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It's all relative : adventures up and down the world's family tree / by A. J. Jacobs.

by Jacobs, A. J., 1968-

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Jacobs, A. J., 1968- -- Family.

Genetic genealogy -- Anecdotes.

Genealogy -- Humor.

9781432844455 (hc.)

Alternate title:

It is all relative : adventures up and down the world's family tree

Adventures up and down the world's family tree

Large print edition.

459 pages (large print) : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Introduction -- The eighth cousin -- The world family tree -- DNA sharing is caring -- A great (or possibly terrible) idea -- A pandemonium of genealogists -- Historical voyeurism -- Genetic jambalaya -- Groundhog Sam and my 2,585 southern cousins -- Embracing failure -- Should family be abolished? -- The good cousin -- Adam and Eve -- Kissing cousins -- The Greatest Generation (and the upside of cigarettes) -- Thank you for having sex -- Biological and logical families -- Ellis Island -- Our Neanderthal cousins -- Family feuds -- Who's your father? -- Son-in-law of the American Revolution -- The mega-tree revolution -- Our animal cousins -- Big love -- The other side of the dash -- Privacy -- The genius of Isaac Newton -- Fathers and sons -- Twins and twins, also more twins -- Five mothers -- Black sheep -- My presidential cousin -- Tradition! -- The Kevin Bacon delusion -- The pilgrimage -- An ocean of cousins -- Cheers to the dead -- My celebrity cousins -- 51 percent of the family tree -- The melting pot -- The FBI and my grandpa -- The great surname challenge -- Awkward family photos -- Brother versus brother -- The global family reunion -- We are, without a doubt, irrefutably, family.

The author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically undergoes a hilarious, heartfelt quest to understand what constitutes family - where it begins and how far it goes - and attempts to untangle the true meaning of the "Family of Humankind." A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: "You don’t know me, but I'm your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database." That's enough family members to fill Madison Square Garden four times over. Who are these people, A.J. wondered, and how do I find them? So began Jacobs's three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. Jacobs's journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, found himself singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family. A.J. Jacobs is the editor at large of Esquire magazine and a contributor to National Public Radio.

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