I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s Violent Secret

Re:I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s V... by bdcravens on Saturday April 11, 2015 @12:39AM (#9358527)

There are probably a large number of the 6 billion alive that were the result of rape in their lineage, even within the past 8-10 generations. I think we want to have a connection to those in our past, but the reality is that we have more in common with any random name on the census than those whose DNA eventually trickled down to us.

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Re:I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s V... by sdrothrock on Saturday April 11, 2015 @12:45AM (#9358539)

> the reality is that we have more in common with any random name on the census than those whose DNA eventually trickled down to us.

Really?

DNA will give you a whole lot of things. What if the theoretical rapist had a predisposition to Alzheimer's? MS? Parkinson's? Huntingdon's? etc.

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Re:I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s V... by waterhouse on Saturday April 11, 2015 @01:38AM (#9358640)

Well, actually, after 8 generations, each allele has 8 chances to not get inherited. So if the rapist had, say, one copy of the Huntington's allele (an autosomal dominant mutation according to Wiki), then you would have a 1/256 chance of having inherited the disease from that ancestor. Two copies of the allele from the rapist would give you a 1/128 chance. I'd have to say GP's point stands here.

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Re:I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s V... by MaysonL on Saturday April 11, 2015 @01:35AM (#9358632)

My mother had black hair, even though she was of pure Swedish ancestry (both of her parents immigrated from Sweden). She said that it was a family legend that the black hair was inherited from French women brought back by Viking ancestors.

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Re:I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s V... by peterfirefly on Saturday April 11, 2015 @02:14AM (#9358714)

More likely it came from Finns.

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Re:I Googled My Mother’s Maiden Name and Found My Family’s V... by tomkwok on Saturday April 11, 2015 @12:55AM (#9358558)

> There are probably a large number of the 6 billion alive that were the result of rape in their lineage, even within the past 8-10 generations.

Didn't the world population exceed 7 billion some years ago?

And I just googled and found a recent Reddit thread of which the OP had a similar thought to yours. Interesting.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/2i25ol/do_i_...

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