GFR Update: Cousin Connection Just Keeps Getting Closer

I've been posting, now and then, about the Global Family Reunion and my connection to AJ Jacobs. My last post was back in May, when I posted Update: Shorter Connection to A.J. Jacobs and the Global Family Reunion. In that post, I shared the news that WikiTree's Connection to AJ tool had determined that there are 31 steps (aka, degrees of separation) between us.

Well, the path just keeps getting shorter, as more and more work is done on the global family trees at Geni.com and WikiTree. Yesterday, I added the following section to my biography on WikiTree:

According to WikiTree, I am 28 steps away from AJ. Here's the path, as reported by WikiTree's Connection to AJ tool:

AJ Jacobs and Pamela Lloyd have 28 degrees of separation:

AJ Jacobs -> Ellen Kheel (his mother) -> Jane Kheel (her sister) -> John Stanley (her husband) -> Everett Stanley (his father) -> Grace Garrett (his mother) -> Sophia Thompson (her mother) -> Greenbury Thompson (her father) -> Chloe Redman (his mother) -> Nancy Redman (her sister) -> Lloyd Benton Prather (her husband) -> Basil Prather (his father) -> Aaron Prather (his father) -> Martha Sprigg (his mother) -> Sarah Sprigg (her sister) -> Katherine Graves (her mother) -> Thomas Graves (her brother) -> Thomas Graves (his son) -> Robert Graves (his son) -> James Graves (his son) -> William Graves (his son) -> Middleton Graves (his son) -> Matilda Herrington (his wife) -> Isaac Herrington (her father) -> John A Herrington (his brother) -> Isaac Newton Herrington (his son) -> Inez Minerva Herrington (his daughter) -> Winston Lloyd (her son) -> Pamela Lloyd (his daughter)

According to Geni.com, I am only 23 steps away from AJ (just count the arrows in the following path). Here's the path, based on Geni's calculations:

Arnold Stephen Jacobs, Jr. is Pamela D Lloyd's first cousin 6 times removed's wife's uncle's wife's fifth great nephew's ex-wife's nephew!

Pamela D Lloyd (Me) -> Winston Dale Lloyd (my father) -> Elmer Bruce Lloyd (his father) -> Samuel Hughes Lloyd (his father) -> Ellen Hughes (his mother) -> Joel Hughes (her father) -> Eleanor Lee (his mother) -> Eleanor Ellis (her mother) -> Mordecai Ellis, Sr. (her brother) -> Nehemiah Ellis (his son) -> Sarah Thornburgh (his wife) -> Benjamin Eli Thornburgh (her father) -> Thomas Thornburgh (his brother) -> Martha Stanley (his wife) -> Micajah Stanley (her brother) -> Mahlon Stanley (his son) -> John Stanley (his son) -> Wyatt Stanley (his son) -> John Richard Stanley (his son) -> Everett Edward Stanley (his son) -> <private> Stanley (his son) -> <private> Kheel (his ex-wife) -> Ellen Jacobs (her sister) -> Arnold Stephen Jacobs, Jr. (her son)

You'll have noticed that the two connection finders start from different directions. WikiTree's starts with AJ and works it's way to me, while Geni's starts with me and works it's way to AJ. One thing I find interesting is that one path goes through my mother's father, and the the other through his mother.

Almost all my connections to random people (that is, people with any fame or notoriety) are through my father. I simply haven't got enough information about my mother's family.

Update: Shorter Connection to A.J. Jacobs and the Global Family Reunion

Earlier this month I posted about my relationship to A.J. Jacobs, who came up with the idea of a Global Family Reunion (GFR) to include everyone to whom he is related.

The first connection route between us, calculated by Geni, showed 200 degrees of separation, with some Greek gods and goddesses along the way. Humorous, and A.J. and I were willing to accept it as showing a connection between us (mostly because we already recognize that as human beings, there is a connection, even if unknown), but we now have a much more satisfactory connection route, this time courtesy of WikiTree's Global Family Reunion project.

AJ Jacobs and Pamela Lloyd have 31 degrees of separation:

0. 
   AJ Jacobs →
1. 
   Ellen Kheel
   (his mother) →
2. 
   Theodore Kheel
   (her father) →
3. 
   Julian Kheel
   (his brother) →
4. 
   Victoria Kheel
   (his daughter) →
5. 
   James Spader
   (her husband) →
6. 
   Jean Fraser
   (his mother) →
7. 
   Elizabeth Bowditch
   (her mother) →
8. 
   Frederick Bowditch
   (her father) →
9. 
   Sarah Higginson
   (his mother) →
10. 
    James Higginson
    (her father) →
11. 
    Stephen Higginson
    (his father) →
12. 
    Stephen Higginson
    (his father) →
13. 
    Elizabeth Higginson
    (his sister) →
14. 
    Benjamin Prescott
    (her son) →
15. 
    Rebecca Minot
    (his wife) →
16. 
    
    James Minot
    (her father) →
17. 
    
    Timothy Minott
    (his brother) →
18. 
    Mary Brooks
    (his wife) →
19. 
    Noah Brooks
    (her father) →
20. 
    Hannah Mason
    (his mother) →
21. 
    John Mason
    (her brother) →
22. 
    Sarah Mason
    (his daughter) →
23. 
    Thomas Harrington
    (her son) →
24. 
    John Harrington
    (his son) →
25. 
    Charles William Herrington
    (his son) →
26. 
    William Herrington
    (his son) →
27. 
    John A Herrington
    (his son) →
28. 
    Isaac Newton Herrington
    (his son) →
29. 
    Inez Minerva Herrington
    (his daughter) →
30. 
    Winston Lloyd
    (her son) →
31. 
    Pamela Lloyd
    (his daughter)

Note: The color changes indicate where the connection is through a spouse, rather than a direct relative.

For more about my efforts on WikiTree, visit my profile there. If you'd like to join me on WikiTree, you can do so for free, just by signing up. Or, if you prefer, ask me to invite you.

Cousin A.J.'s Relationship to Me

Okay, I'll admit it. I was just a bit disappointed when Geni's relationship calculator couldn't find a connection between me and A.J. Luckily, however, it worked from A.J.'s end, so I now know that he is (in a fuzzy, I don't claim there are any valid genealogical proofs, way) my 87th cousin 24 times removed.

The short path includes myself, my father, 197 relatives, A.J.'s mother, and A.J.

The long path… well, as A.J. put it, "it goes so far back that I'm not sure it's 100 percent trustworthy. I'm sure there's a cleaner and shorter route." A.J., I discover, has a knack for understatement. But, he's ready to call me cousin and I am now officially invited to the Global Family Reunion.

For your amusement—for this surely tickles me!—I present the long path below the cut:

Cousin A. J.'s Get-Together

A. J. Jacobs, "editor at large at Esquire magazine and author of four New York Times bestsellers" according to his website, is hosting what he hopes will be the world's biggest family reunion. News of his upcoming party has been shared widely, with notices on the WikiTree, Geni, and My Heritage blogs, and in the New York Times. Jacobs has also been a guest on Boston's NPR program On Point, for a discussion of "Crowdsourcing And The New Genealogy Boom."

I looked him up on Geni, to see what our connection is, but that was a bust. Geni just couldn't find the connection. Which is strange, because I know there is one, as explained in the email I just sent to A.J.:

Hi A.J.,

Although Geni tells me it can't find a path between us, I know there has to be one. Here's why:

You say that Albert Einstein is your second great-uncle’s third cousin’s wife’s first cousin. Well, Geni reports that he's my 6th great aunt's brother's wife's fourth great niece's husband's aunt's husband's great grandson. This is a distant, some might even say tenuous, connection, but it is a connection none-the-less.

I'm on Geni at http://www.geni.com/people/Pamela-D-Lloyd/6000000007818456107. I'm also on WikiTree at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lloyd-1428, but my ancestry is much less developed there, mostly because the entry process is much more time-consuming.

Your website requests that I submit the names of my four great grandparents. My paternal grandparents are Elmer Bruce Lloyd and Inez Minerva "Sissy" Herrington. My maternal grandparents are Galen Weiker Rote and Lulu P. Craun.

My Lloyd lineage goes directly back to Thomas Lloyd, my 8th great grandfather, who served for a time as lieutenant governor of provincial Pennsylvania under William Penn.

I hope I've provided you with sufficient information for you to discover our connection. I'm sure there is one, since I hold to the firm conviction that all humans on the planet are related and it's only through a lack of knowledge of the connections that we don't all call each other cousin.

Best wishes,

Pamela D. Lloyd

What I didn't tell A. J. is that I'm unlikely to attend in person. Not only would travel to the party pinch my pocketbook, but I really don't like big crowds. But, that's okay because I can attend virtually, via a Google Hangout.

For more information about the MegaReunion, as it's sometimes called, check out WikiTree's Global Family Reunion project and then join WikiTree's Global Family Reunion Project.

What about you? Ready to join the party?  Do you think you might be related to A. J.? Or to me? I'd love to hear from you.