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A "Family Tree" does not stay tree shaped and some branches are more significant than others are. A great deal is made of "pedigree" and blood lines. This is not necessarily a prerequisite for a genealogical connection of individuals.
In a space-time sense, just as you are "attached " to the person you were when you began reading this sentence and to the person you were yesterday, you are also "attached" to the embryo you were in your mother's womb and to the sperm egg that joined to produce it and to the parents that produced them and to all their ancestors and to all their descendants.
Some of your ancestors may have contributed more than others to your personality, and some people who were not your ancestors may have contributed to your personality also.
But, in a genetic sense every cell in your body (with a few exceptions like red blood cells without nuclei and bacteria acquired externally) has the same set of about 46 chromosomes (23 from each parent) plus some extranuclear material like the subcells called mitochondria which are almost entirely from your mother (and hers and hers…etc). The Y chromosome that a man carries comes from his father (and his and his…. etc). A man generally has a single X chromosome (from his mother), and a woman generally has two (one from her father (and his mother) and one from her mother). Everybody thoroughly
confused yet? Press on!
The result is that you are related to both parents genetically, and women are related to their father's mother and men have copies of the same Y
chromosome as all men in their strictly paternal line. You have the same mitochondria as all the women in your strictly maternal line. BUT, beyond that there is a constantly decreasing probability that you have any chromosomes in common with any particular ancestor the farther back you trace your ancestry. There is some certainty with parents and some grandparents. But, your 46 chromosomes did not come in equal numbers from your eight great-grandparents, nor from your 16 great-great grandparents, nor from your 32 3rd great great grandparents. And, all of your 64 4th great grandparents, at most only 46 of them contributed your chromosomes. For many levels before that, most of your ancestors contributed NONE of your chromosomes.
Because the large number of ancestors has the potential to double at each level, it does not require an unimaginably large number of generations before the number of potential ancestors at any particular level exceeds the number of people living on the planet at the time. So, there is a point (typically from four to five generations' back) when the same ancestors tend to show up in more than one place on a family tree. It becomes evident that a "Family Tree" is more like a family tapestry or family macramé, especially when their descendants are included with your ancestors.
When a family tree gets so large that an even-handed treatment of ancestral lines gets unwieldy, maybe some of the lines in the middle can be cut short without destroying too much significance. This is why to cover all the lines from Pierre deMorlaix to John Perkins of Ipswich would volumeous and of little consequence to the modern genealogist. Each researcher needs to take the basic information and follow from a reference point forward and not try to include each twist and turn as it has little or no impact on your family history.
So, what does all this mean? Quite simply it means that the genealogy
research which people undertake is not based on bloodlines, but rather a desire to trace where there ancestors came from physically, not biologically. Those people that scoff at genealogy, family trees and a desire to trace a families history have not taken the time to understand what they are referring to and therefore make any informed statements or criticism.
(Paraphrased from material provided by Billy Perkins)
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