posted on Feb, 9 2017 @ 04:29 PM
originally posted by: LightofLiberty
I am asking because Saint William of Gellone is my 35x great grandfather.
And mine, too, as well as nearly everyone else here, maybe. You're relying on highly suspect genealogical records, but the fact is, you're probably
right anyway. Do the math. Use four or five generations per century--your choice. That assumes pregnancy at 20 or 25. Back then it was earlier. Nobody
waited around. Ready?
2^35 = 2 to the 35th power 34,359,738,368, 34 billion ancestors. And that only goes back 9 centuries, when the
world population was something like 240 million. Obviously there was considerable overlap.
We all married our cousins. Indeed, there is no one on Earth that is more distantly related than 50th cousin. Why? Because all it takes is one Dr.
Livingston or one Marco Polo to travel to distant lands. Within a few generations your DNA you share with Uncle Polo is found throughout China.
Genealogy can be fun. For example, Jesse James is my fifth cousin. His middle name was Woodson, which refers to Dr. John Woodson, one of the first
colonists at Jamestown. I have a book published in 1885 that traces the Montague family back to England. He's in it, and so is my great grandmother,
so I can reasonably well "prove" Jesse was my cousin. However, at a certain point this gets just ridiculous. That you think you are related to some
obscure semi-royal in the time of Charlamagne is not the least remarkable because we all are.