Over the weekend, I was in the Atlanta area for the funeral of my first cousin, Jack Avery. The silver lining in such sad occasions is that we get to see kinfolk we haven’t seen in years.
My brother and I sat up Friday night visiting with my aunt — Jack’s mother — and his sister and members of her family. And we got on the subject of talking about how various members of the extended family are related to each other. We spoke, for instance, of the family legend that we are related to Captain Kidd (there are some Kidds in the family tree), although none of us know exactly how, even if there’s any truth to it.
Somehow, we got on the subject of Patty Hearst. We are related to the Hearsts, rather distantly. The Hearsts lived in the Abbeville and Greenwood areas long before they went West.
My great-great-great grandmother, born in Abbeville in 1798, was a Hearst. Her grandfather, John Hearst, was William Randolph Hearst‘s great-great grandfather — and Patty Hearst’s great-great-great-great grandfather. A family genealogist once told my Dad that he was Patty’s fifth cousin, and the way I read the family tree, I think that’s right.
Making me her fifth cousin once removed. I suppose I could have applied for a job at Hearst Newspapers when I got laid off from The State, but I was just too proud to rely on nepotism.
Anyway, after having had that conversation, the first I’d had with anyone about the Hearst connection in years, we went to the funeral home the next day. We were a little early, and I found myself walking up and down the hallway. Noticing a stack of books sitting on a side table just outside the room where we gathered for the visitation — books there for no more relevant purpose than to imbue the decor with a homey feeling — I of course bent down to read the covers.
What I saw is pictured above. Note the one on the bottom.
I thought that was kind of weird…
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Brad: I live in the house that Col John Hearst built in 1825. My great great grandfather John Henry Wideman bought it from John Wardlaw Hearst in 1847 after his father died. J W Hearst went up the road and built a grander house “Eden Hall” now owned by Emmitt Davis. My home “Sylvania” is locatd on Millway Road in McCormick County (the old Abbeville District) just outside Bradley. We are probably distant cousins. Come visit next time you’re in our area. Best. Frank Wideman.
Hey, Frank! Thanks for sharing.
You’re just outside Bradley? As it happens, Patrick Henry Bradley, for whom that metropolis is named, was my great-great grandfather. His mother-in-law was Mary Hearst. (His mother was Mary Kidd.)
I don’t think Col. John Hearst is from the same line I’m thinking of — if he built a house in 1825, he was a generation or two younger than the John I’m talking about, and Ancestry.com doesn’t show him having any descendants named John except one who died in 1813.
It’s confusing…