Woman Does Research On Husband’s Genealogy And Regrets It After She Discovers That They Are Distant Cousins

It is a small world, maybe even too small.

Damjan

Published in Interesting
13 Feb 2022

Woman Does Research On Husband’s Genealogy And Regrets It After She Discovers That They Are Distant Cousins

Dating someone who turns out to be a distant relative is definitely one of the biggest cringes, let alone marrying one. But it is not that uncommon.

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It is a big world out there, but it is also pretty small at the same time. There are many closed communities where people don't circulate much, so you are bound to run into someone with a similar genetic lineage.

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That's what happened to our OP. She found out that she and her husband have roots in the same region, and when she dug deeper, she discovered that they have a common ancestor who lived several generations ago.

OP's second great-grandmother is her husband's third great-grand aunt. Of course, this was so long ago that it doesn't affect today's generation, but it was still a shock for OP.

There is a theory of six degrees of separation. According to it, anyone on the planet is connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five links (six degrees).

It's also known as the "small world" phenomenon. Since its inception in 1929, when Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy described the theory in his short story "Chains," this interesting theory has become enshrined in both pop culture and the principles of sociology.

And the story we have here kind of proves the theory.

OP shared her discovery on Reddit:

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She and her husband have been married for over a year

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Her husband found out that he has Seminole Indian roots

So OP did some genealogy research and found out that their family trees met at some point in the distant past.

And OP even found the woman who connects them.

Funny how that works.

There's no going back now...

OP is not disturbed, just shocked

Yeah, you can’t avoid it...

In the first large-scale test of the "six degrees" theory, called the Small World project, researchers from Columbia University in New York had participants send e-mails to friends and acquaintances to reach one of the listed targets. Results showed the targets were reachable in five to seven steps.

However, the results were not conclusive because many chains were broken due to a lack of interest from some participants.