McGary and Summers Connection?

Genealogy is a fun hobby ...

• Puzzles to solve - I'm still working on Samuel Clark & Margaret Shimp but I have gotten closer to telling you what I've learned.
• New ancestors to find and research
• Discovery of surprising connections between family lines
• New living relatives to meet ...

A little less than a month ago, a distant McGary cousin found me through this blog, and I've also heard from a few others who may or may not be related - they're keeping an eye out here and watching for the launch of my website. In addition, I've had a couple contacts find me through my family trees on Ancestry.com ... Clark and Aston connections.

Did I get a little sidetracked from the cleanup I had been doing on my database? Well, sure ... but that's the idea behind getting more of my info online. So I'm considering this venture at blogging a success!

Getting back to the McGary cousin, he gave me some info posted by Del Groves¹ on RootsWeb that leads to a probable tie-in between my McGary and Summers lines. I have always thought of McGary as Mom's lines, and Summers as Dad's ... a "never the twain shall meet" scenario ... so this was an interesting theory.

Here's how it goes:

• One of his great-grandfathers, Isaac Newton McGary, was a brother to my great-grandmother, Cancedella (McGary) Aston.
• Isaac had a son, Willard, who married Clara Pritchard.
• Clara's mother was Lucy A. E. (Summers) Pritchard.
• Lucy's father, Elias Summers, was a younger brother of David Summers, MY 3rd great-grandfather.

So yep, my McGary and Summers line do appear to intersect, albeit distantly via marriage.  Cancedella was an aunt to Willard McGary.  Willard's wife, Clara, was a grandniece of David Summers.

Ha! Never say never!


¹ NOTE:  Del Groves' pedigree on Rootsweb led me to his website, "Our Family Saga, West Virginia & Beyond" which I love. He has sourced a lot of his info, which will help me confirm and prove its accuracy to my own satisfaction.