from a submission to today's Washington Post about a previous story:

No Ancestor, and No Story

Saturday, March 3, 2007; Page A13


Assuming that each generation produced six offspring (a conservative assumption for a time when 10 to 15 offspring were common), here's how I understand "Sharpton's Ancestor Was Owned by Thurmond's" [front page, Feb. 26]:

Strom Thurmond is one of 2,376 first cousins twice removed of a woman who owned a slave of whom the Rev. Al Sharpton is one of approximately 216 great-grandchildren. While that no doubt is emotionally important to the Sharpton and Thurmond families, it is not exactly front-page news. It strikes me as more like an advertisement for Ancestry.com

Note, too, that the slave-owning cousin is not an "ancestor" of Strom Thurmond, as your headline stated.