Wizarding Relations, or, Who Left the Sna pes Out?

[jsmithqwert]

No: HPFGUIDX 66507

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, jennifer.r.junker at w... wrote:
> You're following in my footsteps.  See message #63570. I'm sure 
> there's more to the Black clan than we realize.
> 
> Marianne
> 
> Well of course there must be- look at their last name after all!  
If any
> family is likely to be a stronghold of "dark" wizards I would think 
the
> "Black" family would be :)  I wonder if somehow they are related to
> Voldemort- am I correctly remembering that we don't know much about 
Tom
> Riddle's mother?  And if Voldemort is related to Sirius- the Harry 
in some
> sense is too- as Voldemort and Harry now share a blood bond.
> 
> Jennifer

I don't think that Voldemort is related to either Sirius or Harry.  
For that matter, we know from CoS that he is the last remaining 
descendent of Salazar Slytherine and, therefore, cannot be related to 
any other extent person.  If he truly is the _last_, than no one else 
who is related to him can be alive because they too, would be 
descendents of Salazar.  I think it quite unusual that after over 
1000 years, Slytherine's descendents are so few.  Something very 
unusual must be going on that prevents the normal outward radiation 
of descendency.  In the muggle world, for example, virtually everyone 
who has any European ancestry is a descendent of Charlamange.  What 
could be going on in the WW, that prevents descendents of Slytherine 
from being more numerous?