Six Degrees of Separation

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It's been said that everyone on Earth is separated by just six degrees of separation.  Now, this is referring more to the fact that people are connected to everyone else by these degrees, in other words, in terms of who you know, each person is connected to every other person by an average of six degrees.  Say I know 100 people.  If each of my friends also know 100 people, then I'm now technically connected to 10,000 people.  Give each of them 100 friends and you've got 1,000,000 people.  Now that the internet and Facebook and networking sites have come along, that number has actually shrunk to 3.5 degrees.

In genealogy though, it's a little different.  I've heard that everyone, EVERYONE on Earth is separated by fewer than 100 degrees, although of course I now cannot find that fact to validate it.  The way to determine connection or separation is to take a person (any old person will do) and find a common ancestor.  Trust me, they're there. Then you just count the people in between.  Simple, assuming everyone knows all their ancestors (I know right? That's pretty funny.)

WikiTree has this fun little thing it sends out within it's multitude of emails that gives you the degrees of separation between you and a famous person.  It's actually quite interesting.  Today's was Queen Victoria, I assume because of the Royal Wedding going on and all.  I've been meaning to pick a fun one and blog on it, and this seems to be the one.  There are officially 24 Degrees of Separation between the Queen and I (Well why wasn't I invited to the wedding then?)






0.Alexandrina Victoria Hannover (1819-1901)






1.Louise Caroline Alberta Argyll (1848-1939)  Victoria's daughter-






2.John George Sutherland Campbell (1845-1914) Louise's Husband-



3.Elizabeth Georgiana Sutherland-Leverson-Gower Campbell (1824-1878)  John's Mother-

4.George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861) Elizabeth's Father-





5.Elizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower (1765-1835) George's Mother-







6.William Sutherland (1735-1766) Elizabeth's Father-


7.William Sutherland (1708-1750) William's Father-

8.Catherine Morrison Sutherland (1684-1765) William's Mother-

9.John Morrison (1691-   ) Catherine's Brother

10.Barbara Duncan (1682-1722) John's Wife-

11.Thomas Duncan (1686-1776) Barbara's Brother-

12.John Duncan (1727-1794) Thomas' Son-

13.Anna Dey Duncan (1743-1828) John's Wife-

14.Lydia Dey Mount (1748-1804) Anna's Sister-

15.Richard Mount (1741-1825) Lydia's Husband-                                         Kevin's 6th Great Uncle

16.John Mount (1748-1842) Richard's Brother-                                    Kevin's 5th Great Grandfather

17.Rachel Mount Hutchinson (1780-1850) John's Daughter-              Kevin's 4th Great Grandmother

18.John M Hutchinson (1807-   ) Rachel's Son-                                     Kevin's 3rd Great Grandfather

19.William Henry Hutchinson (1836-1909) John's Son-                        Kevin's 2nd Great Grandfather

20.Minerva Virginia Hutchinson (1879-1962) William's Daughter-            Kevin's Great Grandmother

21.Elizabeth Harriet Stoekel (1903-1986) Minerva's Daughter-                            Kevin's Grandmother

22.JoAnn Eileen Woolsey (1942-    ) Elizabeth's Daughter                                             Kevin's Mother

23.Kevin Gene Simpson (1974-   ) JoAnn's Son-                                                                My Husband

24. ME!

So you can see it's also not a direct line.  In fact, in the beginning there's a whole lot of ups and downs and sideways going on to establish a connection.  Only when we get to the 16th degree of John Mount do we get a direct line ancestor (and of course it's coming from my husband's side, not mine.)  I didn't put the genealogical relationship past Richard Mount as it would have been a whole lot of "wife of husdand of 6th great grandfather of wife" going on, but you still get it.

I wonder how I'm related to Leonardo DiCaprio......

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