DISCOVERING THE SHOLTY TWINS

MARY & HESTER SHOLTY
B. 2 Apr 1857 in McLean, IL

     
     Last summer my mother sent me a pile of old family pictures, a few of which we had no clue as to who the people in them were.  We just knew they came from Mom's side of the family.  One of our mystery photos was a picture of two identical-looking sisters, twins, we assumed.
    Recently, while researching the records of my third great-grandparents JACOB SHOLTY (1805-1880) and MARY FUNK KAUFFMAN (1810-1893), I came across the 1860 Federal Census recording the SHOLTY family.   I happened to notice their youngest children to be two 3-year-old girls named MARY and HESTER.  This was a surprise to me.  I only had Hester in my tree, born in 1857, unknown death.  I didn't know about their child Mary.  It must have been a surprise pregnancy to their parents as well, as the twins were born nine years after the birth of their fourteenth child, and their mother was 47!
     
Now I knew who the twin girls in the mysterious picture were!  They were born 2 April 1857 in McLean, Illinois.  I checked the records for Mary and learned she married ROBERT C. LITTLETON (1853-1929) and had one son, CHARLES ANANIAS LITTLETON (1886-1974).  Mary died 9 April 1932 in Bloomington, Illinois.  
     The sad part is I can find no marriage or death record for Hester.  I have an autograph album of my great-grandmother LIZZIE SHOLTY from the 1880's.  MARY SHOLTY signed a page in her album on 12 March 1881. Her twin sister HESTER SHOLTY did not sign the album.  
     The twin on the right in the picture is a tad slimmer and shorter than the twin on the left.  Perhaps this is Hester and she succumbed to an illness in her childhood?   Tuberculosis perhaps?  Can't help speculating about what might have happened to her.

"OH, MY GOD, MOM AND DAD ARE 9TH COUSINS!"

"Oh, my God, Mom and Dad are 9th cousins!"  
That's what I yelled out while doing research on a MUDD line on my mother's side the other day.  Two names that came up sounded familiar to me:  WILLIAM BOARMAN (1630-1709) and his wife SARAH SINGLEY (LINLE) (1627-1668).  Sure enough, I checked and saw that they were already in my tree, 9th great-grandparents on my father's side.  It turns out William and Sarah are also 9th great-grandparents on my mother's side.  Double great-grandparents one could call them.
Apparently William and Sarah had two daughters, one of which, SARAH, married THOMAS MUDD and went on to produce descendants on my mom's side.  Their other daughter, MARY ANN, married ROBERT GREEN and had offspring which eventually led to the birth of my dad.
I just started doing genealogy about three months ago.  Has anyone else discovered that their parents were distant cousins?  Is this common?  I'd love to hear from you.
Also would love to hear from anyone who has WILLIAM BOARMAN and/or SARAH SINGLEY (LINLE) as ancestors.