[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Genetic Relationship

[Otto]

Afternoon Cousins all,
It has been raining here for four days so I'll add a brief comment on  
relatedness.

After all, that is what genealogy is about, 'relatedness'.
We sum up the known past and humans represent about one tenth of one  
percent of Earth's history.
Regardless of ethnicity or race, we need go no further back than the  
50th cousin to be related to everyone alive.

MOST relationships are much closer than that. Especially our 'group'.

When we marry spouses they are more than a marriage relationship,  
spouses are cousins, blood relatives!
An averaged calculation based on what if:
If we have (4) 1st. cousins
              (16)  2nd. cousins
              (64)  3rd. cousins
            (250)  4th. cousins
          (1000)  5th. cousins
We would have 1,000,000 cousins by the time we reached 10th. cousins.

Reproduction is not random. Societal rules come into play.
Rules of Exogomy, rules of outbreeding.
Rules of Endogomy, rules of inbreeding.
Rules of endogomy were generally enforced less rigorously than rules  
of exogomy.

As has already been discussed, in small farm communities, rules of  
endogomy were viewed with a sleepy eye.
Even in this 21st century we hear stringent views regarding exogomy in  
marriages as individuals discuss genealogy.
"She married a what!?"
		

. . .   Otto
          " The Zen moment..." wk. of March 23, 2008-
               ________________________________
                 "Each of us. . . A bundle of possibilities."