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Five facts about your family tree to blow your mind
Maybe strangers are just relatives you haven’t yet met
Your genetics tie you and your relatives together. Or so you thought. The truth is you may, in fact, be more closely related to strangers than people directly in your family tree.
Below is a look at five amazing facts about your family tree that might cause you to re-evaluate your relationship with those around you.
- If you have multiple siblings — you are more closely related to one than the others.
You have 46 chromosomes — 23 from each of your parents. Those chromosomes passed by each of your parents to your siblings are not the same 23 that they passed to you. Each sibling inherits a different combination of chromosomes from their parents.
Example: Say you have a sister and a brother. Your father gave you 23 of his chromosomes and gave your brother 23 as well. However, of the 23 he gave your brother, only 5 are the same as the ones he gave you. Now, remember — he gave your sister 23 chromosomes too, but for this example, let us say 20 of those he gave your sister are the same as the ones he gave to you.
Now say the same has happened for the 23 chromosomes your siblings inherited from your mother (i.e. your brother and you share 5 of them…
