I print three calendars monthly from Family Tree Maker. One is for all the births in my family tree that occur in that month, another is for marriages and the last is for deaths.

The font has to be very small in order for the names to fit in each calendar square. Sometimes all the names don’t fit and unfortunately, there isn’t a way to know if /or what names may have been left off.

Are all the names equally important? Today I looked more closely at who would be celebrating a birthday in November. Family Tree Maker described how each of the people listed is related to me. Some of the descriptors included are:

First cousin once removed, twice removed, three or more times removed. Wife of first cousin four times removed. Sister-in-law of first cousin three times removed. Half first cousin once removed.
Husband of half first cousin once removed. Wife of half first cousin twice removed. Second cousin once, twice or thrice removed. Wife of second cousin twice removed. Husband of second cousin three times removed. Half second cousin. Wife of third cousin. Third cousin once removed. Mother-in-law of third cousin twice removed. First husband of step grandmother. Half second great uncle. Husband of third great aunt. Sister-in-law of aunt. Stepdaughter of first great uncle. Wife of half first great uncle.

And my personal favorite ~ husband of half sister of wife of third great uncle.

Do all these people really need to be on my calendar? Some of the more than 100 names on my November Births calendar were described as No Direct Relationship Found. Its possible that some of these folks are preventing my relatives from being seen.

So I took out a red pen and crossed off some names. Then I deleted them from my tree.

Not any direct line ancestors mind you. Or any DNA matches. Some of the random and distant sounding connections have been some of the most helpful to my research. They stayed. But not the folks from my ancestors’ FAN clubs that found their way into my tree via rabbit holes I went down at one time or another. Not the people who are very loosely related but had a compelling story. Not even those who were part of an interesting cemetery mystery that involved shirttail relatives who then became part of my tree on Family Tree Maker.

With fewer names on my November calendar, it was easier to see that November was the month in which my Swedish/Norwegian great grandmother Julia Christine THOMPSON was born 136 years ago. My Swedish 2nd great-grandmother Maria Fredrika PETERSON was born 160 years ago. My Swedish 3rd great-grandfather Peter Johan JOHANNESSON was born 188 years ago.

One of my Swedish 4th great-grandmothers Ingrid Stina JONASDOTTER was born 215 years ago and another, Maja Lisa LIDSTROM was born 227 years ago. My French 5th great-grandmother Marie Elizabeth HOUPERT was born 271 years ago and my Swedish 5th great-grandmother Marta ISAKSDOTTER was born 287 years ago.

And on the 23rd of November 1673 my 8th great-grandmother Karin BENGTSDOTTER was born in Risinge, Östergötland, Sweden. That was 351 years ago.