Man Traces Ancestry to 1st English King – So What?

The Associated Press carried a story this week about a man from Maine who traced his ancestry to King Egbert of England as well as all of the royal houses of Europe. The article makes it sound like something rather unusual. My question is, “So what? Almost everyone else can do the same.”

 We all have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on. To determine the number of ancestors you have, all you have to do is grab a calculator and determine how many generations you wish to go back. That should easy. Or is it?

We all have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on. To determine the number of ancestors you have, all you have to do is grab a calculator and determine how many generations you wish to go back. That should easy. Or is it?

For instance, here is a simple chart showing the number of ancestors you have, assuming an average of one generation every twenty-five years:

Number of generations	Approximate years	Ancestors in this generation	Total ancestors
1	25	2	2
2	50	4	6
3	75	8	14
4	100	16	30
5	125	32	62
6	150	64	126
7	175	128	254
8	200	256	510
9	225	512	1,022
10	250	1,024	2,046
11	275	2,048	4,094
12	300	4,096	8,190
13	325	8,192	16,382
14	350	16,384	32,766
15	375	32,768	65,534
16	400	65,536	131,070
17	425	131,072	262,142
18	450	262,144	524,286
19	475	524,288	1,048,574
20	500	1,048,576	2,097,150
21	525	2,097,152	4,194,302
22	550	4,194,304	8,388,606
23	575	8,388,608	16,777,214
24	600	16,777,216	33,554,430
25	625	33,554,432	67,108,862
26	650	67,108,864	134,217,726
27	675	134,217,728	268,435,454
28	700	268,435,456	536,870,910
29	725	536,870,912	1,073,741,822
30	750	1,073,741,824	2,147,483,646
31	775	2,147,483,648	4,294,967,294
32	800	4,294,967,296	8,589,934,590
33	825	8,589,934,592	17,179,869,182
34	850	17,179,869,184	34,359,738,366
35	875	34,359,738,368	68,719,476,734
36	900	68,719,476,736	137,438,953,470
37	925	137,438,953,472	274,877,906,942
38	950	274,877,906,944	549,755,813,886
39	975	549,755,813,888	1,099,511,627,774
40	1,000	1,099,511,627,776	2,199,023,255,550

As you can see, in the last 1,000 years you have a bit more than two trillion ancestors. There is only one problem with this: that number far exceeds the total number of people who have ever lived on the face of the earth!

In fact, there are duplicates in your family tree. If you were able to identify every single person in your family tree, you would find that many ancestors of a few hundred years ago would show up time and time again. This is inbreeding, and we all have it in our family trees. There are no exceptions; the mathematics involved makes it obvious that we are all the products of inbreeding.

With a theoretical (although impractical) one and a half trillion ancestors in the past 1,000 years, what are the odds that you have royal ancestry? About 99.9999% per cent. Many of the royals had large families with children, grandchildren, and further descendants who were sent far and wide to marry other nobility. In turn, their descendants married minor nobility and wealthy merchants and their children... so on and so forth. Once you can document one royal ancestor, you will probably find hundreds more, thanks to the excellent records kept of nobility marriages.

Now let’s go the other way: let’s look at a hypothetical individual from 750 years ago and identify the number of descendants he or she has. The numbers are not as mathematically precise since each person has a variable number of descendants. Sociologists tell us that families of many years ago were typically larger than those of today. Indeed, history books record that a few kings and other prominent men often had 50 or more children, thanks to multiple wives. Not everyone had children, however. Many people had zero children. For this exercise, I will pick an average number of five children per family:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Number of generations	Approximate years	Descendants in this generation	Total descendants
1	25	5	5
2	50	25	30
3	75	125	155
4	100	625	780
5	125	3,125	3,905
6	150	15,625	19,530
7	175	78,125	97,655
8	200	390,625	488,280
9	225	1,953,125	2,441,405
10	250	9,765,625	12,207,030
11	275	48,828,125	61,035,155
12	300	244,140,625	305,175,780
13	325	1,220,703,125	1,525,878,905
14	350	6,103,515,625	7,629,394,530
15	375	30,517,578,125	38,146,972,655
16	400	152,587,890,625	190,734,863,280
17	425	762,939,453,125	953,674,316,405
18	450	3,814,697,265,625	4,768,371,582,030
19	475	19,073,486,328,125	23,841,857,910,155
20	500	95,367,431,640,625	119,209,289,550,780
21	525	476,837,158,203,125	596,046,447,753,905
22	550	2,384,185,791,015,620	2,980,232,238,769,530
23	575	11,920,928,955,078,100	14,901,161,193,847,700
24	600	59,604,644,775,390,600	74,505,805,969,238,300
25	625	298,023,223,876,953,000	372,529,029,846,191,000
26	650	1,490,116,119,384,770,000	1,862,645,149,230,960,000
27	675	7,450,580,596,923,830,000	9,313,225,746,154,780,000
28	700	37,252,902,984,619,100,000	46,566,128,730,773,900,000
29	725	186,264,514,923,096,000,000	232,830,643,653,870,000,000
30	750	931,322,574,615,478,000,000	1,164,153,218,269,350,000,000

Your ancestor of 750 years ago had more than a sextillion descendants! Again, this will be true of each king and peasant alike. While this may be claimed as a mathematical “fact,” it is obviously impossible. Again, there have not been that many people in the world.

The challenge is to find your royal ancestors. Documentation of the royal families is plentiful, but finding your link back through many generations of commoners may be a challenge. While not every one of us will ever be able to prove descent from royalty, the odds are overwhelming that we all have such connections, documented or not. You just need to spend some time to find them!

Finding such ancestry can be personally satisfying although I question if it rates an article in a national wire service. You can read the Associated Press article in the Boston Globe at http://tinyurl.com/e74ke

My thanks to Michael White for telling me about the Associated Press article.