Cousins...

Confucius family tree has two million members (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-02-16 22:04

JINAN -- He's been dead for 2,500 years but his family just keeps growing and growing - Confucius, or more properly his descendants, are alive and well and flourishing in China and across the globe, according to the latest version of his family tree which is set to triple the size of his kith and kin. The job of registering new members to the family tree of revered Chinese thinker and educator Confucius (551-479 BC), was finished by the end of 2007, and the number in the updated tree now stands at more than two million. The family tree will be published in 2009, according to the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee. "We have received more than 1.3 million new entries and already stopped soliciting new ones," said Kong Dewei, a Confucius descendant who is directing the updating work. The 1.3 million are the living members of the Confucius family who have paid the official registration fee of five yuan (70 U.S. cents), but the deceased members will also be included if their descendants can prove a collateral family tree which conforms to the Confucius Genealogy, without any charges, Kong said. The registration work started in 1998, when Kong Deyong, 77th-generation descendant established the committee in Hong Kong. More than 450 branches were set up around the world to assist the work. The pedigree has only been revised four times throughout history. The last revision took place in the 1930s and included 600,000 members. The fifth edition of the Confucius family tree will be published to coincide with the 2560th anniversary of the birth of the thinker next year. Compared with previous versions, the new genealogy will for the first time include overseas and female descendants of the great philosopher. Confucius' family tree is regarded as the world's longest, recording more than 80 generations of the sage's family. Courtesy of WiKi

While we doubt we will reach 2 million cousins, at least in our lifetime though you know the Irish, there are a reported 450 documented Mahons so far. Whoa! 450? you say? You read that right and we are expecting to better that and beyond to infinity at our reunion.

Which reminds us, have you signed up on our website as a member? You haven't?!?!? What is holding you back? Ahhhh, you're one of “those” leave it to the last minute type. Tsk tsk tsk. Can you imagine the sacrifice James and Ellen Mahon and their eight children gave to leave their life behind in Ireland and sail to their new home in Canada 200 years ago? I can't. Having read records of just the ocean journey leaves me wondering if I had the guts to do the same. They didn't hold back, they jumped!

Our reunion is held in honour of James and Ellen for taking that giant jump. A jump which we all should be grateful for. Let us take another jump with them in spirit and express our gratitude by celebrating James and Ellen and descendants in this reunion. Without them we wouldn't exist as we know each other today. Seriously!

Insert AD Here :): There is a Member benefit to joining the website and that is updates are delivered directly to your e-mail inbox in real time so there's no need to be spending silly amounts of your life refreshing FB. Just saying...

The official Registration forms will be available early April. And! We expect to check each and everyone that we know off our list of those (or who should be) attending the reunion. If you're not checked off by June 1, you will be tracked down by really, really, big Irish wolfhounds and though they are a gentle breed the older ones may have lost their patience and have manifested into Trolling retrievers