[Jack Black]

this is based on this simple fact: we each had 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great great grandparents, 32 great great great gandparents. Thats only getting most people back to the last century. 2^100 is a very large number.

I still think a lot of the logic is faulty though. There were places like Iceland that were very remote. I seriously doubt people there have any "Mohammed" in them. The do have lots of "my grandfathers wife was your great-grandfaters daughter" type of stuff though.

[TruthConquers]

You are quite right about Iceland. My mother's, by way of Canada, family tree is of solid Icelandic descent. My dad is from Nova Scotia. I am very sure I have NO MOHAMMED in my family tree. I fact in Iceland if you can trace your family tree back to one guy in the 1500's (who had three wives and three mistress' over his life time) you can then trace back all the way to Odin.

I wonder if I have Berserker's in my family tree?

[Redcloak]

Given the way the Vikings got around, the relationship might just run the other way around!

[Peelod]

A couple of yrs ago, there was a lengthy article in either Harper's or The Atlantic Monthly that presented the math in painful detail on European descendants of MadMo.

I have, unsuccessfully, tried to find it several times.