My girlfriend's from Argentina, so she's a mixture of Spanish and Italian from around 200 years ago, plus native South American. I'm English, with English ancestors as far back as anyone can tell.
So as an educated guess, without any family tree research, how far back would you need to go to find an ancestor that we both share?
2006-07-30 05:53:52 · 12 answers · asked by Alex 42 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Sorry "David B" and "Puzzled", I honestly didn't realise I had to get your approval to ask a question! Give me your email addresses and I'll run my next question by you before putting it up here, just to be sure.
Or perhaps I should only ask things like "what r u having 4 dinner 2nite????" or "wot iz ur favrit movie!!!???"
2006-07-30 08:47:16 · update #1
Roughly 1000 years, perhaps less. I believe that someone has estimated that a sizable fraction of the current population of Europe is descended from Charlemagne, and there are doubtless many thousands of other individuals who have been equally prolific.
From a more mathematical perspective, all you have to do is project the number of your ancestors and the number of her ancestors backward until the two numbers are sizable enough to be reasonably certain that there is one person common to both. For example, the mean population of Europe during the past millenium is roughly 100 million. It would take you 27 generations back to have a family tree with 100 million people in it (assuming no repeats) and about the same for her. Assuming 20 to 25 years for an average generation, that would be 540 to 675 years, and then add another 200 to allow for the reduced European mixing since her ancestors arrived in Argentina (i.e., the Native American factor in her blood).
2006-07-30 10:50:37 · answer #1 · answered by Keith P 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
In a paper published on the 29th September in Nature, Rohde, Olsen, & Chang claim that the most recent common ancestor of all living humans probably existed a mere three and a half thousand years ago.
Hope that helps.
2006-08-01 09:38:40 · answer #2 · answered by pinkyandbunty 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
About 2000 years. Your common ancestor would be a Roman or a subject of the Roman Empire.
2006-07-30 20:26:24 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could of course find out pretty accurately by analysing both your DNA sequence divergence, but that could prove expensive to do! I'd imagine it could be anything from 100s to a few thousand years ago though, it's a very difficult thing to try and estimate without looking further into family histories.
2006-07-30 17:04:56 · answer #4 · answered by Matthew M 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Difficult one to answer with any due accuracy but within reasin a common ancestor would be between 3100- 1990 years.
2006-07-30 12:56:57 · answer #5 · answered by Gavisinho 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You would need more than an educated guess-- try the library, information there is mostly free, and there will be someone there who could point you in the right direction if you get stuck.. Wish I could suggest something more concrete...
2006-07-30 12:59:37 · answer #6 · answered by Scatty 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting question! :)
I've no answer to this though; I'll be keeping watch though, until you (or voters) select the best answer. Goodluck!
2006-07-31 21:23:44 · answer #7 · answered by vivere 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OMG Get a life
2006-07-30 12:59:24 · answer #8 · answered by puzzled 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The very good time!!
2006-07-30 16:57:31 · answer #9 · answered by Frank S 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
apes
2006-07-30 13:21:13 · answer #10 · answered by qwq 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋