six months ago I got an email from a man
in Israel who had read one of my books
and the email said you don't know me but
I'm your 12th cousin and it said I have
a family tree with 80,000 people on it
including you Karl Marx and several
European aristocrats now I did not know
what to make of this part of me was like
okay when's he gonna ask me that why
guard $10,000 to his Nigerian bank right
I also thought 80,000 relatives you know
I do I want that I have enough trouble
with some of the ones I have already and
I won't name names but you know who you
are but another part of me said this is
remarkable Here I am alone in my office
but I'm not alone at all I'm connected
to 80,000 people around the world and
that's for Madison Square Gardens full
of cousins and and some of them are
going to be great and some of them are
gonna be irritating but they're all
related to me so this email inspired me
to dive into genealogy which I always
thought was a very staid and proper
field but it turns out it's going
through a fascinating revolution and a
controversial one partly this is because
of DNA and genetic testing but partly
it's because of the internet they there
are sites that now take the Wikipedia
approach to family trees collaboration
and crowdsourcing
and what you do is you load your family
tree on and then these sites search to
see if the AJ Jacobs in your tree is the
same as the AJ Jacobs in another tree
and if it is then you can combine and
then you combine and combine and combine
until you get these massive mega family
trees with thousands of people on them
or even millions I'm on something on
geni called the world family tree
which has no less than a jaw-dropping 75
million people so that's 75 million
people connected by blood or marriage
sometimes both it's in it's in all seven
continents including Antarctica I'm on
it
many of you are on it whether you know
it or not and you can see the links
here's my cousin Gwyneth Paltrow who she
has no idea I exist but we are
officially cousins we have just 17 links
between us
and there's my cousin Barack Obama and
he is my aunt's fifth great aunt's
husband's father's wife seventh great
nephew so practically my older brother
and my cousin of course the actor Kevin
Bacon who is my first cousin twice
removed wife's nieces husband's first
cousin once-removed nieces husband so
six degrees of Kevin Bacon plus or minus
several degrees now I'm not boasting
because all of you have famous people
and historical figures in in your tree
because we are all connected and 75
million may seem like a lot but in a few
years is quite likely we will have a
family tree with all almost all seven
billion people on earth but does it
really matter you know what's the
importance and I do think it is
important and I'll give you five reasons
why really quickly first it's got
scientific value this is an
unprecedented history of the human race
and it's giving us a valuable data about
how diseases are inherited how people
migrate and there's a team of scientists
at MIT right now studying the world
family tree number two it brings history
alive I found out I'm connected to
Albert Einstein so I told my
seven-year-old son that and he was
totally engaged now Albert Einstein is
not some
dead white guy with weird hair he's
Uncle Albert and like it and my son
wanted to know you know what did he say
what is e equals mc-squared
I also it's not all good news I found a
link to Jeffrey Dahmer the serial killer
but I will say that's on my wife's side
so I want to make that clear sorry honey
number three interconnectedness we all
come from the same ancestor and you
don't have to believe the literal Bible
version but scientists talk about
y-chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve
and these were about a hundred thousand
the three hundred thousand years ago we
all have a bit of their DNA in them in
us they are our great break break break
break break continue that for about
seven thousand times grandparents and so
that means we literally all our
biological cousins as well and estimates
vary but probably the the farthest
cousin you have on earth is about a
fiftieth cousin right now it's not just
the ancestors we shared descendants if
you have kids look and they have kids
look how quickly the descendants
accumulate so in 10 12 generations
you're gonna have thousands of offspring
and millions of Austria number for a
kinder world now I know that their
family's huge I have three sons so I see
how they fight but I think that there's
also a human bias to treat your family a
little better than strangers I think
this is these trees gonna be bad news
for bigots because you know they're
gonna have to realize that they are
cousins with thousands of people who in
whatever ethnic group they happen to to
have issues with and I think you look
back at history and a lot of the
terrible things we've done to each other
is because one group thinks another
group is subhuman and you can't do that
anymore we're not just part of the same
species we're part of the same family we
share 99.9 percent of our DNA now the
final one is a number five a
democratizing effect some genealogy has
an elitist strain you know like people
say oh I'm just an
from Mary Queen of Scots and you're not
so you cannot join my country club but
uh that's really gonna be hard to do now
cuz everyone is related I'm descended
from Mary Queen of Scots you know by
marriage but still so it's freely a
fascinating time in the history of
family because it's changing so fast
there's gay marriage and sperm donors
and there's intermarriage on an
unprecedented scale and this makes some
of my more conservative cousins a little
nervous but I actually think it's a good
thing I think the more inclusive the
idea of family is the better because
then you have more potential caretakers
and as my aunt's eighth cousin twice
removed Hillary Clinton says it takes a
village so so I have all these hundreds
and thousands millions of new cousins I
thought what can I do with this
information and that's when I decided
why not throw a party so that's what I'm
doing next and you're all invited next
year next summer I will be hosting what
I hope is the biggest and best family
reunion in history thank you I want you
there I want you there it's gonna be at
the New York Hall of Science which is a
great venue but it's also on the site of
the former World's Fair which is I think
very very appropriate because I see this
as a family reunion meets a World's Fair
there's gonna be exhibits and food music
Paul McCartney is 11 steps away so I'm
hoping he brings his guitar he hasn't
RSVPed yet but fingers crossed and there
was going to be a day of speakers of
fascinating cousins you know it's early
but I've already I've got some lined up
Cass Sunstein my cousin who is perhaps
the most brilliant legal scholar will be
talking he was a former member of the
Obama administration and on the other
side of the political spectrum George HW
Bush the number 41 the father
he has agreed to participate and Nick
Kroll the comedian and dr. oz and many
more to come and and and of course the
most important is that you I want you
guys there and I invite you to go to the
global family reunion org and and figure
out how you're on the family tree
because these are big issues family and
tribe and and I I don't know all the
answers but I have a lot of smart
relatives including you guys so together
I think we can figure it out only
together can we solve these big problems
so cousin the cousin I thank you I can't
wait to see you goodbye
[Applause]