Something a little different. Inspired by a late night conversation with a friend.
Considering that mandolin playing in the US was so very popular at the turn of the last century that there were more mandolinners than guitar players today, per capita...
And considering that the tradition of mandolin playing is very strong in many other countries...
We were trying to think of a way to estimate the probability that you, or any of us, are descendant from a mandolinner.
I know in my case it is 100% because one of my grandfathers was a mandolin player in an orchestra in Northern NJ, back around the turn of the last century or so. In fact, recently his son, my uncle, sent me his mandolin. Woo hoo.
But most of us aren't that lucky, or sure of things. So I was musing on how to come up with a reasonable estimate.
Things to consider would be where your ancestors are from, and where they were in the world in 1900. Then I assume there is some kind of way to get the per capita mandolinners there, then. Or at least to estimate it.
I am guessing that many more of us than one would think are descendant from a mandolinner, even if we have no direct knowledge of it.
Hmmmm. So what do you think. Considering how popular mandolinning was, could it be as much as 10% of us. Higher? 20% would not surprise me.
Something to chew on when driving to a festival anyway.
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