From: acornish@imm.cnrs.fr   
      
   On 2019-04-21 18:36:16 +0000, Graeme Wall said:   
      
   > On 21/04/2019 18:12, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:   
   >> On 2019-04-21 16:09:47 +0000, Ian Goddard said:   
   >>   
   >>> On 20/04/19 17:24, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:   
   >>>> With possible exception of people who've immigrated from Africa or Asia   
   >>>> in the last generation or so we're all descended from William the   
   >>>> Conqueror.   
   >>>   
   >>> This keeps coming up from time to time.  There seems to be an   
   >>> assumption that because we have 1024, 2048 etc ancestors in a given   
   >>> generation this means 1024, 2048 or whatever different people and that   
   >>> at some point this proliferating number of different people meets the   
   >>> proliferating number of descendants of William the Conqueror (or Edward   
   >>> III, another popular alleged ancestor).   
   >>>   
   >>> The problem with this is that the assumption doesn't hold up.   
   >>   
   >> It holds up just fine. According to Brian Sykes, approximately 50% of   
   >> men with the surname Sykes have a Y chromosome that seems to have   
   >> originated from somewhere near Pontefract. That means that 50% do not.   
   >> So where did they get theirs from? Some no doubt, from local farmers,   
   >> ploughmen etc., but you only need a small proportion to come from the   
   >> nobility for their descendants to spread all over the place. It's   
   >> vastly more likely for a noble to impregnate a farmer's wife than it is   
   >> for a farmer to impregnate a nobleman's wife.   
   >>   
   >   
   > You've not read Lady Chatterley's Lover I take it!   
      
   I have, but it's not typical, not least because her husband was impotent.   
      
      
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   athel   
      
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