Hello all again I have received many a favorable response from several listers (on-list) and one not so happy response (off-list) from a fellow that evidently doesn't like to participate in discussions such as this. I consider this type of question one that is a definite learning experience. I'm hoping most others agree. I really enjoyed all the personal family stories as to how you can be related to yourself as your own cousin. Appreciate your sending along. The one response that sticks in my mind is that if your parents are 3rd cousins to each other (whether known or unknown before marriage) you become a 4th cousin to yourself. Keeping it as simple as that, that makes sense to me. And hilarious, as others point out, you bet!! As Ray Stevens' song points out - "I'm my own Grandpa." And mind boggling as well (that is, for those of us that still maintain some semblance of grey matter up there.) I really have to feel for those folks that have people in their family tree that are their own cousins in up to at least 10 different ways. That must be a nightmare to keep tract of and present to others how that all comes about. Anyway, thanks for a good round of discussion. ************************** And somewhat related to all this discussion, can anyone tell me how to determine "common ancestors" using FTM? I can determine how 2 individuals are related to each other, but finding who their common ancestors are escapes me using FTM. Other than "going up and down" those individual's ancestral trees by "trial and error" and paper and pencil. What am I missing? I realize there are other genealogy programs out there that are more powerful than FTM and can provide this information with the hit of a letter on a keyboard, but can this be done through FTM? I have the most current version of FTM and have scoured it in detail trying to find a clue. *********************** Richard Hardwick (Researching direct lines in Nova Scotia and New England - HARDWICK, ARMSTRONG, BARTEAUX, SPURR, HENDERSON, BLACKMAR, MARSH) RiHardwick@comcast.net

----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Hardwick" Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:39 AM Subject: [NS-L] Related to myself - how? SUMMARY ***snipped*** Richard, Exactly what is NSroots@ednet.ns.ca all about? Sounds interesting. Where can I access the archives? Ta - Toni