Search for content in message boards

Is it possible for a 15th Great Grandfather to be my Grandfather from two different lines?

Is it possible for a 15th Great Grandfather to be my Grandfather from two different lines?

Posted: 28 Jan 2015 2:47AM GMT
Classification: Query
I've ran across a 15th Great Grandfather who is showing up on my tree in two different places as a Grandfather. Both are different lineages but meet with him.

Is this possible?

Re: Is it possible for a 15th Great Grandfather to be my Grandfather from two different lines?

Posted: 30 Jan 2015 9:57PM GMT
Classification: Query
It's not possible that your 15th great grandfather is also your immediate grandfather (ie, your parent's father). But yes, of course it's possible to be descended from the same person/people on more than one branch. In fact, it's entirely expected - though not always recent enough that we can trace it but it's what's known as pedigree collapse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse

Without pedigree collapse the population history of the world doesn't make sense.

Re: Is it possible for a 15th Great Grandfather to be my Grandfather from two different lines?

Posted: 5 Feb 2015 9:55PM GMT
Classification: Query
Yes, what Robin said. It would be very unlikely that you do not have any duplicates among the 10th-20th generations, and even more as you go further back.

Re: Is it possible for a 15th Great Grandfather to be my Grandfather from two different lines?

Posted: 5 Feb 2015 10:40PM GMT
Classification: Query
I was just surprised at how many of my Great grandfathers/Great Grandmothers we also Great Grandparents to me in totally different lines. In fact some were my GGPs and on a totally different line they were my Great Grand Uncles/Aunts.

It especially gets weird since I have 3 lines going into the Royals where it seemed everyone was related to begin with.

When this happens should I merge them or leave them separate because I merged one and it listed him as a 19th Great Grandfather and in another line he was an 18th Great Grand Uncle so it messed the listing up.
per page

Find a board about a specific topic