Faith: Here is an article which I wrote & was published in Families, the quarterly organ of the Ontario Genealogical Society about 15 years ago: The Butcher, the Baker and Candlestickmaker The reason for the existence of genealogists is to question who and where their ancestors may have been. We all have a deep down hope that somewhere, somehow, we will find that elusive link that will prove our descent from, if not royalty or nobility, at least some famous, or infamous personage who has made a mark in history. But how many genealogists have pondered the actual number of their ancestors as opposed to their social and historical beings? It sounds simplistic to say that each one of us has two parents and each parent also has two parents, however if we follow this arithmetic fact back a number of years then the sheer quantity of our direct ancestors becomes mind boggling. Let us examine a table of the ascending number of progenitors for 30 generations: Generation # of ancestors Generation # of ancestors 1 2 16 65,536 2 4 17 131,072 3 8 18 262,144 4 16 19 524,288 5 32 20 1,048,576 6 64 21 2,097,152 7 128 22 4,194,304 8 256 23 8,388,608 9 512 24 16,777,216 10 1,024 25 33,554,432 11 2,048 26 67,108,864 12 4,096 27 134,217,728 13 8,192 28 268,435,456 14 16,384 29 536,870,912 15 32,768 30 1,073,741,824 This last figure reads as billions! A generation is a variable figure, but, if we use the generally accepted term of 25 years then 30 generations will take us back a total of 750 years or to the year 1240 CE. Even by allowing for longer generations it is reasonable to assume that 30 generations would have occurred in this millenium and and therefore each and every one of us has had over a billion direct ancestors since the year 1000 CE. The assessing of the numbers of people in any geographical area is a relatively new development dating back only a couple of hundred years at most and therefore the estimation of population and demographic patterns at the start of the second millenium is nothing more than a guess. However the estimated population of England at that time was between one and two million inhabitants and the combined number of residents of Scotland & Ireland would be about the same. The total habitation of Europe at that time would be estimated at upwards of 10 million. What this exercise is attempting to state is that if we could research far enough into the depths of history then it is almost certain that we would find common ancestors and probably many common ancestors. For anyone of British extraction who has ever wondered if perhaps any ancestors had fought at Clontarf or Hastings or Bannockburn the answer is certainly yes. It is quite probable that all the combatants were related ; on both sides. If it were possible to trace one's blood lines back far enough it seems likely that a crowned head might be found amongst them and it is even more certain that you would find an ancestor who had been hanged. Certainly among each person's ancestors there has to have been the proverbial butcher, baker and candlestickmaker. Don Holmes Ontario