London - With their colourful love lives or brushes with the law, they are the family members who don’t quite fit in.
But it turns out that black sheep are a lot rarer than you might think.
Researchers have found just one appears in a family every 97 years on average, or once in three generations.
But it means there are still more than three million Britons at any time who are considered black sheep by their relatives.
Surprisingly, only one in ten is cast from the family circle because they’re involved in crime. And far from being ashamed to have a criminal ancestor, some even consider it a status symbol.
The study asked around 6 000 people in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany and Sweden to look at their family trees and identify relatives who didn’t fit in.
Its results were cross-checked with archives and census data for the family history website Ancestry. Around six percent of adults were found to be black sheep. Based on the average number of family members and length of the family trees, the researchers found this meant one would appear in every 97 years.
Dan Jones, of Ancestry, said: “From pirates and highwaymen to thieves and deported convicts, it seems that over time the transgressions of black sheep can be forgiven in the eyes of their descendants.” - Daily Mail