Are you related to me?

Coded Logic

The chances that anyone on this forum is my biological brother or sister, purely from a statistical point of view, is rather low. But how many generations back would we have to go to have a fair chance that one of my ancestors married one of your ancestors (or procreated anyway)?

I was born in 1985. Less than 20 years before my birth my two parents were being conceived by a combined 4 parents of their own.

And if we go back even further, to 40 years before my birth, then I'll find an additional 8 ancestors.

Around the 60 year mark I have another 16 ancestors

80 years back gives me an additional 32 ancestors

And so on

. . .

By the time I've gone back to the year 1545 I would expect to have around 8.3 million LIVING relatives. Only 50 years after Columbus had discovered North America more people alive were grandparents to me than are currently active publishers with the Watchtower today. Just 22 generations back . . . 22 conceptions and births and surely one of my ancestors would have witnessed Martin Luther's separation from the Catholic Church. Or would have served under King Henry the VIII. Just 22 generations ago.

So, are you related to me? Well of course - we're all related. But we probably don't have to go back the thousands or tens of thousands of years we might expect to find our common ancestry. Perhaps 500 years ago one of my 8 million living relatives married one of your 8 million living relatives.

Chances are none of you here are my biological brother or sister. But there's a pretty good chance you're my cousin from the last millennium.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5791530/why-humans-all-much-more-related-than-you-think

OneEyedJoe

While it's correct to say that we're all related, your math ought to account for the fact that no one's family tree is completely free from looping back around on itself when you go back that far. If it where then going back far enough would yield more ancestors than the human population of the time.

Edit: I just looked at the article you linked and that was one of the first points made....my bad.

punkofnice

If you know of a rich relative, let me know. I could do with a cash injection.

Simon

Luke ... I am your father !

jonza

Not quite forum related. But I moved from the UK to the USA 5 years ago, and I recently found out I have a cousin (my Great Granddad was brothers with his Granddad) and we only live 5 miles apart. My Grandmother lived in the USA as a child, and over 500 miles away from where I am now. Shows how small of a world it is.

talesin

I have some, Punky, but you're DF too, so chances of either of us getting a cash injection are very slim. :D

If you're from New England or the Maritimes, way back, we are cousins, fer sure!

sir82

If you use overlapping, not only are we all related, but we're of the same generation as Martin Luther, Henry VIII, etc.

rebelfighter

I was 62 when I found out from the clerk of the court that my mother had lied to me my entire life and my "dad" was not my father. So I sent my DNA in to Ancestry. None of us were every JWS but obviously both my mother's and my father's sides of the family believed in what you might call very large families. Now, my mother was never a family person so we really did not meet much of her family so a lot of this came as a shock. So currently I have alive waiting for me to make contact with over 200 first and second cousins LOL. When you go down the report into third through sixth generation it just gets crazy there are 5,000 cousins. I grew up thinking there were only like a handful of us.

rebelfighter

And at 63 I found a brother I never knew I had. He is wonderful and we get along great. We grew up just miles from one another.

stuckinarut2

Well we all came from Noah and his family...right?

Are you related to me?

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