I googled the amount of people that lived on earth throughout its entire history, it’s roughly 108 billions. If I take 1 person and multiply by 2 for each generation of ancestors, at the 37th generation it already outnumbers that 108 billions. (it’s 137 billions). If we take 20 years for 1 generation, it’s only 740 years by the 37th generation.
How??
(I suck at math, I recounted it like 20 times, got that 137 billions at 37th, 38th and 39th generation, so forgive me if it’s not actually at 37th, but it’s still no more than 800 years back in history)
In: 1391
In 1850 25 couples, man and woman, settled in a new community, Freefall, Kansas.
The average number of children each couple had was 4. That means the next generation has 100 children in it (50 couples). They pair up and make their own babies, again assume 4 children. So generation 3 has 200 in it. They repeat their parents 400 kids in the next generation (gen4). Gen 5 has 1600, gen 6 has 3200, gen 7 has 6400 kids, and gen 8 has 12800.
Now if we assume each generation is 20 years, then the children are born around the following years:
1850
1870
1890
1910
1930
1950
1970
1990
Now you come along being born in 1990 and you do the anscestor math and you say, wow I has 2 parents born in 1970 and 4 grandparents born in 1950, and you keep going back all the way to the founding of Freefall, KS. By your math you have 128 ancestors in 1850. But the town was founded by only 50 people.
You are correct that on your family tree going back 7 generation you have 128 slots to fill. Those 128 slots will be filled by the same 50 people.
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