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To: Hawthorn
Yes, ignoring the possibility of cousin marriages (which would be common among people living in small communities--if you include marriages between second cousins or third cousins as "cousin marriages"), two 10th cousins would have two out of 2048 9th-great-grandparents in common.

In fact there is a good chance they would have only 1 9th-great-grand-parent in common, because of ancestors who were married more than once and had children by different spouses. In either case, 10th cousins may not share any DNA, unless they are descended in the direct male line from a common ancestor and share the same Y chromosome.

Normally second cousins would share 2 of 8 great-grandparents in common. In my case I have second cousins with whom I have only one great-grandparent in common, since they are descended from my grandfather's stepmother.

33 posted on 01/29/2010 8:58:09 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

Obama’s family tree looks like a spiderweb.


34 posted on 01/29/2010 9:02:34 AM PST by Never on my watch (Liberalism has NEVER made anything better)
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To: Verginius Rufus
>> 10th cousins may not share any DNA, unless they are descended in the direct male line from a common ancestor and share the same Y chromosome <<

Almost, but not quite. They also could share mtDNA, if both descend in an unbroken female-to-female line from a common 9th-great-grandmother.

Moreover, total genome "sample scans" sold by the firms 23andMe and deCODEme now are sometimes able to pick up shared DNA as far as eight generations back, no matter that the ancestral trails involved are mixed between males and females. For example, my own 23andMe DNA results show a "haploblock in common" with a known sixth cousin -- whose paper trail back to our common 5th-great-grandfather passes thru several female ancestors.

Now to be sure, these total genome scans (based BTW on the Illumina chip technology) aren't yet as reliable for genealogy as are the standard Y-chromosome and mtDNA tests. But when the cost of total genome sequencing -- as opposed to today's "sampling" -- falls down to ca. $100.00 per shot, then we might be able to do reliable DNA tracing back to the generation of our 9th-great-grandparents. I guess we'll just have to be patient for another five or ten years!

45 posted on 01/29/2010 11:15:24 AM PST by Hawthorn
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