Relative Strangers
Poet and teacher Taylor Mali knows more about his family than anyone really needs to know, especially the branch that has lived in New York City for 400 years. However, they don't all know him or each other—they are relative strangers to each other—so getting all 450 of them to meet in person in the summer of 2024 is going to be a struggle or a train wreck.
Relative Strangers
2. Ascendancy vs. Descendancy
John Taylor Johnston, one of host Taylor Mali's great-great-grandfathers, was one of those 19th-century railroad tycoons whom Malcolm Gladwell has noted were all born in New York City within about a decade of one another. He may not have been an Astor, Vanderbilt, or Carnegie, but he made enough money to be able to make a lasting contribution to the cultural life of New York City that endures today. In this episode, Taylor talks about what that contribution was and discusses—perhaps a little too much—the difference between ASCENDANCY family charts, which list all the parents but none of the siblings, and DESCENDANCY CHARTS, which list all the children but none of their spouses.
The founding sponsor of Relative Strangers is FamilyTreeChart.com. Use promo code METROPOLITAN to get 10% off your first order. Please follow the podcast on Instagram at RelativeStrangersPodcast, where Taylor is generally a little less dramatic.
