Courtney Cox - Our Familial Relationship Finally Solved!

William B. Taylor
2 hours ago
2 min read

Like a dog with a bone, I rarely give up when it comes to putting all the clues together in order to discover my relationship with another person, especially when that person is as well known as Courtney Cox!

Aside from being one of my favourite actors, not only for her hilarious portrayal of Monica Geller in Friends, but also for her ability to bring other characters to life (e.g. the Scream franchise, Cougar Town and more), I had watched her episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and when I heard/saw the names of some of her noble and royal ancestors, I knew that we were distantly related...but just not how that connection came about. Later, when I was researching another distant celebrity cousin - actor Matt Bomer - I kept seeing comments that he and Courtney were cousins. Once again, I could find no close connection between the two actors, let alone myself, so I started digging. And digging. And digging some more.

Today I finally hit pay dirt, and while I haven't been able to work out how Courtney and Matt are related, I did manage to trace my connection to Courtney and it turns out that she is my paternal 17th cousin, 3x removed. The odd thing is, I can verify our shared relationship to my 19th Great-grandparents which presents a bit of a problem in itself since my 19th Great-grandmother was married not only to 1 my 19th Great-grandfather, but she had also married my 3rd cousin 20 times removed. Luckily for me Ancestry.com automatically calculates the closest genealogical relationship, but I still want to see how my 19th Great-grandmother marrying my 3rd cousin 20x removed leaves Courtney Cox and I as 17th cousins 3x removed. Somewhere back in time there are other relatives hiding somewhere in our shared trees making us related a few generations closer than I thought.

At any rate, I have finally been able to confirm that we are at very least related to one another, which means my brain will be a little less activated every time I see Courtney Cox on my TV or hear her name! Genealogy can be a lot of fun...if you know where to look.