It's all relative: adventures up and down the world's family tree

Introduction

The eighth cousin

The world family tree

DNA sharing is caring

A great (or possibly terrible) idea

A pandemonium of genealogists

Historical voyeurism

Genetic jambalaya

Groundhog Sam and my 2,585 southern cousins

Embracing failure

Should family be abolished?

The good cousin

Adam and Eve

Kissing cousins

The Greatest Generation (and the upside of cigarettes)

Thank you for having sex

Biological and logical families

Ellis Island

Our Neanderthal cousins

Family feuds

Who's your father?

Son-in-law of the American Revolution

The mega-tree revolution

Our animal cousins

Big love

The other side of the dash

Privacy

The genius of Isaac Newton

Fathers and sons

Twins and twins, also more twins

Five mothers

Black sheep

My presidential cousin

Tradition!

The Kevin Bacon delusion

The pilgrimage

An ocean of cousins

Cheers to the dead

My celebrity cousins

51 percent of the family tree

The melting pot

The FBI and my grandpa

The great surname challenge

Awkward family photos

Brother versus brother

The global family reunion

We are, without a doubt, irrefutably, family

A brief and subjective guide to getting started on your family tree.