Hi Don, Your math is okay, but your theory is incorrect. You will likely find that you have what is call a "pedigree collapse" long before you reach your 2 million mark. This is because as you go back in time, you are more and more likely to find that your ancestors were second or third cousins. Robert Gunderson, who apparently coined the phrase, found that 17 generations back from Prince Charles, he had only about 23,000 gggggggggggggg grandparents instead of 65,536. There are estimates that perhaps as much as 80% of marriages in history were between 2nd cousins or closer. (We have yet to run into this in my families lines, but we have lots of siblings marrying siblings - and of course, we have only gone back 5-9 generations). Anyway, I just thought I'd add my $0.02 worth, just in case anyone was getting discouraged. ;) Marry Christmas all, - Mike White >Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 14:59:12 -0800 >From: "Don Rose" <darose@yosemite.net> >To: CAMARIPO-L@rootsweb.com >Message-ID: <004601c18107$dbf4eb20$bd6abaac@1> >Subject: [CAMARIPO] Grandparents >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" > >Only >1 YOU >2 parents >4 grandparents >8 great grandparents >16 gg grandparents >32 ggg grandparents >64 gggg grandparents >128 ggggg grandparents >256 gggggg grandparents >512 ggggggg grandparents >1,024 gggggggg grandparents >2,048 ggggggggg grandparents >4,096 gggggggggg grandparents >8,192 ggggggggggg grandparents >16,184 gggggggggggg grandparents >32,768 ggggggggggggg grandparents >65,536 gggggggggggggg grandparents >131,072 ggggggggggggggg grandparents >262,144 gggggggggggggggg grandparents >524,288 ggggggggggggggggg grandparents >1,048,576 gggggggggggggggggg grandparents >2,097,152 ggggggggggggggggggg grandparents > > >Don Rose >Mariposa, CA > >"Education is not filling a pail, but lighting a fire." >---William Butler Yeats >

Mike, Prince Charles is not exactly a typical example when considering the number of great grandparents of some degree. Royals and nobles tended to marry within their classes, making marrying between cousins more probable. However, your point is well taken that cousins of some degree often marry, and often unknowingly, greatly decreasing the number of anyone's great grandparents. I know of some marrying cousins in both my family and that of my wife. In fact, we ourselves are cousins--21st cousins. Our common great grandfather was Edward III of England. The remarkable thing is not that we are 21st cousins, but the we are 21st FULL cousins, meaning that we (just two years apart in age) are the same number of generations down from Edward. Another remarkable thing is that I was able to find the connections through many female lines. It is likely that almost anyone who has English ancestors has some royal, or at least noble, folks among them. As many generations back as Edward was, we each should have 8,388,610 grandparents (if I calculate correctly) several times the number of people in England at the time. So, the probability of one of them being Edward is high, even considering the number of cousins who have married since. I'll bet if we looked hard, we'd find that you, me, and Don are even closer cousins than 21st. Cheers, Jim