct paths from this married couple to their four pairs of common ancestors.
Cheers! Hans