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One thought on “Mathmatically What Does It Take For You To Be Born?”
If you go back 12 generations, odds are you’ll have less than 4096 ancestors. Especially in colonial America, the number of times first or second cousins married was quite high. There just wasn’t a wide selection to choose from.
That said, family tree research can be very rewarding. Especially if you can uncover the stories behind the names and dates. A number of your aunts and uncles died in childhood, meaning a number of your grandparents lost children. People are people. Always have been, always will be. The number of affairs that you can turn up 150 years later can be surprising. The number of your grandfathers that had to go off to war, and the ones that never made it back. The grandmother that had to raise 4 girls while living over a tavern because that was all she could afford. The grandfathers that said the wrong thing in a pub and the family has to flee the country. The grandmother that got in a family way and never married; if she had, you would have had a different last name.
Delusions of Adequacy 
If you go back 12 generations, odds are you’ll have less than 4096 ancestors. Especially in colonial America, the number of times first or second cousins married was quite high. There just wasn’t a wide selection to choose from.
That said, family tree research can be very rewarding. Especially if you can uncover the stories behind the names and dates. A number of your aunts and uncles died in childhood, meaning a number of your grandparents lost children. People are people. Always have been, always will be. The number of affairs that you can turn up 150 years later can be surprising. The number of your grandfathers that had to go off to war, and the ones that never made it back. The grandmother that had to raise 4 girls while living over a tavern because that was all she could afford. The grandfathers that said the wrong thing in a pub and the family has to flee the country. The grandmother that got in a family way and never married; if she had, you would have had a different last name.
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