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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Suppose a guy is married three times and has at least a couple (but as many as four) girlfriends on the side, and it becomes apparent that he is the father of at least 25 children, 19 of whom were borne by women who were his wife at the time of the birth. A century passes. Thousands of people are his direct descendants, out of which dozens get DNA tested. Those descendants do genealogy and find each other by various means, FTDNA, AncestryDNA, 23andMe, such as that. They form a rollicking continuous online family reunion.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In theory, with sufficient persistence and determination, those descendants could compare their genomes, look at the shared segments in FTDNA, and gradually reconstruct the entire genome of the long-perished prolific ancestor.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Is there a flaw in my reasoning anywhere?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>