How many ancestors
do you have?

This may not help you find any ancestors, but if you have an engineer in the family use it to drive him bonkers. None of the following is of my origin, but something I received on another genealogy mailing list: "It is very interesting in trying to figure out your ancestors. Did you know you were kin to so many people?"
GENERATION	NUMBER OF ANCESTORS IN EACH GENERATION
1	1	YOU
2	2	parents
3	4	grandparents
4	8	great grandparents
5	16	g g grandparents
6	32	g g grandparents
7	64	g g g grandparents
8	128	g g g g grandparents
9	256	g g g g g grandparents
10	512	g g g g g g grandparents
11	1,024	g g g g g g g grandparents
12	2,048	g g g g g g g g grandparents
13	4,096	g g g g g g g g g grandparents
14	8,192	g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
15	16,184	g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
16	32,768	g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
17	65,536	g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
18	131,072	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
19	262,144	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
20	524,288	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
21	1,048,576	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
22	2,097,152	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
23	4,194,304	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
24	8,386,608	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
25	16,777,216	g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g grandparents
The normal number of years allotted to one generation, by professional genealogists, is thirty. Using this generally accepted period for each generation, this list would cover a period of only seven hundred fifty years. Therefore, if we go back to the time of Creation which, according to Archbishop Usher, occurred at 9:00 A.M. October 10, 4,004 B.C., it becomes obvious that all humans are related. contributed by bjcb