I do hear the annoying "We probably all are related to your famous distant cousin if you go back far enough" enough times, when the clear difference is, you can only be removed by 6 or 7 generations instead of 80 or 90 generations for others.
I found I am distantly related to a lifelong family friend who has been friends with my mum for 40 years and I went to school and was friends with her children. We share a common ancestor back in the 1670s in Leigh On Sea, Essex. She asked me to help with the family tree and I traced her great gran back to Leigh On Sea, and found her great gran and my great grandad were distant cousins. 1670 is much closer than say 800 or 900 or more years ago.
They say that if a British person and a Chinese person were able to trace their ancestors back far enough, they would find a common ancestor. Don't know if that is true or not. Eddie Izzard did his DNA recently, and he descends from African tribes who left 1000s of years ago.
I found I am distantly related to a lifelong family friend who has been friends with my mum for 40 years and I went to school and was friends with her children. We share a common ancestor back in the 1670s in Leigh On Sea, Essex. She asked me to help with the family tree and I traced her great gran back to Leigh On Sea, and found her great gran and my great grandad were distant cousins. 1670 is much closer than say 800 or 900 or more years ago.
They say that if a British person and a Chinese person were able to trace their ancestors back far enough, they would find a common ancestor. Don't know if that is true or not. Eddie Izzard did his DNA recently, and he descends from African tribes who left 1000s of years ago.