Johnny Depp Might Be Related to Queen Elizabeth

Johnny Depp is 20th cousin to Queen Elizabeth

Probably true, but completely unremarkable. You can probably make the same statement about me and you. The mathematicians and statisticians who tinker with these sorts of connections have come to the conclusion that everyone with a European ancestor is related to the English royal family, and that our common ancestor lived as recently as 600 years ago. That's about 24 generations, so just about everyone with any European ancestor can claim to be at least a 24th cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Given that Mr. Depp, at 20 out of 24 degrees of separation, is near the very far end of that spectrum, he is probably a more distant relation than I am to Ol' Aunt Lizzie, as I like to call her.

Indeed, one might fairly state that although related to her, he is about as unrelated to her as it is possible to be! Or stated another way, he is probably more closely related to Charles Manson than he is to the Queen, and Manson is in all probability more closely related to Aunt Lizzie!

So it goes.

By the way, that math is theoretical and depends on a lot of assumptions which can't be verified except by extensive DNA analysis. I'm not sure whether applied geneticists would support the conclusions. It is likely that all people with European ancestors are related, perhaps that all humans are related to all others. The uncertainty lies in how far back one must trace in order to find a common ancestor. It may be much more than 24 generations.

Surprisingly, science is not far from the Judeo-Christian tradition on this matter. While you may not believe that we all spring from a single couple created by God 6000 years ago, if you do believe that you would also conclude that Johnny Depp (and everyone else) must be related to Aunt Lizzie.

I just hope I'm in her will.