In a small population like Iceland maybe most of the people whose families have lived there for several hundred years are interrelated, but 6 generations give 512 ancestors. However many of those 512 ancestors can be the same person, if just 2 of your ancestors were related then there you only have 256 possible ancestors in 6 generations. In all likelihood in a population as small as Iceland many of ones ancestors were cousins, maybe only 5th or 6th cousins but that reduces the number of ancestors in ones family tree drastically.
Thrainn Vigfusson wrote:
You have to go back 6 or 7 generations for my whole nation to be interrelated. I don't know haw far you have to go for the whole of earth's population though.
Thrainn
On Sunday 19 October 2003 20:44, Jostein wrote:
Hi, Thrainn.
I completely forgot my manners here. Heartily welcome to the list. As you haev already noticed, off-topic issues are plentiful and benign on this list. :-)
Your notes about genealogy brings a smile on my face. Norway's population is about 20 times yours, and it's still pretty common to get those "do you know...", based on who you are, where your family is from etc.
Iceland probably has the most complete population genealogy of all nations... -Just one little q, out of curiosity; how many generations do you need to go back before the whole of today's population is interrelated? :-)
Jostein
----------------------------- Pictures at: http://oksne.net ----------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thrainn Vigfusson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2003 10:11 PM Subject: OT Re: New to the list
I thought you might be joking, but it's not often I get the chance to tell people I saw Bjork shopping, since everybody here has also seen her.
We get a lot of "...then you must know..." questions here, mainly because
the
whole nation is interested in genealogy. When you tell people who you are
or
where you live, you can expect answers like "My wife's cousin's husband's great aunt used to live there in the fifties. Maybe you've heard about
her."
BTW, I wasn't joking about the interest in genealogy. The family trees of
the
entire nation (since about 1650) are available on the web. In a few
seconds,
you can find out how you are related to anybody.
On Sunday 19 October 2003 02:11, frank theriault wrote:
Hi, again,
Gee, Thrainn. I was only joking. Not about Bjork being smokin', which
she
is, but about whether you knew her. I knew Iceland was a small place, I didn't know it's that small.
And, I know how to spell "Icelandic", BTW (that was a type in the
earlier
post).
It's funny, but you saying that you've seen Bjork shopping, and
mentioning
how small your country's population is, reminds me of an ongoing
Canadian
joke about Americans. It seems that almost every Canadian I know tells
a
story of visiting the US, and when the Americans find out we're from Canada, they'll say "Oh, I have a cousin in Vancouver, maybe you've met them." Of course the answer is: "Well, there are 35 million Canadians, and Vancouver is 4,000 miles from Toronto, so no I haven't met your cousins."
Enough rambling. I've got to cut down on my off-topic ramblings
anyway...
<vbg>
cheers, frank
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
