Think about this, you have the exact same ancestry for thousands of years as your siblings.

There is only one woman's bloodline difference between you and your father, two between you and your grandfather and three between you and you great grandfather.

The similarity between you and your parents, and you and your cousins, is interesting too. There is one woman's bloodline difference in each relationship. That just seems odd to me to think that I am just as genetically similar to my first cousins as I am my own parent. Other than that one woman's bloodline we all have the same ancestry for thousands of years.

Every time a child is born thousands of years of ancestry meet in one person. With every generation the number of grandparents we have doubles, like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 512, 1024, 2048... on and on until we are all related again through Noah or Adam and Eve!

In light of this, if you believe in the after life, there are more people who love you as a part of their family than you have any idea.

I asked myself this question, "At what point does a grandfather no longer love his grandchildren, at what level of "great" do we no longer care about our descendents?"

The answer that comes to mind is there isn't a point. I believe I'll love my great great great grandchildren's kids if I could only live long enough to be with them.

I've come to the conclusion that if a person is capable of love, then there is no point that they can say they no longer love their children's children's children. Just because we aren't present in their lives doesn't mean that we do not love them and want the best for them.

When you see that you have hundreds of grandparents that have passed away, you suddenly realize that you have more people who love you in spirit than you do in the world. We are experiencing love the way we experience an iceberg - by far the biggest part is unseen.

In Indiana it is legal to marry a first cousin if both of you are 65 years old or older, but studies have found that there is not an increased chance of a genetic defect if up to 1st cousins have children together.

Problems arise when children are the result of siblings having children, parent or grandparents having children with their descendents, or blood uncles and aunts having children with their siblings children.