if you've read insurgent, a question (spoilers)

[dcannie]

spoilers below

for real, it's a big spoiler so if you even think you might read the books get out of this post

turn back now

i finished up insurgent about two months ago and for some reason this thought came to me over the weekend. it is very possible this was addressed in the book, as i read through it really quickly and have a tendency to skim. 

so her mom was an original colonizing member, right? if she were an original member then she wasn't born dauntless like she told her daughter in the first book. she would have come there from normal society and been placed into a faction. 
can someone explain this? maybe i misread or misunderstood. or skipped a part. 

[Anne Blythe]

I believe that the idea is that Tris' mom is a descendant of an original colonizing member, which is where Tris got the divergent gene.

[dcannie]

okay. as i was typing it out i was wondering if it was her grandparent that was an original colonizing member.

[pooh8402]

it could be a grandparent, or great-grandparent, or so on. I can't remember if we know the exact time frame the books occur in, but it's the "distant future" so when I read it, I assumed at least 100 years from now.

[Muddled]

Yes, she was a descendant. Something about the way the book read led me to believe that it wasn't that many generations ago, however. I can't remember the details, but that was the feeling I got. I may need to reread.

[lightbulbsun]

I thought it was her father's ancestor? Wasn't her last name Prior, which would mean that the name was carried down on his side?

ETA: although everyone there would be a descendant of the original colonists, because they all chose to build the society there, and nobody ever arrives/leaves to/from the outside.