So – I’ve got this husband. For what it’s worth, I’ve gotten accustomed to losing contact with friends and/or relatives over the, shall we say, implications of that statement, so I’ll pause briefly while the offended work their way, quietly, to the exits.

Now then – Michael (said husband) is my 8th cousin, three times removed. His great-grandmother was Olive Mae (Mack) Smith (1876-1967), and lined up behind her is a line of Macks stretching all the way back to my 10th great-grandfather (and Michael’s 7th) John Mack. John Mack (1653-1721) was a Scotsman who left Inverness for Massachusetts in 1669, made his way to Connecticut, and died in Lyme, New London County.

Interesting point: of the six Mack grandfathers on Michael’s side, four of them were named Orlando.

But while the Mack name thrived in Michael’s tree until Olive’s death in 1967, the last true Mack in my tree was Patience Mack, John’s granddaughter, born in 1714. Patience married Thomas Hayes… and their son John married Azubah Rowland – and that puts us smack-dab on my direct maternal line, so the surnames change with each generation.

• Azubah Rowland Hayes
• Polly Hayes Jones
• Betsey Jones Richmond
• Mary Richmond Brown
• Libbie Brown Earl
• Lula Earl Ralston
• Lottie Ralston Thews
• Lula Thews Wright
• Mom

Of course, regular readers will remember Lula Earl Ralston – the “Rome” of my family tree, to which all roads eventually lead.

But I digress… frequently.

This post is a big excuse to run this nifty photo. One of those Holy Grail, FIVE-generation numbers… and this one from Michael’s end of the family. Speaking of direct maternal lines.

The baby is Michael’s first cousin, the lady in white is his father’s sister June. Then there’s Gramma Lu, Lu’s mother Olive Mack Smith, and Olive’s mother, Susannah (Rickard) Mack. Assuming that the baby is about 2 years old, we date the photo to about 1944, at which time Susannah was closing in on 90.

Point-of-fact: I could have been in a 4-out-of-5-generation photo when I was two years old (1961-62), like this little tyke here, but we would have been missing my great-grandmother Lottie. Her mother (the indefatigable Lula) was still alive – and would remain so for a couple more years – but Lottie died in 1948.