Relatives!

Two years before Charles Ingalls (Pa) and Caroline Quiner (Ma) were married, another marriage happened between the Ingalls family and the Quiner family. Charles's sister Polly married Caroline's brother Henry. (One year later, another couple from the two families married! More on that couple in the future.)

Uncle Henry and Aunt Polly are mentioned several times in the Little House books, including throughout Little House in the Big Woods and at the railroad camp in By the Shores of Silver Lake, end of chapter 7 "The West Begins." Their children, Charlie and Louisa, are mentioned too, of course. Charlie is infamous as the boy who cried "Hornets!" (See Little House in the Big Woods, chapter 11 "Harvest.")

If you like genealogy terminology, you will be interested to know that [Laura and Mary] and [Charlie and Louisa] were double cousins. That's because Ma and Uncle Henry were siblings and so were Pa and Aunt Polly. This concludes today's lesson.

Happy reading,
Elizabeth

P.S. This is my 150th post on LHCO! Yippee! Many thanks to my loyal readers who keep coming back!