HOW MANY ROOTS DO YOU HAVE ????
 
 
A great many, if you dig deep enough!  But you still have exactly the same number as everyone else.
Your ancestors double each generation you go backward.  The number of you kin depends, of course
on the number of children each ancestor produced and on the number of children that each of those
produced - and on and on ...Aunts, Uncles, and cousins of various degrees of removal, by the zillions!
* * * * * * * *
*
2    Parents
4    Grandparents
8    Great Grandparents
16    Great Great Grandparents
32 Great  Great Great Grandparents
54    Great Great Great Great Grandparents
128    Great Great Great Great Great  Grandparents
256    Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents
512 Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents
1024 Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents
AFTER JUST TEN GENERATIONS!!!
* * * *
* * * *
The pyramid shown above illustrates how one has accumulated relatives in such numbers as
to stagger the imagination.  All we have to do to get hopelessly lost, is to go back three or
four generations beyond our parents. The number of direct ancestors is known, but the vast
number of aunts, uncles, and cousins of various degrees of removal (second cousin once
removed, great- great uncles, etc.) presents a maze through which we may have great
difficulty in traveling.  Another complicating factor in searching for ancestors is that in each
generation there is only one ancestor which carries our family name. As we go backward,
from generation to generation, that person which has our family name, becomes a smaller
part of our ancestory.  The chart will show that in the tenth generation,
only one  in 1024 direct ancestors had the same family names.
* * * * * *
Information copied from "The Messenger", the newsletter of
the Morgan County Genegealogical and Historical Society of
Morgan County, Wartburg, Tennessee