Related By More Than Marriage

My daughter remarried after a heartbreaking divorce, this time to a younger man. We had only met him a few times before a hastily “thrown together wedding”, which was very brief. Although many of his family attended there wasn’t much mingling afterward due in large part to time constraints on the location we booked and his family needing to travel home, quite a distance away. Fast forward about a year later. Joy of joys we are giving a baby shower for my daughter and her husband. By this time we have gotten to know most of his siblings and his parents through brief gatherings. Now, for the first time, we are meeting his grandmother. I am a genealogy nut and had recently shared some tidbits with my family on our famous 5th great grandfather. My sisters sat talking together and asked that I verify a point of interest about our 5 times great grandfather, calling him by name. My fairly new son in law’s grandmother said, “Excuse me. Did you say, So-and-So? “ One of my sisters replied, “Yes. He’s our 5th great grandfather.” Stunned, the grandmother replied, “He’s my 5th great grandfather!” Come to find out, her 4th great grandfather was the brother to our 4th great grandfather. My grandchildren get a kick out this story. However, their parent whence very time they hear it! The relation is far enough down the tree to be “a fun fact” to most of our family, on both sides.