That's… a little bit creepy.

crystalsinger | May 05, 09:13 CET

Impressive how far the trees go back. My families pretty much falls apart after a couple generations.

Jaymii | May 05, 09:20 CET

Someone should really let Johnny Depp know

Jackal | May 05, 10:36 CET

Joss and Eliza?! I wonder if they know!

eddy | May 05, 11:57 CET

This thing is dangerous; you start it as a joke and then you find out you are related to your wife...

Some things are better not known... ;)

Darkness | May 05, 13:27 CET

Darkness, are you referring to Kevin Bacon?

eddy | May 05, 15:10 CET

Kinda makes you wonder just how closely related you are to Joss Whedon too! That said, I barely admit that I'm related to my father, so going much further back than that might be an issue...

Five Horizons | May 05, 15:28 CET

That possibly makes me a cousin of Whedon too - since Eliza is part Dane on her mother's side, we might - just might - be related. ;-)

Although Rasmussen is a common name here, I have quite a few of them among my ancestors - which does make me distantly related to a certain war-mongering former Danish prime minister. Eliza would be better.

Of course, geni.com also claims that "Eneid Capuir ap Cerwyd, Druid King of Britons is your 56th great grandfather", so...

Kaneda | May 05, 16:55 CET

Be careful of that site, folks - I clicked on the "Are you related to Eliza Dushku?" link to start my "free" family tree. After I put in my name & the names of my parents, I clicked an arrow above my father's name to add his parents...and it took me to a page to sign up for a paid membership. Umm...no, thank you.

And the "lifetime" membership? Is over $400! No way.

And I was having trouble following their "tree" - the way it looked they went back and back in Joss's tree and suddenly forward into Eliza's, but since there were no years it was hard to tell when they started to come forward again.

Very confusing, misleading site. But if Joss and Eliza truly are cousins, that's awesome.

ShadowQuest | May 05, 17:14 CET

If we were able to follow our lineage extensively (which is difficult to do if you are descendents of immigrants who left their family histories behind), you may find that we're all related somewhere along the line. I wouldn't pay for that info, though, especially since the info can easily be manufactured/fiction. In this case, what we don't won't hurt us.

Nebula1400 | May 05, 17:37 CET

@ShadowQuest: Yeah, there's a bit of a scam-y vibe there. And Nebula is absolutely right that a lot of it may be - and probably is - fiction. Especially since it's a wiki in nature, and the tree quickly becomes unmanagable.

However, I have a credit card that's being replaced in a week, so I can easily supply the details to them for the 14 day trial. Then I'll just export it if my family wants the more likely stuff at the bottom of the tree.

Anyway, they start changing direction at Joe Babcock Sr. in 1646. The calculation is sound, if the connections are actually true - which, again, they're most likely not.

After setting up connections I know to be true (then others have done the rest), it's telling me that Eliza is my 24th cousin thrice removed. Which is just about infinitely distant. Joss, however: 27th cousin once removed - going back to a shared ancestor born in 960. ;-)

ETA: 26th actually, but who's counting?

[ edited by Kaneda on 2012-05-05 18:22 ]

Kaneda | May 05, 18:09 CET

Since my G-Grandmother was a Wheadon I've sometimes wondered if Joss was a distant relation. Add to that that her mother was a Hallett who married that Wheadon in merry old England before coming to the States, and well, maybe even more of the Whedonverse is related. ;-D All kidding aside, I am a little curious where the Whedons and Halletts sprouted from.

newcj | May 05, 19:21 CET

@ShadowQuest, @Kaneda: The site has definitely been going to the dogs lately. I signed up when it was still in beta and all free. Back then I was able to add hundreds of long-dead relatives without having to pay for anything. Now they want me to pay to even look at it... I've stopped using it altogether years ago (and exported my data for offline usage).

Also, the "big tree" (of which Joss & Eliza are part) is definitely creepy. It goes back to Charlemagne (he IS your x-teeth grandfather) to Jesus to Caesar and -yes, honestly- to Adam and Eve. That's a pretty good reason why I never linked my family tree on there to the "big tree". I still read their blog feed for amusing posts like the one above though.

adastra | May 05, 19:42 CET

Now I want a shirt that says "I'm probably also one of Joss Whedon's cousins".

Ashley | May 06, 00:44 CET