Generations

The number of people in your family tree grows quickly, but there were only so many people alive at one time. You will eventually start finding the same ancestors in different branches of your tree. A child born in 2016 would have had about 16 million ancestors alive in 1556, but the entire population of Great Britain in 1600 was only 5.4 million.
Add to that the limited mobility of most people and you will understand why some degree of consanguinity is inevitable.

Year Generation # (20 Years) Ancestors in
this Generation
Ancestors Alive
This Year
2016   0 Child 1 7
1996   1 Parents 2 14
1976   2 Grandparents 4 28
1956   3 Great Grandparents 8 56
1936   4 2nd Great Grandparents 16 112
1916   5 3rd Great Grandparents 32 224
1896   6 4th Great Grandparents 64 448
1876   7 5th Great Grandparents 128 896
1856   8 6th Great Grandparents 256 1,792
1836   9 7th Great Grandparents 512 3,584
1816 10 8th Great Grandparents 1,024 7,168
1796 11 9th Great Grandparents 2,048 14,336
1776 12 10th Great Grandparents 4,096 28,672
1776 U.S. Population:     2.5 Million
1756 13 11th Great Grandparents 8,192 57,344
1736 14 12th Great Grandparents 16,384 114,688
1716 15 13th Great Grandparents 32,768 229,376
1696 16 14th Great Grandparents 65,536 458,752
1676 17 15th Great Grandparents 131,072 917,504
1656 18 16th Great Grandparents 262,144 1,835,008
1636 19 17th Great Grandparents 524,288 3,670,016
1616 20 18th Great Grandparents 1,048,576 7,340,032
1600 British Population:     5.4 Million
1596 21 19th Great Grandparents 2,097,152 14,680,064
1576 22 20th Great Grandparents 4,194,304 29,360,128
1556 23 21st Great Grandparents 8,388,608 58,720,256
1536 24 22nd Great Grandparents 16,777,216 117,440,512
1516 25 23rd Great Grandparents 33,554,432 234,881,024
1500 European Population:     90.7 Million

* This table was computed at 20 years per generation, both parents and all 4 grandparents alive at birth of next generation. This is all an approximation, as both generations and life spans were usually shorter.

Contact: Message me via FamilySearch (Member JWGreenley) or Ancestry.com (Member JWGreenleyJr).


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