Hello Cousin,

Yes I am addressing you the reader personally as an individual, It’s so very nice to make your acquaintance. It’s always wonderful to discover a family relation you never thought you had.

Did you know that the World Population in the year 1492 is estimated to have been 500 Million people and today in excess of 6 Billion people occupy this earth. However I had better get back to my point in writing this, which is the fact that you and I are related.

Better still, I should explain how this is possible.

As you already know we each have 2 Parents, 4 Grand Parents, 8 Great Grand Parents and so on. Going back just 10 generations we arrive at the total of 1024 maternal and paternal ancestors and that’s if we apply a generous 20 years to a generation gap  that would mean that as recent as 200 years ago in the year 1810 that we had at least 1020 family members roaming the Planet.

Based on a multiplication of 2 every 20 years the number of Ancestors grows significantly and at a more accelerated rate.

In 1710  that number has ballooned to 32,764 direct blood line ancestors extant on Earth, at some time in the 14th our ancestry’s number exceeds that of the world population at that time. I am not sure how the mechanics of that work exactly, at least not without addressing the possibility that incest was rife in the middle ages, which is not the purpose of this article at all.

The purpose of this articleis to introduce myself to you. I am Neville and we are quiet possibly related.