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Author: Diana_Gale_Matthiesen
Surnames: Carrico
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carrico/410.3.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I think it would be a mistake to attribute any particular trait to a single ancestor,
especially a distant one, not only because traits such as skin, eye, and hair color are
the result of the interactions of numerous genes, but because you have so many ancestors.
Each generation you go back, the number of ancestors in that generation doubles:
http://dgmweb.net/Ancillary/OnE/NumberAncestors.html
Most of us who are alive today and descend from Peter CARRICO, 1674 immigrant to Maryland,
are nine or ten generations back from him, so you have only a *tiny* bit of his DNA in you
- a fraction of 1%, if any. Even if Peter CARRICO I were snow white or coal black,
neither would have much impact on your own coloring.
If you want to know whether you have any recent Amerindian or African-American ancestry,
you could take the FamilyFinder test at FamilyTreeDNA. I say "recent," because
a FF test is most sensitive within five generations, though I've made connections
further back.
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