The recent correspondence on this family seems to be a wee bit strange. A generation is a variable figure but if we use the generally accepted term of 25 years then 30 generations would take us back a total of 750 years or to the year 1240. Even by allowing for longer generations of 25 years it is reasonable to assume that 30 generations would have occurred in this millennium and therefore each and every one of us has had over a billion direct ancestors since the year 1000. The estimated population of England, Ireland and Scotland was between 2 and 4 million people. Trevor Hamilton