QUEBEC-RESEARCH-L Archives

Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2003-12 > 1070380052


From: "Gary Boivin" <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] That sneaky ole Oncle again..
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 08:49:01 -0700
References: <02bc01c3b7b0$751e1a20$6401a8c0@FREDPQQR43ADG5> <004701c3b7dd$e9e41440$a5052218@ne2.client2.attbi.com> <117401c3b84e$b2ab0c60$f3415142@KAY>


It's quite easy to be related to half the world.
This was posted on the METISGEN-L last week
in response to a posting about Marin BOUCHER...
*********
You'll notice that most people on this list refer to each other as cousin.
We may not know how to begin with but give us a few days and someone will
start to show you. That's because we have so many ancestors with such a
small population to draw on.

Some French families have been here for 15 and 16 generations!
To give you an idea of how many ancestors you can have in 12 generations
before you...

1 = You
then...
2 = Your parents
4 = your grandparents
8 = your great grandparents
16 = your gr-great grandparents
32 = your gr-gr-great grandparents
64 = your gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
128 = your gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
256 = your gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
512 = your gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
1024 = your gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
2048 = your gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
4096 = your gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents
====
8190 ancestors in 12 generations before you.

To roughly calculate how many cousins you might have just with the 12th
generation (4096 / 2 = 2048 couples)

Each couple has 10 kids with half getting married (2048 x 10 x 50% = 10240)
If we expand only that 12th generation forward for 10 generations we get
10240 x10 x10 x10 x10 x10 x10 x10 x10 x10 x 50% = 5,120,000,000,000
So theoretically, your gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandparents could
have over 5 trillion descendants.

Even if the figures are WAY OFF... 10% of that figure is still over half a
trillion (500 billion)!
That's a whole lotta cousins and we haven't even calculated in the 1 to 11
generations of ancestors!

<grin>
and you thought this genealogy thing was gonna be a breeze...

BTW... <grin> I should mention that since we started off with a REALLY
small population base that many of those 8190 ancestors could be doubles.
Because of limited supply, 2nd and 3rd cousins were forced to marry (even a
few 1st cousins). So you won't have that many cousins. One researcher once
suggested that we use the .001% figure. (see the decimal before the 1) to
allow for those that joined religious Orders or died without having
children.
Well .001% (or 0.00001) of 5,120,000,000,000 = 51,200,000.
Yup... That figure is OVER 50 million!

<phew!>
Feels like a Friday...

----- Original Message -----
From: "kfrog" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Q-R] That sneaky ole Oncle again..


> I read everything twice. There's gotta be a Rudolph in there someplace. It
> seems as if you are related to half the world!
>
> Gros calins et bijoux,
>
> Votre cousine, la petite grenouille de Californie,
>
> kay
>
------- Snipped to save our database --------


This thread: