Have a fourth cousin? You share about 58 genes

Fifty-eight genes.

That’s the scientific estimate of how many genes I share through one of my connections with Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, who served during Abraham Lincoln’s first term.

I didn’t count up these genes by myself, you understand. Geneticist Tom Roderick, a former president of the Maine Genealogical Society, did the calculation, which works for anyone who can find the same relationship to another person.

Let’s let Tom explain it:

“Your relationship with the vice president, second cousin four times removed, is one of ninth degree – that is, one-half to the ninth. It happens to be the same relationship as fourth cousins. You share 0.00195 of your genes with him, but if you consider that we as humans have about 30,000 genes, then you share about 58 genes with the former vice president. I wonder which 58 they are?”

Tom offers another estimate about me and Hannibal Hamlin.

“Considering we as humans have 3 billion bits of information in our DNA – these bits are called base pairs – then you and the vice president share about 6 million bits of DNA in common. These common bits would be scattered all over your chromosomes.”

My “second cousin four times removed” relationship with Hamlin is through a common set of ancestors, Capt. John Clark and Hannah (Cutting) Clark of Waltham, Mass.

In addition, I happen to be a “second cousin five times removed” to Hamlin through Ichabod Bonney and Elizabeth (Howland) Bonney of Pembroke, Mass. So there are some more genes and bits we share.

The Penobscot County Genealogical Society kicked off its fourth year last week at Bangor Public Library.

Dale Mower did a tremendous job as president for the first three years, and he will stay on the board as secretary. The new president is Phil Getchell, known to many researchers through his adult education classes in genealogy.

We’ll share the full list of officers next week. It’s time to renew dues to – or join for the first time – the local society. Send $6 to Penobscot County Genealogical Society, c/o Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St., Bangor, ME 04401.

The exhibit “The Ties That Bind: Experiences of Family in Maine, 1900 to the Present,” will run Oct. 27-Jan. 27 in Special Collections on the sixth floor of the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Glickman Library in Portland.

The opening reception will be held 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, on the seventh floor.

Three faculty scholar lectures have been set. In each case, the reception is at 6:30 p.m., the lecture 7-8 p.m. on the seventh floor:

. Nov. 1, “Migration, Mortality, and Maturation: Three African American Families of Bangor and Portland,” the African American Collection of Maine with Maureen Elgersman Lee. Lee is the author of the new book “Black Bangor” on the African American community in this city.

. Nov. 8, “If Not Jerusalem, Then at Least, ‘The Jerusalem of the North:’ Continuity and Discontinuity in Three Portland Jewish Families,” Judaica Collection with Abraham J. Peck.

. Nov. 15, “Ozzie and Harriet, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Culture Wars: LGBT Families in Maine, 1960 to the Present,” Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Collection with Howard M. Solomon.

For information, contact USM Special Collections, 780-4275, or visit http://library.usm.

maine.edu/specialcollections/

index.html

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. today upstairs in the Lions Building at 111 High St., Caribou. Maine Genealogical Society President Nancy Battick and her husband, historian Jack Battick, will be part of the program.

3339. ROBINSON-STAPLES-TORREY-RAYNES-CROCKETT-LUFKIN. Seeking any information on Samuel Robinson and his children. Family resided near and around Deer Isle, Hancock County. Samuel died before 1785. Wife Mercy (Staples) later married Jonathan Torrey. Robinson’s children were Miriam, married William Raynes; Mary/Polly, married Elias Morey; Samuel; Joseph; Lucy, married Joseph Crockett; and Betsey, married Henry Lufkin. Information that can help narrow the dates would be truly appreciated. K.N. Williams, P.O. Box 3697, Torrance, CA 90510-3697; knwill@juno.com

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail, familyti@bangordailynews.net.