Cousins and double/triple first cousins  facebook 

First/Second Cousins

Your first cousins are your aunt and uncle's children, and your first cousin's children are your first cousins once removed because they're a generation younger than you. Your grandaunt and granduncle's children are also your first cousins once removed because they're an older generation than you. Your granduncle/grandaunt's grandchildren are your second cousins being the same generation as you, and your second cousins' children are your second cousins once removed because they're a generation younger than you.

Third/Fourth Cousins

First, second, third, etc. cousins are determined by how many marriages are between their common ancestors (grandparents). For example, your aunt and uncle's children are your first cousins because your aunt and uncle's marriage is the only one separating your first cousins from your shared grandparents. You are separated from your second cousins by two sets of marriages from your shared great-grandparents, and so on. The more marriages separate you from your cousins, the less percentage of genes you share with them.

• First cousins share grandparents (1 generation)

• Second cousins share great-grandparents (2 generations)

• Third cousins share great-great-grandparents (3 generations)

• Fourth cousins share great-great-great-grandparents (4 generations)

Double/Triple First Cousins

When a set of brothers or sisters from one family marries a set of brothers or sisters from another family, their kids are not only first cousins they're double first cousins. They have both sets of grandparents in common. Double first cousins were more common some years ago when families lived in smaller rural communities and attended the same church for many generations. 

In the Kleinhans tree, for example, two brothers and a sister from one family married two sisters and their brother from another family. Two (2) Lindke brothers (John and Fred) (see Elnora and Anna Jago's branches) and sister (Minnie) (see John & Minnie Jago's branch) married two (2) Jago sisters (Anna and Ella) and their brother (John). That means all their children had the shared grandparents of William and Mary (Wendt) Lindke and Wilhemina (Kleinhans) and Ferdinand Jago. So nine (9) children from all three families had the same maternal and paternal grandparents. They were more than double first cousins, they were triple first cousins. 

Rural/City Kleinhans Cousins

Speaking of cousins, Wilhemina (Kleinhans) and Ferdinand Jago had ten (10) children. Augusta (Kleinhans) & Jacob Miller had five (5) children with two step-children. Mary (Kleinhans) Nelson had two (2) children before her husband died, a son who died young and a daughter who married and moved to Pennsylvania. Frederick (Jr) & Isadora (Woodside) Kleinhans had one (1) child and lived in Niagara Falls. William & Marie (Huth) Kleinhans had four (4) children. Paulena (Kleinhans) & Charles Small had two (2) sons who died as infants and one (1) daughter. 

That's twenty (20) surviving Kleinhans grandchildren/cousins born and living in the Lockport/Royalton area. There were many small personal newspaper articles about the cousins' social activities as was the practice back then. As you might expect many of them stayed in touch with each other but the cousins who moved away had limited contact with the other family members. 

Even so, the cousins seemed to have divided themselves into two groups, those who lived in a city and those who lived on farms. The evidence of this is mainly newspaper articles; weddings, funerals, and other newspaper pieces about travels/visitations. Before cars and telephones became common after WWI the farm and city cousins would have had difficulties staying connected. Well before WWI Louise (Jago) Harper and Augusta (Jago) Richardson's families, Wilhemina's daughters, lived in Lockport, and Fred Kleinhans' family, Frederick's son, lived in Niagara Falls. During WWI two of William Kleinhans' children moved to Lockport and Paulena (Kleinhans) Small's daughter did as well. They didn't attend the same churches or schools as their farm cousins. This seemed to create a rift between the rural and city cousins. However, the Jagos held annual family reunions for at least 20 years as evidenced by several newspaper notices that at least some city and rural cousins attended together.

Differences in religion may also have been a factor dividing the Kleinhans cousins. Many first and second-generation Kleinhans stayed in Wolcottsville and remained Lutherans either attending the Trinty Church or the White Church. A few Kleinhans descendants are likely still attending the same churches today. Some who lived further away attended other Lutheran churches near where they lived. If a Lutheran church wasn't close by some attended a Baptist or Methodist Episcopal church which Royalton had several of. In contrast, early Lockport Kleinhans attended churches within walking distance of their home whether Congregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, or Methodist. A few city cousins married into Catholic families. Unsurprisingly, like other families, their religious choices were often influenced by their community and neighbors who were sometimes their relatives.

After many years and more cousins, everyone has gone their own way. Kleinhans cousins now are only mainly familiar with their first cousins as is common for many Americans today.

Shower attendees grouped by Kleinhans branch

Mrs Lena (Kleinhans) Small 74/75 y.o. Frederick's daughter

• Mrs. Clyde (Anna Small) Wicks 53 y.o. granddaughter

Mrs. Wilhemina (Kleinhans) Jago (d. 1928) Frederick's daughter

• Mrs. Louise (Jago) Harper (d. 1936) granddaughter

  • Mrs. Charles (Jessie Harper) Garlock 52/53  y.o. gr-granddaughter

    • Miss Mary Louise Garlock 23 y.o. gr-gr-granddaughter

  • Miss Laura Garlock (Jessie Harper's sister-in-law)

• Mrs. Augusta (Jago) Richardson 65 y.o. granddaughter

  • Mrs. William (Bessie Richardson) Penn 47 y.o. gr-granddaughter

    • Mrs. James (Helen Penn) Boyne 29 y.o. gr-gr-granddaughter

  • Mrs. Lyman (Louise Richardson) Whitney 36/37 y.o. gr-granddaughter

    • Miss Audrey Whitney 18 y.o.  gr-gr-granddaughter

  • Mrs. William (Frieda Kopp) Richardson 41 y.o. gr-granddaughter-in-law

  • Mrs. Donald (Georgianna Nellist) Richardson 27 y.o. gr-granddaughter-in-law

  • Mrs. Burt (Marion Robison) Richardson NA gr-granddaughter-in-law

    • Miss Almeda Richardson 22 y.o. gr-gr-granddaughter

    • Miss (Margaret) Mary Richardson 17 y.o. gr-gr-granddaughter

• Mrs. Herman (Martha Jago) Brown 62 y.o. granddaughter

Mrs. Fred (Dora Woodside) Kleinhans 77/78 y.o. Frederick's daughter-in-law

Mrs. William (Mary Huth) Kleinhans (d. 1905) Frederick's daughter-in-law

• Mrs. Edward (Susanne Kleinhans) Buehring 48 y.o. granddaughter

• Mrs. Norman (Kathleen Gormley) Kleinhans NA granddaughter-in-law

  • Miss Nina Kleinhans 21 y.o. gr-granddaughter

Jago Reunion

*** THE JOURNAL-REGISTER Medina, NY. Wednesday, September 24, 1997 Cousins Gather - Recently ten cousins, descendants of Ferdinand and Williaminia [sic] (Kleinhans) Jago, gathered at Darrell's Place in Middleport for a Dutch treat dinner. Those present were: Mr. and Mrs. John Goodnick, Mildred Hill, Helen Herendeen of Middleport, Melvin Jago, Lillian Ziegler of Akron, Mr. and Mrs. James Larson of Tonawanda, Mrs. Sally Mabozny [sic] of North Tonawanda and Kathryn Rook of Medina. 

note- Some 50+ years after the shower above, these Kleinhans/Jago cousins had recurring mini-reunions for several years. They were the descendants of one of the rural branches of the Kleinhans family except for the cousins from (North) Tonawanda. The owner of the restaurant Darrell Gilbert is Helen (Mittlestadt) Herendeen's grandson and Frederick Kleinhans' great-great-great-grandson. Unfortunately, many of these cousins died a few years after this reunion dinner. There's no indication they had another gathering after this one. Their children do not seem to have any interest in continuing the tradition.

〰