u/bakerfredricka

Two of Massachusetts's most notorious women (who became infamous throughout the centuries due to the murder allegations they faced) are in actual fact cousins to each other.

Bathsheba Ruggles (1746-1778) married Joshua Spooner Sr. (1741-1778) on January 15, 1766 in Hardwick. Theirs was an arranged marriage, possibly due to Bathsheba's dad Timothy Ruggles Jr. being a Loyalist throughout the American Revolution. Bathsheba and Joshua had four children together but at some point their marriage went south. According to Wikipedia, Joshua was described as abusing to Bathsheba to the degree that this ultimately made her develop "an aversion" to him (losing whatever affection she might have had towards him). When Bathsheba was around thirty, she met a sixteen-year-old Revolutionary War soldier named Ezra Ross and after she successfully nursed him back to health he got her pregnant with what would have been her fifth kid in late 1777 or early 1778. There was a HUGE problem for this couple, though: Bathsheba was still married to Joshua Spooner Sr. and divorces were NOT that easy to come by. The solution? Bathsheba and Ezra Ross (along with a couple of British soldiers who deserted the Revolution named William Brooks and James Buchanan) murdered Joshua by throwing him down the well on March 1, 1778. All three of the men along with Bathsheba were arrested, tried and convicted, the four would be executed in July 1778. Bathsheba was the first female ever sentenced to death following the Declaration of Independence in the USA and was actually in her second trimester of pregnancy at her execution (she actually requested a stay of execution so that she could give birth but that request was denied). Joshua's gravestone makes mention of the fact that his wife, her lover and two other men murdered him and that the four of them ultimately got hung for this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathsheba_Spooner

Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) has been notorious enough to warrant her own wildly inaccurate playground chant ("Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father forty whacks, when she saw what she had done she gave her mother forty-one"). There are plenty of people with very strong opinions on all sides, but the reality is that the Andrew and Abby Borden murders went unsolved so that in all likelihood nobody will ever really know for sure who murdered them in their Fall River home (that has since become a popular place for tours as well as bed and breakfast) on August 4, 1892. While the Bordens were known to have a maid and one of their Morse relatives (from the Borden sisters' biological mom) in their home that day Lizzie was the only one who ever got arrested and charged with murdering her dad and stepmother only to get acquitted at trial (and every so often whenever this case gets a mock trial "Lizzie" ends up with an acquittal there too). Some who believe Lizzie is guilty speculate that the Bordens were a dysfunctional or abusive family. Emma Borden (who wasn't home that day) spent Lizzie's trial at her side and the sisters moved into a house they named Maplecroft afterwards with Emma spending the rest of her life publicly insisting that Lizzie hadn't killed their father and stepmother. The two sisters did go on to have an unrelated argument around the time Lizzie was accused of shoplifting in Providence, Rhode Island, which unfortunately led to Emma and Lizzie becoming estranged for the rest of their lives. Lizzie passed away of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 and Emma actually ended up following her on June 10, 1927 because of nephritis. Emma and Lizzie were buried in the Borden plot along with their younger sister Alice who died in infancy, their biological mom Sarah Morse-Borden, dad Andrew and stepmother Abby. I wonder if Andrew and Abby rolled over in their graves!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Borden

As promised.... the pièce de résistance....

https://www.geni.com/path/Lizzie-Borden+is+related+to+Bathsheba-Ruggles-Spooner?from=6000000003940257369&path_type=blood&to=298200243320003679

The two of them are at closest known blood relationship fourth cousins five times removed to each other through their respective moms. Bathsheba's ancestor Arthur Howland Sr. is the brother of Lizzie's ancestor John Howland Sr. (who had a particularly memorable journey on The Mayflower). The Howlands can from there be traced back to their English parents Henry Howland Sr. 1566-1635 and his wife Margaret 1567-1629 (as Margaret's maiden name is unknown and the parentage for both of them is also currently unknowable, their "line" as it were basically ends there).

But THAT isn't all....

According to another genealogical site FamousKin, Lizzie and Bathsheba are cousins in ELEVEN ways total. Granted their other connections are mostly VERY remote, though!

https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=10581+lizzie+borden&kin=32987+bathsheba+spooner

edit: TL;DR: Lizzie Borden and Bathsheba Ruggles-Spooner are 4th cousins 5x removed.

I know that this is an old episode and I'm not sure how I personally felt towards Gabby, but when Kiara opted to dump her I was very proud. Kiara is also really lucky to have her Cousin Jeanette (who did all the work so Nev and Kamie wouldn't have to) and I wish that we could all have such real ones on our sides!

What Gabby was up to with her Patrick catfishing was pathological and her affect seemed flat to me, but she's a Hungarian immigrant per the episode and I'm unfamiliar with their culture so I wouldn't know if that's common for them? Or if Gabby could possibly be neurodivergent (whether diagnosed or not) and that could possibly have some kind of an impact on her behavior?

Gabby being super toxic to Kiara was glaringly obvious and unfortunately Kiara's feelings for Gabby really blinded her to that girl's toxicity so this episode was clearly a godsend to Kiara (as was Jeanette) IMO.

I also hope that gabby has become a better person since this episode.

If you're autistic and also happen to have any neurotypical sibling(s), how do you feel about it? Do you get along with your allistic sibling/s at all? Would you say that you hate them and/or that you love them? Are you happy to have them, or if given a do-over would you have preferred to have been the only child (or only have autistic/neurodivergent/disabled siblings)?

Last night my mom and I were discussing this (it's definitely an issue that hits very close to home for me having a neurotypical younger sister IRL and I got diagnosed at six) and given how wide the autism spectrum is I wanted to hear how others feel towards their allistic siblings.

So my fourth great grandfather on my Vaughn side was noted to have musical talents during his teen years. Born and raised in New York, he ended up joining the E. P. Christy Minstrels way back when Edwin Pearce Christy had just started out (this minseltry brand ended up getting their own Wikipedia page as their story is REALLY wild). He also named his son George Edwin, likely after Edwin and his stepson George as he would have been working with them real closely....

When the Civil War broke out, my ancestor who essentially had previously made his living off of mocking black people with his musical talents volunteered to fight for the Union (which came at a real steep price to him, even after the war ended he permanently lost his health and passed away in the 1870s being only in his early fifties having spent several years being helpless after suffering from exposure during the war according to his obituary). Not to mention that after the Civil War, Christy himself committed suicide evidently fearing that he would end up poor (which did in fact ultimately end up happening to my ancestor as he would go on to need his family including his wife and his children who also by then were married with kids to look after him in the years following the war). He was also fortunate enough to receive relief from troupes passin.

My real question here is: what would have gotten someone who did the minstrelsy to then voluntarily fight in the Civil War on the side of the Union? Not that anybody should expect their ancestors from the 1800s to be "woke" by today's standards, I'm just curious to know how someone could feasibly go from making their living off of the minstrels (which did very much involve blackface) only to willingly volunteer for a fight that had the consequence of liberating the slaves (on the side of freeing them) that he and his colleagues had previously mocked. How could he have reconciled all of this?

This has been living in my head for months on end since I made this genealogical discovery, so I would definitely appreciate any speculation (as he is obviously no longer here to tell us anything at all about his version of events).

Jacob Stires/Stiers/Steirs/Steers etc. Sr. 1740-1803 (this last name has actually been spelled in quite a few different ways) is a Revolutionary War veteran who was twice married. It's him and his first wife Sarah née Dunn 1740-1778 who I am directly descended from though. Sarah (along with at least one or two of her youngest children, they IIRC had five total) were murdered by an Indigenous tribe in 1778 and Jacob secondly married a Delaware Native woman (possibly Lenape or Nanticoke?) named Ruhama in 1780 and had several more kids with her along with his surviving children.

There was one point on Ancestry where it gave me the hint that Sarah's parents were Phineas Dunn and Eunice Hull but I managed to completely debunk this (though that couple is still in my family tree regardless, they are both that I know of distant cousins of mine and their daughter Rachel has a son who married my sixth great grandmother Anna who was the daughter of Jacob and Sarah after she became widowed). Ancestry secondly gave me the hint that Sarah was the daughter of Elizabeth Manning, another wife of Phineas Dunn's but this isn't looking super likely either. I just don't see how Phineas Dunn can be my direct ancestor, at least not through Sarah.

Jacob's dad is Henry Stiers/Stires etc. (same deal with the surnames) and is the only parentage in all of this I'm sure of. There is a downright depressing lack of information on anyone Henry might have married or had children with so Jacob's mom is an absolute mystery to mue.

Is this lineage of mine suffering from the old school view that a mom's ancestry is less important than a dad's?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as always! 🫶

This papa was a rolling stone indeed! Even though this truly vile nasty piece of work didn’t make an appearance in this episode and I wouldn’t know this man if I saw him, I genuinely can’t get over his despicable behavior.

What we know from this episode is that he #1 lied to Dajanay by saying Maritha isn’t his daughter and #2 lied to Maritha by telling her Sparkayla isn’t his daughter (all of which got debunked by DNA testing).

I understand that sometimes marriages and relationships fail, sometimes condoms and birth control fails, sometimes children result from casual relationships.... life can be very messy like that sometimes, so I am not out here trying to cast judgment on those things.

But what I can’t wrap my head around why this "dad" is out here lying to and about his daughters like that! This just feels malicious to me....

Nearly every parent of 2+ kids I know of usually WANTS their offspring to unconditionally love and support each other throughout their lives, whether those kids are full siblings or half-siblings or stepsiblings to each other. I of all people would definitely know that that outcome is far from guaranteed for a large number of reasons (many of which do fall on parents, say if they consistently favor one child over the other/s) but it is truly disgusting to just deny that you have another child to your kid while knowing that you’re lying through your teeth. This isn’t telling someone "I love your cooking!" while your intestines scream....

I am very happy that his nefarious scheme seems to have (mostly) backfired and I hope all of his children stay tight with each other.

Something tells me he has more kids out there....

I honestly don't think that I have ever posted about my maternal ancestry in here before. My mom is known to be 100% of Nordic descent (primarily Finnish as she actually has known ancestors who immigrated here from Finland a century or two ago) and unfortunately most of her family tree in general is a brick wall because of this.

My maternal grandpa's mom is Anna Ottillia Rein. She is a daughter of Emil Anton Rein and Carolina “Lena” Ottillia Rein (and according to Anna's marriage certificate Lena's maiden name is Strodholm, however prior to this I have seen Lena's maiden name being referred to as Hendrickson online which tosses out the idea that she possibly could be the daughter of a man named Hendrick based on my understanding of how Scandinavian surnames work). Sadly I have no knowledge pertaining to the parentage of Emil and Lena. My maternal grandmother's mom is Anna Irene Nyquist, daughter of Charles Nyquist and Johanna Rein. I actually do know the parentage of Charles and Johanna thanks to documents that I have seen pertaining to them. Johanna is a daughter of Josef Anders Rein Sr. and Beatra Sofia Qvick. Rein was such a common surname in Finland during that time that several of Johanna's brothers were legally required to take their wives' surnames upon marriage and pass it on to their resulting children.

Unfortunately since I know absolutely nothing of Emil's parentage and ancestry, is it possible for me to ever actually be able to officially confirm or debunk the idea that he might somehow be related to Johanna Rein and her family? According to my mom, when her parents were alive they would sometimes joke that they might be cousins....

On top of that, the vast majority of my mom's known ancestral roots come from Korsnäs, Finland.