Could William Bligh ‘the Liar’ or Fletcher Christian ‘the Lecher’ be my great-great-great-great uncle of my great-great-great-great grandfather’s third cousin thrice removed?
If I knew that I could brag to unlettered folk and even be throned the wise uncle at Christmas parties. However, ethically thinking, should I be proud or ashamed if it means making a dollar to put food on a table where there was none? Goodness knows to whom we are related when we recede so far back, yet some folk are steadfastly determined to find proof that their blood has an enviable blue tinge. William Bligh ‘the Liar’ had no male heirs that we know of so I’ll cross him off the list. But what about Fletcher Christian ‘the Lecher’, could there be a clear consanguine or even an affinal link?
Building one’s family tree is a laborious hobby where often forgotten is the tree’s obscure roots and by that I mean the cuckoldry that supports every family tree somewhere in a perplexing maze: and the older the tree exists the greater the chance of cuckoldry within its growth rings. As for Fletcher Christian of HMAV Bounty infamy, he was an unapologetic lecher who fornicated with as many unabashed and charmingly amoral Vahines he could (as did his peers) and conversely, the charmingly hedonistic Vahines fornicated with as many unabashed men and boys who offered their service for free or with gifts. Few genealogists acknowledge that cuckoldry has very likely occurred and that distant ancestors are not necessarily the ones so enthusiastically recorded.
In the case of Fletcher Christian ‘the Lecher’ the extent of cuckoldry in his lineage would be a matter of conjecture, what is not conjecture is that the Vahines were by nature polygamistic far more than monogamistic. In fact the amoral fame of the Tahitian Vahine is unquestionably legendary. In years gone by as far as the Vahines were concerned, she was born to enjoy herself while she was young and attractive and there was no such thing as passing up an opportunity. If James Cook considered there was less platonic love in Tahiti than anywhere else, then Fletcher Christian and his men proved it conclusively.
Enter genomic DNA testing where ancestral genealogy has become a massive consumer driven commercial enterprise where dozens of companies have suddenly appeared and so too have false positives of genetic data along with clumsy analysts interpretations. One company even confused a dog’s DNA for human DNA so it’s a case of buyer beware. Reading your genomic crystal palm is a matter of interpretation by the instant scientist with one hand in your pocket and the other on his encoder. And like Bligh’s version of the mutiny on HMAV Bounty, where he fudged the breadfruit story to suit a model meant for Joseph Banks ‘the Oligarch’, so too can genealogy be modeled to suit the enquirer’s ego wherever it is led into the past.
Ancestral genetics is an immensely complex field of study where the bulk of the data is open for individual interpretation. As for going back in time on the mutineer’s family trees, genetic analysts can only interpret a percentage of DNA that is similar to other DNA presumed derived from the particular Pacific arena or similar like data of a time. Delving into the past armed with bits and pieces of various folks DNA can connect them, but how it does this is always open to interpretation: and countless shreds of DNA come in to play to confuse the interpreter. And as for any so-called Genealogical Proof Standard stamp of authority this too can be a furphy: especially with HMAV Bounty characters leaving behind a mishmash of secondary derivative records and hearsay sources without any shred of original material written contemporaneously with events in their lifetime. Ancestral findings dating back 200 plus years should be mused over with a considerable degree of skepticism.
So was this author’s great-great-great-great uncle of his great-great-great-great grandfather’s third cousin thrice removed actually William Bligh ‘the Liar’ or Fletcher Christian ‘the Lecher’? Well he neither knows that nor considers it important.
Illustration: French satirical print depicting cuckolds bearing the customary horns celebrating the grand family of honorable cuckolds of all nations before a female personification of infidelity.
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