Mark Evans -Revisited

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 84969

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at y...>
wrote:
> Carol: 
> 
> I don't think Mark's father (who had to be alive at the time Harry
> went to the Dursley's) was Petunia's brother or Dumbledore could not
> have considered Petunia to be Harry's only living relative. His
> blood would have been as suitable as Petunia's for the charm that 
> protects Harry as long as he's in a blood relative's home. The 
> relationship, as I said in a previous post, has to be sufficiently 
> distant for DD to be unaware of it, and that branch of the Evans 
> family has to have been nonmagical for several generations for DD to
>  be unaware of it. I think it's more likely that Mark's father is 
> Lily and Petunia's cousin than their brother, which would make Mark 
> and Harry second cousins.  ..edtied...
> 
> Carol

bboy_mn:

I'm not sure who to respond to. I guess your post is as good as any.
We /should/ know that Petunia didn't have a brother or HE would have
been a likely and very hard to ignore candidate for taking Harry in. 


Dumbledore specifically says-

PS/SS-
"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the 
only family he has left now."

GoF-
"I put my trust, therefore, in your mother's blood. I delivered you to
her sister, her ONLY REMAINING RELATIVE." (my emphasis)

That pretty well clears it up.... or does it?

We have relatives and then again, we have relatives; the two not
necessarily being the same.

We are completely wrong and off base to think that Mark Evans is any
kind of close relative. One thing we must keep in mind is that Evans
is an extremely common name in Wales and Western Britain. So there
could be no relationship.

However, let's consider a relationship that is more likely, if we
assume they are related.

If we follow Lily's family tree back up to her great, great, great,
great, great grandfather, then shift sideways to his brother and
follow that branch of the family tree down, what does that make Harry
and Mark? 

Something like 6th cousins? A sixth cousin is pretty close to a being
a stranger. I doubt that most of us could find a 6th cousin to save
our life. I know, I'd have to do my searching for them in Norway which
would be hard since I don't speak a civil word of Norweigian (I can
however say some nasty swear words). And in the off chance I did find
a 5th or 6th cousin, the likelihood that they would take me in as an
orphan (assuming I wasn't a multi-millionaire) would be as good as zero.

For all intent and purpose, a very distant cousin, while techinically
a relative, would not be considered family for any practical purpose.
Certainly Petunia as Lily's sister is a dramatically close relative,
and is about as close as it's possible to get.

So, my position has always been that if some relationship is
established between Harry and Mark, it will be extremely distant. But
nice none the less.

However, since this thread has come up again (the third time in very
recent history) and having given it some thought, I have conceived and
alternate possibility. 

It's possible that they may be second or third cousins, and that
Mark's eventual parents were indisposed in someway. For example, they
were doing missionary work in the Congo, or research in the Amazon,
and came back to England when they learn they were expecting a baby. 

Not that it matters bacause Petunia, Lily's sister, was available, and
there are apparently NO OTHER CLOSE relatives. Problem solved. 

See also-
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82914

Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn