Hi Mel,

I got an email from an Oliver from Kansas who swore the Oliver's I had discovered were not related to my grandfather. Only a handful of black families in a little town in KS - all born in Tennessee - several with last name Oliver - each family with a George and John and a Shelvy - and they "weren't related"

Well they are - but it goes back 2 generations, and maybe (due to a set of divorces - one group of descendents springing from the divorced wife's line - the others from the father's re-marriage ) they didn't like each other.

Who knows...but if I listened to the person who told me I wasn't a cousin - I would have never followed this family further back.

Keep diggin,

Denise