More Famous Cousins!

Since the CMAs were last night I thought I'd share this genealogy stuff today.

I finally got around to doing the charting and I found this guy hanging on a branch of my family tree..........

Blake and his music really wasn't on my radar until he started appearing as a judge on "The Voice" TV show.

I do like this song he did......



Blake and I share 8 x Great Grandparents, Abraham Soblet and Susanne Briant, French Huguenots who arrived in 1700 to Virginia on the ship "Mary and Ann".
This makes us straight on 9th cousins.  I am descended from Abraham and Susanne's son, Pierre Louis, who married Marte Martin/Martain, and Blake is descended from their daughter, Anne, who married Pierre Chastain.  This also means we are both related to actress Jessica Chastain and Women's 1999 World Cup soccer player Brandi Chastain, as well as Hollywood icon Joan Crawford(aka Lucille LeSueur) as most every Chastain surnamed person in America(unless they are modern day immigrants)are descended from Pierre and Anne Soblet Chastain.

So this means if Blake and Gwen Stafani ever have a baby I'll be it's 9th cousin 1 x removed. ;-)

While working on the Blake Shelton connection I also turned up another country singer among the twigs of my tree.

William Kenneth Alphin

If you are "into" country music you know him as Big Kenny, the taller half of the country duo "Big & Rich".

Here's a neat music video for one of Big & Rich's songs that like a mini-movie......(Kenny plays the drunk)



Kenny's also quite the prolific songwriter for other country artists.......

Like Tim McGraw.........



And Gretchen Wilson.........



I haven't nailed down the best relationship to Big Kenny yet since there are mutliple lines I can persue that we'll share a kinship on.

I've been a fan of Big & Rich for years going back to their "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" days.  Here's one of my favorite numbers of theirs....incidentally this video was filmed in Deadwood, SC, a place near and dear to Kenny and John's hearts and a place I was in on my trip this past Summer.....


Big Kenny's mother was born a Tinsley in Culpeper Virginia.  Her great grandparents were Joshua Tinsley and Elizabeth Hudson.  Elizabeth Hudson's parents were Abner Hudson and Elizabeth Mason.  I have many Tinsley, Hudson and Mason ancestors in Virginia going back to the 1600's on my maternal lines.  Multiple maternal lines are lousy with Hudsons and Masons so I know there is a relationship closer than through marriage(which is the first one I found) somewhere in the macrame I call a family tree.

You can read more about Kenny HERE.  He is quite the philanthropist too.

So now I am up to three famous country singers in my family tree....Blake(9th cousin), Big Kenny(closest relationship still TBD)and Phil Vassaar(my 3rd cousin).

Let's close with one of cousin Phil's hits.......



Sluggy