Everyone on the planet is related to everyone else on the planet. In fact, it is mathematically impossible for one individual to not share some ancestry with another individual. There is even a point in history where each person’s family tree matches from that point backward. This means that a single person is the direct ancestor of every living human. This person lived between 5300 and 2200 B.C.
Most Recent Common Ancestor
Everyone is much more closely related than simply sharing ancestors before the year 2200 B.C. There is another person, the most recent common ancestor, that is theorized to have lived about 3,000 years ago. The most recent common ancestor acts as a much closer ancestral link between all people alive in the present day.
Genetic Legacies
Living individuals with similar ethnic backgrounds are even more closely related as some powerful men took pride in having as many children as possible. For example, the ruler Genghis Khan is believed to have had hundreds of children with various wives and concubines. There are now millions of Asian men who share him as a fairly recent ancestor. However, no matter their ethnicity, every person is at least very distant cousins with everyone else on Earth.
