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Archiver > DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY > 2002-06 > 1023309217


From: "peter cox" <>
Subject: Re: [D-G LIST] Shortcut for all Genealogists
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 21:33:37 +0100
References: <002001c20b8c$d1253a00$484936d2@robyntay>


Unfortunately, the byeline '...everyone in the world is descended from
Nefertiti and Confucius' is seductive but not really true. The mathematical
argument here relies on sufficiently interlinking population 'pools', and
also depends crucially on 'random mating' as the article acknowledges. Note
the telling 'Under the conditions laid out in the paper....' caveat, which
is a clue that they're theoretical and not real. To say that all Europeans
'have a common ancestor who was born around 1400' is I'm afraid baloney, as
any real genealogist will spot if they think about it. The problem is
that - while there are many populations including royalty that are
interlinked - there are many that aren't. The Basques for example are an
extreme case, but an examination of blood type mapping indicates that there
are whole areas that have been similarly cut off from such interlinking
pools. Here, you'd find that an isolated or semi-isolated population would
have massive within-group relationships, everyone related multiply yo
everyone else, but very few with an external link, even now. The world's
population hasn't been globally homogenised enough yet. The article says
vaguely that 'this ....must push the date back somewhat' is not the whole
truth. It will hold for a large subset of the population, but there are
many groups outside the linked pools in this timescale.

Great fun to debate though.....
----- Original Message -----
From: Robyn & Paul Taylor <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 6:58 AM
Subject: [D-G LIST] Shortcut for all Genealogists


> For all those keen to find they're descended from someone famous, Scitech
Daily Review, on
>
> http://scitechdaily.com/
>
> is running article -
>
> "The mathmatical study of genealogy indicates that everyone in the world
is descended from Nefertiti and Confucius. But the fun is in proving it ...
:)
>
> Enjoy - Robyn
>

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