Cousin Marriages, What's the Issue? - An Exercise in Consanguinity

  

Original pic: "LNOF Royalty Free Harry and Meghan Sage" by LNOF_ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

 Cousin Marriages, What’s the Issue? – An Exercise in Consanguinity

Post #6 of the “Eleven Toes” Series

Did you know every member of the British Royal family are married to cousins? Doesn’t that just sound nasty? From Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s 1^st-cousin marriage all the way to the Ginger’s attempted escape from bloodline hitching to marry the American “commoner” actress, self-proclaimed social influencer, and whatever the devil else, Meghan Markle. According to this website, Harry and Meghan are cousins in more than 200 ways; from being a direct descendent of England’s long-ago King Edward III to being able to trace her ancestry to some common ancestors of Princess Diana and the 20^th-century’s favorite Queen Mother (well, odds are she had to be SOMEONE’S favorite). No wonder little Archie is hardly seen in public; he probably has eleven toes! Poor Harry – maybe he should move someplace where that kind of thing is more tolerated, like Alabama or England.

 

The aforementioned Queen Mother (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon) is connected to one of their closest common ancestors. Back to the early 16^th-century, Ralph Bowes served as the High Sheriff of Durham (During the reigns of Henry VII and the first years of Henry VIII). He was the 14^th-great grandfather to both Harry and Meghan, making them 15^th cousins. How many 15^th cousins of yours do you know? More than you might realize!

 

Here's why. How many 14^th-great grandfathers do you have? According to simple math, you would have 32,768 slots to fill if you ever want to join Ancestry.com. Do you know how long it would take to figure that out? (If you do, please tell me.) If it is true that Harry and Meghan are no closer related than that (Probably not, but we’ll run with it!), how related are they really?

 

According to the handy-dandy chart on Wikipedia’s page for Consanguinity (the term for genetic relationships), 15^th cousins aren’t even on it. “So long for handy-dandy!” you might think.  I would consider making a chart showing 15^th cousins, but I decided against it because I don’t hate myself that much. Besides, we can still find the evidence in the chart on Wikipedia, even if it isn’t expressly spelled out. A simple formula a lot like the one I implemented by forcing a poor, innocent calculator to spew out the info on how many 14^th-great grandfathers each of us have (How violent!). But instead of multiplying, that poor, abused machine must divide. And it’s not dividing by 2, but 4. You may be wondering why 4 instead of 2? (In the voice of Randy Jackson)…

 

(Apologies to Randy Jackson. And the dog. And his cranium; no clue where that went.)

 

Full first cousins (on average) share 12.5% of the DNA that would normally be different among typical unrelated people. If you cut that number in half (6.25%), that would be the percentage for first cousins, one time removed (or half-first cousins, sharing only one grandparent instead of both). 2^nd cousins share only a quarter of the DNA as that of 1^st cousins. So, dividing by four the correct number of times, 15^th cousins would (on average) share a grand total of 0.0000000465661287307739% of DNA, or a hair less than five/one-hundred millionths percent or a ratio of 1:2 Billion. (For reference, the ratio of 1^st cousins is 1:8 [only 8]). Now, this is only one of many lines; nonetheless, that’s nearly two million times less blood quadrant than the supposed Cherokee blood inside of Massachusetts Senator, Elizabeth Warren (1:1,024-equivalent to 4^th cousin, once removed). May not be the fairest comparison, since the (ahem) esteemed senator was the first woman OF COLOR to be hired as a professor of Harvard Law School! And as we all know, peach is a color.

 

So it seems Harry did get lucky after all, even if that’s the only good luck he’s had in a decade. Doubtful young Archie has eleven toes, assuming he has any at all (another conspiracy theory)!

 

If you are interested in learning more about Consanguinity, this linked Wikipedia article will whet the appetites of a dozen of you. I also encourage you to watch this 16-minute video on YouTube from content creator and a Kansas high school history teacher, Mr. Beat. (Disclaimer: I don’t agree with the evolutionary stuff. Beyond that, fire!)

 

In the future, I’ll write about what I believe is a common-sense approach to cousin marriages (not sure if my sense can be remotely considered “common-sense,” but I’ll give it a go). But next, back to Genesis! Noah and the flood of chapter 6 and beyond. Until then…

 

Questions to consider:

1.     I really have none for you to consider. If you’ve made it this far, thank you!

 

P.S. – I hope this simple exercise and corresponding links (Especially Mr. Beat’s video! If you haven’t done so already, “Check it out, dawg!”) will help you come to the certain conclusion that we all are related many times over. With that said, have a blessed day, Cuz!

 

P.S.S. – According to a quick inquiry to Geni.com (notorious for being inaccurate, so grain of salt and all…), “Prince” Harry and I are 11^th cousins. That makes us 0.0000476837158203125% related or a ratio of 1:2 Million. So glad he didn’t fall in love with my sister, quite a close call!