How Many Times Removed???

I hope that you somehow found (and read) the previous blog which I posted; it was about Philo T. Farnsworth. In it, I explained how I and my children and grandchildren are related to the inventor of the television. Unfortunately, that blog has been temporarily lost in a cyberspace black hole. [However, if you actually found this one, that one is directly below.] I pessimistically expect that this blog might temporarily disappear, too. Nevertheless….

You may have wondered about the rumor that we are related to LaVell Edwards, former BYU Football coach. The rumor is true. My mother and LaVell are 2nd cousins. Their common ancestors are their Great Grandparents, Robert Edwards and Elizabeth Huntington, who left England in the late 1860s and eventually settled in Beaver, Utah. LaVell’s grandfather was Aaron Robert Edwards who was born in 1863, while my mother’s grandfather was Aaron’s younger brother, David, who was born in 1867.

LaVell’s father’s name was Philo Taylor Edwards. Yes, there’s that Philo Taylor name again! Aaron Robert Edwards married a daughter of another of the polygamous wives of the original Philo Taylor Farnsworth. So, as it turns out, LaVell Edwards is also related to the famous inventor of the television. They are 1st cousins, once removed.

Since my mother is a second cousin of LaVell Edwards, I am a 2nd cousin once removed; my children are 2nd cousins twice removed; my grandchildren are 2nd cousins three times removed. So the next time you drive by LaVell Edwards stadium at BYU, you can say, “Old LaVell is my second cousin!” (The how-many-times-removed part is optional! LOL)