Question
Is it really true that all Icelanders are descended from Jón Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland, who was executed in 1550?
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Answer
The original question was the following:It is often said that all Icelanders are descended from Jón Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland, who was executed in 1550. Is this really true? And, if so, what evidence is there to support it?From the point of view of statistical population studies, the simplest way to approach this question is to consider the number of potential ancestors any individual might have. If we take as an example someone born in around 1970, their two parents would presumably have been born somewhere around 1940, their four grandparents perhaps some time around 1910, and their great-grandparents – eight in total – around 1880. Allowing 30 years for a generation, we can project this back in time. The table below calculates the number of forefathers of any individual alive today, and shows that there would have been 8192 who were born in around 1580. It should of course be said that the true number of ancestors would be rather lower, since people who were related might have married and had children. This factor, however, is limited by the fact that up until 1780 marriages between third cousins (common great-great-grandparent(s)) were forbidden by consanguinity laws and up until 1560 between fourth cousins (common great-great-great-grandparent(s)).
1. 1970: 1 |
2. 1940: 2 |
3. 1910: 4 |
1. 1580: 1 |
2. 1550: 2 |
3. 1520: 4 |
1. 1190: 1 |
2. 1160: 2 |
3. 1130: 4 |
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Dagsetning
Published 5.3.2005
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Citation
Gísli Gunnarsson (1938-2020). „Is it really true that all Icelanders are descended from Jón Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland, who was executed in 1550?“. The Icelandic Web of Science 5.3.2005. http://why.is/svar.php?id=4789. (Skoðað 13.11.2024).
Author
Gísli Gunnarsson (1938-2020)prófessor emeritus í sagnfræði við HÍ