52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025: Week 6 (SURPRISE)
Every week WikiTree sends out an email with Featured Connections, and every week I check each one wondering if we are actually related.
Each week I find they are somehow related to our Bramble Bush, but not directly.
What I'm looking for is a list of green connections.
When the connections are yellow they are through marriage, and not blood.
Last week the Featured Connections were for the Year of the Snake.
In scanning the list I didn't expect to find any direct connections. When I clicked the links I found 11 of them had a lot of yellow as I had expected.
BUT then I was surprised to find a solid green connection between Chris & Tim Horton.
In hindsight I shouldn't have been surprised - Chris' 8th great grandmother is Penelope Horton.
Abigail Penelope (Penelope) Horton
Birth 14 FEB 1690 • Southold, Suffolk County, New York, USA
Death 1 DEC 1746 • New Jersey, USA
I'm not sure why I never put the 2 thoughts together.
Usually I see a famous last name in our Bramble Bush, and immediately wonder if there is a connection to the famous person.
In 2019 I wrote about 8th great grandma Penelope Horton, and never even wondered about a possible famous connection,
We are Canadian - you can't go anywhere without seeing the Tim Hortons sign.
I am very surprised I never once wondered about the family connection to Chris' 8th great grandmother Penelope Horton:
Miles Gilbert (Tim) Horton
Birth 12 JAN 1930 • Cochrane, Ontario, Canada
Death 21 FEB 1974 • St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Feeling pretty excited about this new find I quickly set to researching the connections & adding descendants to connect the 2 in our Bramble Bush.
I decided to add Tim Horton as a floater in my tree, and work up his line until the connection arrived.
Once completed I clicked on Tim Horton to see how he is related to Chris.
It was then I was surprised for a 2nd time.
It said Tim was the step 7th great-grandson of my 9th great-granduncle.
My immediate thought was that I had entered something wrong, and lost the connection to Chris.
My 2nd thought was that maybe this Bramble Bush had a second connection to the Horton line, and I had lost Chris' connection.
I wondered if I had followed the wrong line up in attempting to bring the Bramble Bush together.
I decided first to change to Chris as the home person to see exactly what happened.
I was delighted to find I did nothing wrong.
Chris and Tim are 8th cousins X2 removed.
Chris' 9th great grandparents are Tim's 7th great grandparents (Penelope's parents):
Barnabas Horton
Birth 23 SEP 1666 • Long Island City, Queens County, New York, USA
Death 15 NOV 1705 • Long Island City, Queens County, New York, USA
and
Sarah Wines
Birth APR 1668 • Southold or Martha's Vineyard, New York, USA
Death 16 APR 1733 • Suffolk County (Long Island), New York, USA
Now back to the confusion of my connection to Tim Horton.
My 9th great uncle through my mother's maternal line was Sarah Wines' 2nd husband:
Eleazer Luce
Birth 1674 • Tisbury, Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA
Death 3 NOV 1740 • Southold, Suffolk County, New York, USA
Tim Horton is a Canadian Icon.
"For many people today, the name Tim Horton means doughnuts and coffee at the fast-food franchise business he founded in 1964. But for more than two decades, Horton's name meant skill, mobility and unsurpassed strength on defense in the NHL. Horton spent most of that time with the Maple Leafs, helping Toronto win four Stanley Cup championships. He was runner-up for the Norris Trophy twice and earned postseason All-Star recognition six times." 1
A hockey player with a connection to donuts & coffee.
"Tim Horton was an elite player on one of the league’s most storied franchises, but players in the Original Six era did not earn the types of salaries that we associate with contemporary NHL superstars. As Tim had a large family that included wife Lori and four daughters (Jeri-Lyn, Kim, Kelly and Tracy), he often worked in the offseason to supplement his income. While Horton had picked up summer jobs that included working at Brewer’s Retail (The Beer Store) and Conn Smythe’s gravel company, he also had an entrepreneurial spirit that led him to pursue business ventures. These included a hamburger restaurant in Scarborough and a car dealership in Toronto. He and his brother, Gerry, also opened another restaurant, the Big Seven, in North Bay, Ontario, in the 1960s. It would be another eatery, however, that would cement Tim Horton’s legacy.
In 1964, Horton established a little coffee and donut shop, then known as "Tim Horton," that would eventually become a well-established Canadian franchise. Horton opened his first coffee and donut shop on Ottawa Street in Hamilton, Ontario, selling coffee for a quarter and featuring his own personal creations, the apple fritter and the Dutchie. The shop was an enormous success. Horton decided to expand it into a franchise, choosing Ron Joyce as the store's first franchisee. The Hamilton store then became the model for a giant Canadian chain, with Ron Joyce and Horton as full partners." 2
Surprised to find 2 connections in this Bramble Bush to Tim Horton.
When you find the connection to a Canadian Icon!!!
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
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