Sharing ancestors with...yourself

[BenRalph]

I share my family tree on Amcestry with my grandma's cousin and I was sorting out trying to find the maiden name of my 5x great grandma as she had been married before marry my 5x great granddad (my grandma's cousin's 3x great grandparents) and I found it only to discover I also had a person in another tree on my account with the same name and details. The tree was my grandma's cousin's tree.

I've researched it a lot to double check and it's correct that my 5x and my grandmas cousin's 3x great grandma is related to him on both sides of his parents and she gave birth to 2 of his 4x great grandparents.

Has anyone heard this happen before?

[Maiden Stone]

Yes. I found a distant relative who's descended 3 times from a common ancestor.

[Annie65115]

I have DNA links with a couple of folk that share more than one ancestral line with me.

I am also my own mothers second cousin once removed ———

[andrewalston]

Yes, a pair of my great grandparents turn out to have been 5th cousins, a fact that I;m sure they were unaware, as their common ancestors both died in the 1760s. Luckily the software I use happily works out multiple relationships - I have people in my tree to whom I am related in four different ways.

I believe the effect is known as "pedigree collapse". Before starting genealogy I would have thought that term referred to the effects of a beer made in Burton-upon-Trent.