Henry Louis Gates Jr. Quotes

If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you're related to them. It doesn't mean that you're going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. I think it's fascinating.

Everyone's pedigree merges into everyone else's pedigree. So if you go back far enough, everyone is related.

Charles Darwin and I and you broke off from the family tree from chimpanzees about five million years ago. They're still our closest genetic kin. We share 98.8 percent of the genes. We share more genes with them than zebras do with horses. And we're also their closest cousin. They have more genetic relation to us than to gorillas.

I am fighting royalty. I have gypsy kings on both sides of the family.

What is the use of your pedigrees?

The Russell side of my family is a clan with some serious genetics.

I am not of Virginia blood; she is of mine.

I find my husband's family history fascinating, as they can trace the family lineage back to ancestors who fought, and died, in the first battle of the Revolution, as well as to many other interesting people.

There is not enough magic in a bloodline to forge an instant, irrevocable bond.

I know my father and my mother, but beyond that I cannot go. My ancestry is blurred.

I'm thinking, 'Man, there's this whole other group of people that are attached to me because of my last name and my family's roots.' That's pretty cool. That's special, that's a lot of power and it's important.

I was born by myself but carry the spirit and blood of my father, mother and my ancestors. So I am really never alone. My identity is through that line.

A lot of my material was based on my family.

For a while, I thought a lot about lineage. Where do I belong? Who am I standing next to?

A friend of ours has a hobby doing genealogy, and we found out that we were cousins in the ninth degree, that we had a common ancestor on the Mayflower.

Some friends said they weren't surprised to find out Napoleon and I were related, but it came as quite a shock to me.

The truth is very few of us are related to Napoleon or Cleopatra. Although, those are bad examples as I am actually descended from both of them.

The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.

Apart from life, a strong constitution, and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla.

I love many places to which I have no connection, but identifying an ancestor, or someone I think is an ancestor, has taken me to places I'd never have gone to otherwise.

You can properly call him a son of anything you please.

As you get older, you get more... genealogical.

Just because somebody is blood-related doesn't make them family.

I love the whole idea of family and what gets left behind when you are gone. I'm very proud of my children; I was one of seven.

I'm so happy to be Tiffany Trump, happy to be in the family I'm in.