From Amy Johnson Crow, a genealogist, far more experienced then I. "The data that we've accumulated in our genealogy software and in our binders and folders doesn't do a whole lot of good just sitting there. We need to do something with it." Each week she sends out a prompt to share a bit about an ancestor, collateral relative, or family friend.
Prompt #3 (Jan 15-21): "Out of Place" - my great great grandparents, Jan Gustav Bergvall and Anna Lisa Pehrsdotter
Pedigree collapse is a term every family history historian is familiar with. This typically happens when the parents of an ancestor are cousins (sometimes unbeknownst to themselves). For example, the offspring of two first cousins has at most only six great-grandparents instead of the normal eight. This reduction in the number of ancestors is pedigree collapse.
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| Swedish church marriage record of Jan and Anna |
My second great grandparents, my grandpa Kallman's grandparents, were first cousins. First-cousin marriages were quite common and generally accepted by the various Protestant denominations founded in much of northern Europe during their times. I suppose that people also did not really have the ability to go far beyond their own community for a mate, did they? But EEWWW. Perhaps they were not aware of their close kinship?
Both Jan Gustav and Anna Lisa are therefore not only my second great grandparents but then they are also my first cousins 4 times removed! Yeah, "out of place" or more like in the wrong place.
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