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Archiver > DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY > 2002-06 > 1023397365


From: arthur harris <>
Subject: Re: [D-G LIST] Shortcut for all Genealogists
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2002 07:03:30 +1000
References: <002001c20b8c$d1253a00$484936d2@robyntay> <005d01c20cd0$5ed5dc80$54d693c3@com>


G'day Peter,
I am one of the "lurkers" who reads all of these messages but only
replies when there is something to add, that I consider important.

From a mathematical point of view, it is possible that we are all
related. Consider that for each generation that we go back we have twice
as many ancestors as in the previous generation (and half of them
introduce new family names). We have two parents, four grandparents,
eight great-grandparents, etc. At ten generations there are 1024 direct
ancestors. Theoretically, if we go back far enough, the number of direct
ancestors equals the population of the world at that time. Cousin
intermarriages help to reduce the number of direct ancestors, but it
still leads to a huge number of direct ancestors.

If we come the other way, starting with one couple, it depends on how
many children each couple had and how many of them survived and how many
of the survivors married and how many children THEY had, what is the
gene pool at any given time.

As you have said, it is interesting to debate this issue and I hope that
the above helps to give people food for thought. Personally, I have
followed the correct procedures of working from myself backwards and
taking what comes, rather than assuming that any particular person is an
ancestor, on the basis of desirability. I have found a few famous (or
should that be infamous) ancestors. But I am not at all impressed by
that fact. They were simply people to whom I am related.

Happy Hunting ;-)
Arthur Harris,
Hampton Park.
Victoria.
Australia.

peter cox wrote:
>
> 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
><snip>

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