The Most Fantastic Tale of Squireen Paddy and the Clurican – Fellow Irish Americans! Or anyone who enjoys a good yarn! Please take a few minutes to enjoy this tale by my one-time pen pal (yes, we’re still friends after all these years!), world explorer, and raconteur, Brendan Farrell. And if you enjoy it, please consider “clapping” for it by clicking on that little pair of hands at the bottom of the article (anywhere from 1 to 50 times). Thanks! 🙏

I finally finished researching a doozie of a case. Soldier was an only child born in 1911, so I had to trace the children of his 17 aunts and uncles – born between 1862 and 1899 – to identify his cousins for next of kin. He had exactly 50 first cousins, but they were all deceased.

So then I traced the children of these 50 first cousins to find all his first cousins once removed. All told, there were 65 of them, and the oldest 2 will be his next of kin.

This is one of those old Southern families with Harvard doctors in the mix – the kind that have multi-part names that are different combinations of surnames from the family history. It’s a tradition I appreciate, but I encountered so many variations of the same dozen or so names that I had the sense they were tossing them in the dryer, letting them tumble about, and just going with the first 2 to 4 that spilled out.

As a result, the next of kin for the soldier – I can’t use his real name, so for illustrative purposes, let’s say it was SHELBY JENKINS – turned out to be a first cousin once removed named – wait for it… – JENKINS SHELBY.

And just for fun, the next in line for next of kin are 88 year old twins, so I have to find out which one was born first!