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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 7828623, member: 10461&quot;]Wow, an [USER=91033]@asheland[/USER] sighting on CT!&nbsp; Miraculous! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m getting old.&nbsp; Not <i>that</i> old.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s true- the exponential nature of succeeding generations, with each doubling in size as a new generation comes along, makes one&#039;s head whirl.&nbsp; If you figure a generation as being about 20-30 years- let&#039;s say 25 years on average, that makes <b>16+ generations</b> in the 400 years between the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and today.&nbsp; That&#039;s a <i>lot </i>of ancestors!</p><p><br /></p><p>Let&#039;s see.&nbsp; Going back in time over 16 generations, each of us has...</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p><b>2</b> parents...</p><p><b>4</b> grandparents...</p><p><b>8</b> great-grandparents...</p><p><b>16</b> great-great grandparents...</p><p><b>32</b> third-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>64</b> fourth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>128</b> fifth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>256</b> sixth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>512</b> seventh-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>1,024</b> eighth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>2,048</b> ninth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>4,096</b> tenth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>8,192</b> eleventh-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>16,384</b> twelfth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>32,768</b> thirteenth-great-grandparents...</p><p><b>65,536</b> fourteenth-great-grandparents...</p><p><br /></p><p>... and so on.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><font size="3">(*Forgive me if I figured anything wrong, there.&nbsp; Just getting a basic idea.)</font></p><p><br /></p><p>And that&#039;s just based on a generation being 25 years long.&nbsp; People married and had children a lot younger then (and lots <i>more</i> children), so there may be still more generations wedged in between.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It goes to show how absurd it is to brag about having famous ancestors, when they&#039;re that far back in time.&nbsp; I mean, there are probably several of you here who are <i>also</i> descended from William Bradford (or King James, for that matter), and don&#039;t even know it.&nbsp; How many tens of thousands of descendants of theirs are walking around today?</p><p><br /></p><p>So we descendants of William Bradford are probably not behind every tree, but there are still enough of us to populate a decent-sized city.</p><p><br /></p><p>I somewhat recall a discussion (probably somewhere on these forums) where somebody mentioned being related to William the Conqueror.&nbsp; If I do the math correctly- again, based on a generation being 25 years long- then there were over 38 generations between 1066 and 2021.&nbsp; I&#039;m too tired to complete the rest of the math on that, but that means ol&#039; Billy the Conk has a <i>ton</i> of descendants alive today!</p><p><br /></p><p>In fact, I think in the course of that discussion, I discovered that a common ancestor of mine meant that I too am likely descended from William the Conqueror.&nbsp; If you go back far enough, most people who share a common racial/ethnic heritage are probably going to have common ancestors.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m no genealogist, so I don&#039;t know how all that works, but it&#039;s pretty interesting.&nbsp; I happen to know I am also definitely descended from John and John Quincy Adams, the 2nd and 6th US presidents.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to hear a really fascinating audio piece about this sort of thing as relating to the heritage of Genghis Khan (likely the most prolific biological father in history), check out the <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91516-detective-stories" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91516-detective-stories" rel="nofollow">Radiolab &quot;Detective Stories&quot; episode</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Bonus- the segment about ancient garbage discovered in Egypt was even better.&nbsp; &quot;Detective Stories&quot; is my favorite Radiolab episode ever, which is saying something.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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