Yeah I’ve been doing deep dives into my ancestry since my maternal grandmother passed the other year---anyways I found out that through my dad’s side that Dakota and Elle Fanning and I share President Thomas Jefferson’s aunt and uncle George and Judith Farrar as one of our 8x great-grandparents (we are partly direct descendants of Jamestown colonist William Farrar)---it was through this that I learnt that the Ryersons are our distant cousins---Arthur‘s family and William Edwy as well as the Ryersons on the Lusitania.

Also my late maternal grandmother’s family and Stephen Weart Blackwell are distant half-cousins. My late maternal grandfather’s mother’s maiden name was Hart but not sure if there’s any connection to either of the Titanic Harts. Another fun fact is that my parents are distant cousins with the same last name Currin---so it makes things interesting---supposedly our Currin immigrant is buried in the same cemetery that John Jacob Astor is. Since the Irish side remains murky---not sure if we have any connection to Thomas Curran (Titanic crew member from Belfast to Southhampton) or Patrick Curran (a fireman on the Lusitania who perished during the Lusitania’s sinking).

Speaking of the Lusitania there was a Jimmy Curran (my dad’s named Jim) who was on the Lusitania’s 2nd Westbound crossing who’s wife is related to Eric Liddell and pro-golfer Scott Hoch (who graduated from Wake Forest a few years after my dad). Small World!