Finding Amelia Earhart - In My Ancestry Tree

Challenge to Myself

Amelia Earhart has been in the news lately because the Smithsonian Channel is airing a documentary on new evidence found recently. They claim that she may have been found by the Japanese because of an old photo where some people in the photo resemble Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan. I got a crazy thought and wondered if I could find out how I was related to her. I have roots in Kentucky and upstate New York, so I believe I am like the universal Anglo Saxon descendant. I am feeling great about the possibilities.

First things first

When I go to see if I am related to a historical figure, I use geni.com. I do a google search using the keyword geni and the historical figures name. So in this case I googled geni Amelia Earhart. I clicked on the link which took me to an Amelia Earhart tree and I clicked the links on her parents and other ancestors looking for surnames from my ancestry.com tree. You may want to go to your tree and do a once over on your tree surnames when you try this.

Tip: If you only have 3 or 4 generations of your family tree exposed, then it will be tough to do this. You need to go as deep in your tree as possible. I am fortunate to have 10+ generations on my personal family tree. Not all of us are and many people have many roadblocks in their trees.

I clicked in geni.com for several minutes and I came across someone with the surname Curtiss. This tripped a switch in my brain because I knew I had Curtisses on my birth mother's side of the family. I checked and found a Narcissa Curtiss b. 1769 in Simsbury, Connecticut. Her father was Eliphalet Curtis b. 1735 and his father was Peter Curtis b.1713 in Wallingford, CT. Amelia's tree had a Caroline Abigail Curtiss b. 1808 in New York City, NY. Caroline's parents were Gideon Curtis and Ruth Day, but there was sketchy information in geni on them. I then went to ancestry.com and looked them up. Using my Rule of 25, I found some family trees in Ancestry with the same people. Gideon Curtis was born in 1776 in Simsbury, CT. His father was also Gideon Curtis b. 1751 and his father was Peter Curtis b. 1713 in Wallingford, CT. Same ancestor! Amelia and I are related!!

Finding the relationship

That was easy enough, but I want to tell people how Amelia and I are related, so I need to find the relationship. I wrote out a little chart of Peter Curtis to Amelia:

Peter Curtis b. 1713
|
Gideon Curtis b. 1751
|
Gideon Curtis b. 1776
|
Caroline Curtiss b. 1808
|
Alfred Gideon Otis b. 1827
|
Amelia Otis b. 1869
|
Amelia Earhart b. 1897

If you go up the chain, Alfred Gideon Otis is Amelia Earhart's grandfather, Caroline Curtiss is her great grandmother, Gideon Curtis 1776 is her 2nd ggf, Gideon Curtis 1751 is her 3rd ggf and Peter Curtis is her 4th ggf. People at the same level as you descended from a grandfather are cousins, so Amelia has cousins from Alfred. In the same way, Amelia has 2nd cousins descended from Caroline. Exanding upon that, people at the same level as Amelia descended from Peter Curtis 1713 are 5th cousins.

I did the same chart for me and Peter Curtis 1713 is my 7th ggf. People at the same level as me descended from Peter are 8th cousins. But what about Amelia and I? Well, Someone in my list of ancestors is a 5th cousin to her. It ends up being my great grandfather Ernest Gardner b. 1880 in Mexico, NY. I am 3 generations removed from him, so Amelia Earhart and I are 5th cousins 3x removed. 

To make it easier, I could have entered Amelia Earhart into my ancestry.com tree and added her ancestors going back to Peter and then ancestry.com could have figured out the relationship for me. But I think it is good to explain how to find it manually. I hope this helps someone find a famous person they are related to! It is a great thing to tell your family and especially your children!

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