I’ve got some working theories about how closely related everyone is related to their SO. So I’d like to get some good data on that point. So I want to hear how closely you are related to yourself (ignoring the fact that you are in fact yourself for a moment)
Ok, my 3rd great grandparents were 2nd cousins. So their child, my 2nd great grandmother, was her own 3rd cousin. Their child, my own great grandmother, was her own 4th cousin. My grandfather was his own 5th cousin, my father his own 6th and I am my own 7th cousin. You see?
Although if you didn’t know what I meant then you probably can’t answer my question about your family anyway. Oh BTW, let’s limit this to blood relations only.
I don’t think it works that way, really. Yeah, the linear logic is right, but still. I suppose you could make the statement for the first step, but the rest becomes rather academic.
Well it could be about inbreedingbut it doesn’t have to be. Inbreeding is a very narrow term, if you were to date your 5th cousin I don’t think anyone would call that inbreeding. Especially since most people don’t have a clue who their 4th great grandparents were much less which random people around them also share those same 4th great grandparents. Once you get past a few generations your 5th or so so cousin isn’t any closer to you in genetics then any random person of the same race.
What I’m really after is trying to find out how closly the average person is related to another average person. I’ve heard various estimates and have also formed my own opinions. So yes it is academic, but that’s beside the point here.
Now this isn’t very scientific since I don’t have any limits. And the audience I’m speaking too is quite skewed. Americans are likely to be much more closely related to the average American then to the average Chinese. And yeah 99% of the people out there have no idea how they are related to themselves, but I guarantee you that it’s there for each and every one of you. I’m really hoping to hear from that 1% who know. Although all thoughts will be read.
Europeans were all probably from the same king & queen (I forgot which set, anyone know). So those of us with European ancestors are probably all related, which most people don’t pay much attention to because it would mean we are all one big incestous lot.
handy’s right, as usual. Back in the day, two Africans took a stiff walk around the Mediteranean, settled in a place we now know as Grenoble, titled themselves “King and Queen of… hey, what the hell, Europe”, and started breeding like rabbits. White people are all descendants of those children.
Well, my great-great-great-great-great-grandparents were third cousins. Therefore I am my own eighth cousin (I think). That’s the most recent case of inbreeding in my family tree. Go back waaaaaaaay farther (into the thirteenth century and whatnot) and there are cases of my ancestors being first cousins, second cousins, first cousins once removed, and even one example of a guy who married his own niece! (eww).
For the record, the supposed King who was father of all Europeans is Charlemagne. There is some pretty complicated mathematics I could post here, showing the odds of being his descendants (which is pretty wild, showing that literally everyone of European ancestry has to be his descendant), if anyone’s interested in looking at it.
I was adopted. Good thing, too, because I could never figure this stuff out.
So I guess I actually am related to myself and only myself, at least in my opinion. And I am just vain enough to want to marry myself, if that were possible.