Castaways and Family Trees

Just a castaway,
an island lost at sea.
Another lonely day
with no one here but me.
More loneliness
than any man could bear.
Rescue me before I fall into despair.

-Message in a Bottle, by The Police from their album Regatta de Blanc (1979).

This song appears on one of my favorite albums. It’s the second album by The Police and follows their tendency for giving très chic -albeit fake- names to the their LP’s (their first was called “Outlandos d’Amour"). They invented the title “Regatta de Blanc”, a French-sounding name as a way of defining one of their genres of music: reggae music played by a group of white guys.

The Police were also masters of power pop, defined by my favorite song on the album: It’s Alright for You.

Castaway. Náufrago
To bear. Aguantar / tolerar
Despair. Desesperación
Albeit. Aunque (the pronunciation here sounds like “all-be-it”)
--
Have you ever studied your family tree? Do have any famous ancestors? I mentioned in News the other day that the New England Historic Genealogical Society has traced Barack Obama’s family tree, discovering that he has at least six U.S. presidents as distant cousins, including Brad Pitt. The strange thing is that his current rival in the Democratic party, Hillary Clinton, was found to share a common ancestor with Pitt’s wife, Angelina Jolie! Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins twice removed. Ah, one big, happy family!

Family tree. Árbol genealógico
Ancestors. Antepasados
To trace. Rastrear, localizar

By the way, what does “twice removed” mean? The word “removed”, as used here, means that two people are from different generations. We don’t use the word “removed” when we talk about our first cousins, because we’re referring to the same generation. We use the words “once removed” when we’re talking about a difference of one generation. For example, my father’s cousin is my first cousin, once removed. So, “twice removed” indicates that there’s a difference of two generations. I’m two generations younger than my grandfather’s first cousin, Roy. Therefore, Roy and I are first cousins, twice removed.

Remember, your first cousins are people in your family who have the same grandparents as you. They’re your aunt and uncle’s children. Your second cousins are people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you (but not the same grandparents). This goes on and on: your third cousins have the same great-great grandparents; your fourth cousins have the same great-great-great grandparents.

So, going back to Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie, the person linking them together was Jean Cusson, of St. Sulpice, Quebec, who died in 1718.

Great-grandparent. Bisabuelo / a
Great-great grandparent. Tatarabuelo / a

Published by: Drew Crosby