[Salamander]

“Remember, if you go back 5 generations, you will find 32 ancestors, and only one of them is likely to have the same surname as you.”

Um, I’ve not mentioned that I’m an Appalachian hillbilly, have I?

All statistical bets are off.

LOL!

[muawiyah]

Yup, and you don't need to be a hillbilly for that. All that need happen is that most of your ancestors be part of a small national group that maintained its coherence as it settled a string of colonies on its movement from the East Coast to the Midwest.

You can go back 4 generations in any direction and pick up the same surnames ~ sometimes ALL of them the same eh!

Those different ways of spelling McDonald/McDonnell/Dunn/(etc ~ huge list of 'em) don't fool me!