I have a distant cousin who connects with an early American line of mine. In a period of 200 years six of his lines converge on one couple and six more lines on another couple, both with early Virginia roots. He seems to be quite healthy. Those two families seem to have had lots of children, very few of whom died young. Sometimes people get lucky, but I'm sure that this man's parents had no idea how closely they were related. I married a tenth cousin. Most Americans with ancestors who came across the pond in the 1600's have a link somewhere within ten generations and don't find it until they get into studying genealogy. It has no genetic significance by then, of course. Eileen Phelps On 4/28/2013 9:40 AM, derbysgen-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > [DBY] First cousin marriage in 1872