...do I know you?...

A new school year has begun.  Now that I am starting my sixth year at this school, I see family resemblances all over the place.  There are some last names that are omnipresent, so I am never quite sure if  the new students before me are indeed related to their namesakes of the past or not.  Being the youngest of four, I understand that you don't exactly want your teachers to connect you with siblings the first time they meet you.  So, I try to be sensitive to that...yet I really want to know who is related to who.  The main reason is because I don't want to be the teacher in the dark five months down the road who is just putting two-and-two together.

So, last week I was talking with a student with a very common last name.  Not only is it common in our general population, but it is also very popular in this particular school.  (I'm about to use completely different names than the actual people discussed, so don't worry about me using students' actual identities.)

I noticed that Bobby Smith (remember, this is not his real name) was somehow reminding me of other Smiths I'd had, but I couldn't quite decide which ones.  Now, of course to add to the confusion, most Smiths in this town are cousins, if not siblings.  So, I simply asked, Hey Bobby, are you connected to any other Smiths I know?

Bobby:  Yeah, Johnny & Billy  [note Johnny & Billy are cousins, so this doesn't actually clear things up too much] and all the other Smiths they are connected to.

You know, that's right.  Don't bother to identify all of your relations, nor how they are related.  Just throw out a couple names and make a general association.

Thanks man, that really cleared things up for me.