Standard response on relativity:
Dear Jim: Do you know Reginald Rittenhouse in Boozwha, Idaho? Signed, Curious.
Dear Curious: Nope. Not a chance. The Rittenhouse clan first came to America in the 1680s from the Netherlands, and landed in what’s now Philadelphia. They were prominent early settlers there, and if you mention that you’re a Rittenhouse in Philly, you are assumed to be stinking rich with OLD family money. I assure you, that isn’t me.
My branch of the family wandered out of Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolutionary War, and headed for the Ohio country, ending up in Ross County, Ohio, south of Columbus, around 1800. My father left the land in the 1930s and migrated around before ending up in Dayton, Ohio, where I was raised and he died.
He came from a long line of only sons - extra daughters, one son - going back several generations. I have only met two male Rittenhouses - my father and his childless brother, and both are *long* dead. I have no brothers that I’m aware of, but my father was quite a ladies man in his day, I gather.
The only women I am related to directly who had Rittenhouse in their name were my two half sisters, who live in the South and haven’t used that name for a VERY long time. Otherwise, there was my mom, also dead, and my wife and daughter (no other children) and my ex-wife (who hasn’t used the name for about 20 years).
So I’m probably related to whoever you knew or met, but I’ve never met them, and the relation is very distant at best. As in 100-200 years distant, at least.
(I get this question all the time, and I needed to have a on-line link for it. See other entries tagged Rittenhousia for more family stuff if you care.)