Dozens of Cousins: Blue Genes, Horse Thieves and Other Relative Surprises in Your Family Tree

The author begins by noting her skepticism when she first read of the claimed kinship between Princess Diana and some twenty or thirty million Americans, via common ancestors. And, since heavy inbreeding usually causes aristocrats to have fewer individual ancestors than we commoners, perhaps the author had even more theoretical kin than that. From this preliminary hook, she leads the reader to consider the nature of family ties, the doubling effect, pedigree collapse, "sibling exchange" marriage, the side effects of inbreding and outbreeding, the nature of race, why so many great artists and musicians died without progeny, the practical limits to pushing your lineage into the past, interpreting the accuracy of family stories, family research in the Electronic Age, and -- squeezed into the final chapter -- a research check-list. And scattered throughout are scores of fascinating quotations and tidbits about the subject at hand, from such experts as Milton Rubincam and Eugene Stratton to Mark Twain and Kirk Douglas. This is not a methodological treatise or a how-to manual but a well-written presentation of the sort of information we probably all know but should periodically think about again.

What Lois Horowitz does in this book is explain the kinds of complex relationships with one's ancestors and relatives. She explains what exactly a "3rd cousin, thrice removed" is, how many ancestors one can have, and what inbreeding can do to your family tree. Along with her simple explanations, she uses easy-to-understand charts. She also gives tips on interviewing relatives and what (not) to believe in public records. Lois briefly describes what to expect at genealogical "paradises" such as the National Archives or the Latter-Day Saints' Family History Centers. Although they're very interesting, the trivia on the margins of the pages are rather distracting All in all, I'd say that this book is decent in providing tips and background info to beginners.

Ms. Horowitz did a good job explaining how one generation is related to another within a family tree. The information helps the reader understand direct (and not so direct) realtionships within families. You begin to see how we are all related the more we go back in time and history. You can see why we all make up the "family of man".