Tuesday, 21 March 2023

One Thousand Ancestors

If you looked back 200 years at your family history, you would likely find 1000 of your ancestors existed. This is because each person in the family tree came from two parents so every generation you look back doubles in size. 
You have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great great grandparents. 

Just 100 years back and there are 30 ancestors
You have 32 great great great grandparents, 64 great great great great grandparents, 128 great great great great great grandparents, 256 great great great great great great grandparents and 512 great great great great great great great grandparents. 

That is 1022 ancestors, roughly one thousand of them existed at some point during the last 200 years. You would need two large passenger planes to contain them all. 
It is hard to know exactly how many ancestors you have because some of them may have been distant cousins and some of them have children at different stages of their life. But I estimate it to be roughly 1000 individuals over 200 years.