The “arborist” spent the afternoon in an unfamiliar forest of trees. When I said “shirttail relatives”  it is less cumbersome than “great-grandfather of wife of fourth cousin one-time removed.” I was intrigued when I noted that “great-grandfather” was the father of a set of twins, and a set of triplets. My sympathy to the wife, and mother, who gave birth to five babies in less than three years. A total of thirteen children in twenty-three years. ~~ I get intricately involved with the individuals and aspire to accurately document details of their walk on this earth. ~~ Why did I digress from my surname and collateral lines? Because the surname was (**is**) a “collateral line” but I failed to connect with my Old German Baptist Brethren cousins.