This interesting piece is excerpted from the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) newspaper genealogy column, "Hunting Forebears," by Beth Gay Here's a lot to think about. Next time you're feeling unimportant and small, think about how it took two people -- your parents - to get you here. Each of your parents has two parents, so that in the generation just prior to that of your mother and father, there were four people who helped get you on Earth. You are the product of eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great grandparents, 32 great-great-great grandparents, etc. With every generation you multiply the number by tw0. If you figurd an average of about twenty-five years between each generation, you'll discover that only about 500 years ago, there were 1,048,576 people who contributed to the production of you! (Of course, in just one more generation there were twice that many people who were you direct ancestors. I'm always amazed to realize that it it just 13 generations me to Jamestown, VA, in 1607, and that it is only about 60 generations from us to the time of Christ. (My comment - Think of the odds against YOU being here. If just one of those individuals had died before becoming a parent, jusy ONE! - you wouldn't be here.)