You read that right, we’re Kauffman with two ‘F’s and one ‘N’. The correct spelling if you ask us. We are part of the group of the mysteriously related Mennonites on campus. We don’t know how it happened. Who knew that a small branch of Christianity would create such a strong, ever overlapping family tree clustering in a small town in Indiana?

Allow us to explain how we fell into this phenomenon. We are first cousins and 4th generation Goshen College students. Our dads are brothers. “Oh those two,” our family members would say, “Always giggling.” It’s not just us though, there are more of us.

Andrew and Carson Kauffman are also our first cousins. We recently graduated a member of our family, Anna Kauffman ’24. Don’t you dare get us started on how we are related to Elliot Hertzler Gasho by marriage.

We remember sitting around our grandparents’ table during the holidays conspiring about which college we would attend. For many of us Mennos, attending one of the five Mennonite colleges is often encouraged. It’s a miracle that we all got into the very prestigious Goshen College.

This phenomenon has spread to include  the belief that international students from the same country or even continent are related or somehow know each other.

Both hailing from Ireland, Liam Shaw and Evan O’Toole have experienced this phenomenon. Though Shaw is from Galway and O’Toole is from Kilkenny the two frequently get mistaken for brothers. As if their country of origin is an exclusive club where all the members are related or at least friends.

As related Mennos ourselves, we take full responsibility for fueling this phenomenon of relation allegations. We are aware of the obnoxious energy that we related students may regurgitate.

Taking the classic cousin picture at any semi interesting event, talking about other family members, reflecting on childhood memories and the list goes on. We get it, these are annoying behaviors. Even so, you can often catch us sitting at the “family” table in the Rott perpetuating the Mennonite friend group presence on campus.