1,048,574. What a Weird Number!
I've said this number various times in my blog. I will say this number a lot in the future.
But what does that number represent?
1,048,574 people are the 19 generations of people that made you.
WHAT?!?!?!
Do you want me to break that down for you? I did the math. 'Cause I'm a nerd that way.
you
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great grandparents
16 2nd great grandparents
32 3rd great grandparents
64 4th great grandparents
128 5th great grandparents
256 6th great grandparents
512 7th great grandparents
1,024 8th great grandparents
2,048 9th great grandparents
4,096 10th great grandparents
8,192 11th great grandparents
16,384 12th great grandparents
32,768 13th great grandparents
65,536 14th great grandparents
131,072 15th great grandparents
262,288 16th great grandparents
524,288 17th great grandparents
20 Generations Including YOU
1,048,574 people = you
Kinda crazy when you think about it. Your family tree doesn't just consist of you, your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, and your 2nd great grandparents. It is far more than that. It's far bigger than that!
Some people have mail order brides in their family trees. Others have slaves who were treated little better than cattle with no choice in who fathered their children. Then there are children who no longer had parents and were given away to others that were no relation. For whatever reason, the fate of 1,048,574 people brought them to decisions and places in their lives that resulted in your existance.
Generation Overload
That's an awesome thought! Things had to go just the right way to get an end result of you. You are here! And that's just the 19 generations before you. To give you an idea of how far back that is, I'll share some branches that have been traced back nearly that far, although much of it I have not verified and double checked.
KUNZ Line
Ancestry.com: 18 Generations: 12th great grandfather Hans CUNTZEN, 1455 - 1525.
FamilySearch.org: 9 Generations: 6th great grandmother Eva Elisabetha Kunz/Eva Elizabeth KUNTZ, 1746 or 1748 - 1825.
HAGENBUCH Line
(Eva's husband from previous example)
Ancestry.com: 12 Generations: 9th great grandfather Jacob FRITZ, unknown years.
FamilySearch.org: 17 Generations: 14th great grandfather Jerg Gruppen, 1520 - 1572. (Through Jacob FRITZ's son-in-law Hans Michael HAGENBUCH.)
BENNET Line
Lots of name changes jumping through fathers and mothers on this one!
20 Generations: 17th great grandfather Jacques Malet de COUPIGNY, 1453 - 1505 and wife 17th great grandmother Marguerite de TORQUES, 1486 - 1522. (FamilySearch.org) This line continues further back based on others' work to build the FSWT.
This line only goes back to my 3rd great grandmother (6 Generations) Sarah M. BENNET on Ancestry.com, but they do have tree leaves suggesting the parents already listed in FamilySearch.org.
What's the Point, Lady?
Interesting you should ask. There really isn't a point. But think about something for a moment. Do you ever feel like you are insignificant? Like there's no reason for you to be here? Be honest for a moment and really take stock and identify if you've ever, ever, ever felt that way. Because I'm going to be honest with you. I feel like that every day. I have to believe that I'm not the only person in history who has felt that way. Our sky-rocketing statistics on suicide tell me that I'm certainly not the only one.
So what do my suicidal tendencies have to do with my genealogy research? The idea that I'm the only person in my family tree who has ever felt this way is as ludicrous as thinking I'm the only one in all of history. So the possibility that one of my ancestors felt worthless, meaningless, or extraneous is pretty probable. And yet, their existence allowed for my existence to happen. Mind Blown. So in the next 20 generations that come from me, there's bound to be someone who feels they are a waste of space too. But if it weren't for my existence and my feelings of inadequacy and meaninglessness, the choices I made, for good or bad, they wouldn't exist. So to my 17th great grandchild 500 years from now: You aren't meaningless. You aren't insignificant. You matter. If not to the grand scheme of things, you matter to the people around you. You matter to your descendants because without you, there'd be no them.
And to those of you who cannot or choose not to have children biologically. That's okay too. Because you and your choices affect those around you! Did you adopt a child and put them down a path that brought about a child down the road who wouldn't be who or where they are if it weren't for your influence in their family tree legally? Did you influence a friend's child, a niece, a nephew, who might not have made the choices they made to go to that college where they found that date and found the love of their lives which resulted in a child thereby affecting that family tree? We are seriously just one big family, dude. Family isn't always blood.
Plus, tracing your family tree back to somebody famous feels really good. So far the only verified relations I've got that did something really awesome were my great great uncles Gustav and Max KRAUSE, who built the first gasoline powered four wheel automotive in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Greatness starts somewhere. And it resides in you. You don't need to go back through your DNA and find the greatness. But if you want to, it's there. You just have to find it. Gus and Max aren't even in that 1,048,574 number, but just like me, they're related to people who are.
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