GRANDPA WAS HIS UNCLE & FATHER-IN-LAW!

His Grandpa was his uncle, and also his father-in-law. His dad was his brother-in-law. His children were their own first cousins, once removed, and their mother was their aunt. Shew, my head hurts. Many of us remember the old song “I’m My Own Grandpa”, where a jumbled mess of family relationships gets overwhelmingly confusing. We’ve all seen on Facebook where someone lists their relationship status as “it’s complicated”. Well, I’m about to tell you a real-life story of a family that has some serious complicated relationships.

While building a family tree for a client I found this wild story about his 2nd Great-Grandparents. The more that I discovered about them, the more I knew that I wanted to share their story with all of you. 

Now, let me be clear here, I mean absolutely no disrespect. I’m not making fun of these ancestors, or the region that they are from. Believe it or not, genealogists find situations like these a lot more than you would even imagine.

I’ll start explaining this story by introducing you the person who is related to everybody in this branch. He’s the father, grandfather, father-in-law, and uncle, Rev. David M. Smith. Rev. Smith was born 15 July 1824, in Cherokee County, Alabama. He fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, in Company H, in the 48th Alabama Infantry. He fought in the Battles of Gettysburg and Chickamauga. Later in the war, he was cobbler at a Confederate Army shoe factory in Richmond, Virginia. 

Rev. Smith first married Mary Langford, about 1849, and on 29 March 1853, they had a son named Elisha Hughes Smith. Sadly, Rev. Smith’s wife Mary died in the early 1870s. Soon, on 15 December 1874, he married Jane Irene Beck, who was twenty years younger than him. The next year, Rev. Smith and Jane were blessed with a daughter that they named Mary “Rosanna” Smith, who was born on 9 November 1875, in Bryant, Jackson County, Alabama. 

Now here is where it starts to get confusing, so try to stay with me here. Rev. Smith now has a son Elisha, born in 1853, from his first wife, and a daughter Rosanna, born in 1875, from his second wife. Obviously, Elisha, and Rosanna are half-siblings, even though they are about twenty-two years apart in age. Now, stay with me here because we are almost to the twist. Elisha had a son named David Washington Smith, on 18 July 1873. David was almost a year and a half older than his “half-aunt” Rosanna. 

The whole story isn’t known but at some point David and Rosanna began a relationship. The couple went across the state line, to neighboring Dade County, Georgia, and on 6 November 1893, they were married. The couple’s first child Laura was born in April the following year. Laura could have been born very premature, but it’s semi-safe to assume that Rosanna was pregnant when she and David eloped in Georgia. 

The couple had eight children that appear to have all lived normal lives. David and Rosanna were married for about forty-six years when Roseanna passed away, on 22 January 1940. David died on 26 May 1950. They are buried together in Mountain View Church of God Cemetery, in Jackson County, Alabama. 

I’m sure that many are asking the question, were the children “normal”? The short answer is that it appears so, and they weren’t, and I use this term respectfully, as “inbred” as most of us would assume. If you draw it out, you will see that we all have eight great-grandparents. DNA is random but we all usually get about the same amount of DNA from each of the eight. In genealogy, we constantly see first cousins who marry. First Cousins only have six people for the eight spots, with two people taking up 2 spots each. The children of David and Rosanna had five people to fill the eight spots, with Reverend Smith filling 3 spots. It appears that the DNA was random enough in this situation to produce “normal” children. Most issues take place with repetitive inbreeding. 

We also have to consider how things were different in history. Our ancestors didn’t have many of our modern-day taboos, and some things that seem shocking to us, would be fairly normal to them. However, I have to admit, this story defiantly raised my eyebrows. There are so many relationships here with double titles that I got cross-eyed until I drew them out. Help me out and comment below with as many as you can think of. 

Wow, now we know the story of complicated family tree. What are your thoughts? Were you shocked by this story? How would it affect you if you discovered a story like this about one of your ancestors? I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments below. And I wonder what stories like this could be hiding in your family tree.

When we discover stories about our ancestors, especially like this one, history becomes tremendously more real. The events and locations that we read about or drive by, begin to have a different impact on us and we are bestowed with a deeper enlightened understanding. Discovering and preserving stories like this is a passion of ours and we are proud to discover this one, share it with their descendants, and all of you. Be sure to see our video about this story below.

-Col. Russ Carson, Jr., Founder, Family Tree Nuts