26/1/2019 9:00 am  #1


Coward and Crosby are cousins

 

27/1/2019 8:55 am  #2


Re: Coward and Crosby are cousins

Dieter wrote:

Serious or a joke, that Bing and Noel Coward are distant cousins?
https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-chart.php?name=22396+noel+coward&kin=21654+bing+crosby&via=4518+richard+fitzalan

Dieter,
How interesting! I imagine an expert genealogist could help, if we have any out there?

However from a mathematical point of view it seems highly likely. 15 cousins share the same 14x Great Grandparents, who would have numbered 65,536. This ignores the slight complication of the "removed" bit.

Historically people had large families, but there were high mortality rates, so  assuming that an average of just two offspring in each familial line had in their turn just two offspring, the total number of descendants in the most recent generation (all of whom could call themselves 15th cousins to each other) will be 2,147,483,648! 

Until an unstated date in Bing's line, the families were based in England, the current population of which is a tiny fraction of this figure, which just shows how much interbreeding there has been, which would be true of any population anywhere. 

I have spoken to a genealogical hobbyist who has given some helpful background. Tracing from reliable records so far back is very problematical - In England official records of Births, Marriages and Deaths commenced in 1837 and before that Church records have to be used in most cases. Many have not survived and they only started in the 1530s. For a long time they were inconsistent and often inadequate for genealogical purposes. Before that very little exists apart from the aristocracy, and many of those are incorrect because the people involved made exaggerated claims. My informant could not help about American records.

The chart to which you have linked goes back to 1318. My informant sounds a note of caution -"the chart clearly shows that it is drawn from numerous different published genealogies, which will vary in quality, and it is worrying that details are lacking for many individuals, which suggests simple name matching rather than detailed matches based on name, date and locality. For these reasons I doubt the precise details. Nevertheless over so many generations, in an area confined, as to three quarters of the tree to England, and much of the remainder to the Eastern US, it would be surprising if there were not several links. The challenge is in identifying the links and proving it". 

 

 

27/1/2019 11:31 am  #3


Re: Coward and Crosby are cousins

Remembering Bing Crosby´s Merrie Olde Christmas show- Bing´s last Christmas show in 1977. Bing searching in his genealogy and made therefore a trip to Britain with his family to meet his relative Sir Percival Crosby (played by Ron "Dickens" Moody). Remember also Sir Percival´s distinctive butler "Leslie Townes" Hudson (Stanley Baxter). Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which Twiggy duetting with Bing is such wonderful, that I repeat this part of show once or twice everytime I´m watching this Christmas special. Twiggy was phantastic. Before the show Twiggy was known to me only as model by the yellow press.

Last edited by Dieter (27/1/2019 11:45 am)

     Thread Starter
 

27/1/2019 10:00 pm  #4


Re: Coward and Crosby are cousins

That is fascinating, and I have been an amateur genalogist for awhile. I have researched my family and gotten back to the 1400s on some of the branches.

I am on Geni.com, and it lets you trace relations to famous people. I am remotely related to Bing:

"Bing Crosby is your second great aunt's second cousin's wife's 6th great uncle's wife's 9th great nephew."

When do I expect to start getting my royalty checks?

 

Last edited by Lobosco (27/1/2019 10:01 pm)

 

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