Bourton & District

X

NUMBERS OF ANCESTORS

Have you ever wondered how many ancestors you have? Assuming you were born in 1945 and that we take a generation as being 30 years. The chart below shows you.

RELATION GENERATION DATE
YOU 1 1945
parents 2 1915
Grandparents 4 1885
Gt Grandparents 8 1855
Gt Gt G'Parents 16 1825
GtX4 G'parents 32 1795
GtX5 G'parents 64 1765
GtX6 G'parents 128 1735
GtX7 G'parents 256 1705
GtX8 G'parents 512 1675
GtX9 G'parents 1,024 1645
GtX10 G'parents 2,048 1615
GtX11 G'parents 4,096 1585
GtX12 G'parents 8,192 1555
GtX13 G'parents 16,384 1525
GtX14 G'parents 32,768 1495
GtX15 G'parents 65,536 1465
GtX16 G'parents 131,072 1435
GtX17 G'parents 262,144 1405
GtX18 G'parents 524,288 1375
GtX19 G'parents 1,048,576 1345
GtX20 G'parents 2,097,152 1315
GtX21 G'parents 4,194,304 1285
GtX22 G'parents 8,388,608 1255
GtX23 G'parents 16,777,216 1225
GtX24 G'parents 33,554,432 1195
GtX25 G'parents 67,108,864 1165
GtX26 G'parents 134,217,728 1135
GtX27 G'parents 268,435,456 1105

Or does it? The population of England in 1086 has been estimated at about 1.71 million. The only way this apparent paradox can be reconciled is by intermarriage. Many of our ancestors are duplicated so that we are actually descended from a particular relative through more than one line. The corollary of this is that many of us must be related to each other, at least distantly.

Recent research shows how everyone alive on the planet today can trace their maternal ancestry back to just one woman. By all accounts, she lived in Africa about 150,000 – 200,000 years ago and is known as “Mitochondrial Eve”.