By Florence VV Davis , Membership Director

Anyone who shares your name, or at least who shares one ancestor in common with you, can be called "cousin." But the two members pictured here, Doris VV Beff and Jean Farrell, discovered that they were actually closer than that. They are second cousins once removed, and they met for the first time at the Reno Reunion last August.

For Jean it all began about four years ago when her daughter became interested in family history and decided to work on the Farrell line. A friend introduced her to the LDS Family History Center in Oakland, CA. There wasn't much information about the Farrell ancestors but she did find extensive Van Valkenburgh records and recalled that her mother's mother was a VV.

Her daughter's discovery piqued Jean's interest. They soon found that Jean's mother was listed on page 58 of Vol. II, the older daughter of Clinton VV of Kinderhook. "There were a couple of errors in the names, "Jean pointed out. "My mother's name was Margaret Ann, not Marge, and Whitman was her married name. Also, her older brother's name was John, not Frank John." All the same, she was sure that was the right family.

Vol. II takes the family line back to Clinton VV's grandfather, George VV of Kinderhook. But Jean wanted to go back farther. She began asking some of her cousins on her mother's side for help. At this point she was given the name and address of Doris Hughes of Endicott, NY who was doing some VV research. Jean wrote at once but the letter was returned " Addressee unknown." It seemed like just another dead end.

Jean couldn't know, of course, that Doris had remarried and moved. She was now Doris Beff and was living in Charlotte, NC. But Jean didn't give up. Finally another cousin recalled a family picnic a year or so earlier. One of Jean's nephews had been talking to a Doris VV Beff and had her current address. Jean didn't hesitate to write and this time got a letter from Doris in return.

After comparing notes, Jean and Doris found that their grandfathers were brothers. Doris was the granddaughter of Edward VV and Jean was the granddaughter of Edward's brother Clinton. And further poring over Vol. II led them a generation back to their great-great-great grandfather William VV (Vol. II, p. 198).

About a year later, when they met at the Reno reunion, Jean and Doris also met Sandy VV, the Association's genealogist as well as Vice President. Sandy, after going over their records, was able to assure them that in all probability their line can be linked with one or more of the VV branches in Vol. I. Sandy believes that William VV's wife, Catharine Vosburgh, appeared somewhere in one of the VV branches -- her mother was a VV. So the cousins will probably be moved from Branch U to one of the numbered branches before the next reunion rolls around.

Jean doesn't expect to get to the Hartford reunion -- Connecticut is a long way from California! But she looks forward to other reunions and to getting to know her newfound cousin better, as they both continue to work on their families' history.