Family Arboriculture

We get some interesting search hits these days, which will probably be a more extensive post sometime.

This morning we were number eight on Google for:
irving oil family tree

I had mentioned the relationship in the past, which is distant, but not that distant.  The way I understand it, Kenneth Colin (K.C.) Irving was my grandfather’s cousin.  Now, this could actually mean he was first cousin to my great-grandfather (Arthur Melborne Irving).  Or it could mean he was an older first cousin to my grandfather; the age is about right.  I don’t actually have information that detailed.  However, unless what I have been told is completely outrageous, we at least have the same common ancestor, Jeremiah Irvin, if I recall the first name correctly.  After a generation or two, the name changed to Irving.  Amazing how often that happens.  My grandmother’s father was a Tranmer, but the name was one of those “changed at Ellis Island” ones, originally Cranmer.

Anyway, those Irvings understandably will have nothing to do with our set of the Irvings.  Ironically, on the other side, my father’s first cousin’s husband knows them personally.  Assuming he’s still kicking, since he didn’t look too good when I last saw him, in Prince Edward Island in 1998.  I’d expect my father to have heard if he died, but you never know.  I always liked him and thought he was a character.  For some reason I never figured out, he was always comparing other places to Peabody, Massachusetts.  He visited down here sometimes, but actually lived in St. John, New Brunswick.

Of course, the real character and generally nice guy was my great uncle, Stan, who liked to play jokes on people and was as jovial as they come.  When he visited us, when I was a kid, he had a gag device you wound up and sat on.  Then you’d lift a butt cheek to release it and let out a fake fart sound.  He drove my staid grandmother crazy.

But I digress.  What I found interesting to read, when I checked the Google results that brought someone here, was the K.C. Irving Wikipedia entry.  The three entries about the sons are cookie cutters of each other, just saying their his kids and run things now.  The K.C. entry details the history and scope of the conglomerate.  Even I had no idea it was that huge.  I also found it another example of rich people being strangely liberal.

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