Generations

          It doesn’t take long to do the math, but you might want to pay attention to what this all adds up to.

          All of us have eight great grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents and 32 great-great-great grandparents. The reader may pause now to figure it out: We each have two parents. They each have two parents (our grandparents, that’s 4) and they each have two parents (great grandparents, 8) and so on.

          Most of our great-great grandparents can have hundreds of descendants. Remember, it was common in the early and mid-1800s to have large families. There were no televisions or even electric lights in those years and, hard as it might seem to imagine, people had to live without the internet. With little else to do, nature frequently took its course.

          Children in farm families were a source of cheap labor, partners in the family effort. Raising a large family on a farm was a common activity.

          And most children that survived early life eventually produced children of their own. While families have generally become smaller in the last half century, each generation has continued to produce off spring. We wouldn’t be here otherwise, don’t you know.

          For the genealogists among us, the challenge of digging up the past is accentuated by the staggering number of ancestors we each have.

          The biologists among you have already determined that each set of grands, great grands and so forth must be equally split between males and females. In order to have a great-great-great grandfather, you must also have a great-great-great grandmother. Even in today’s modern world, you have to combine male and female material in order to generate a new human.

          For the researcher, this brings on a new series of challenges because it has long been a tradition that wives take their husband’s sir names. We will not argue here about the right or wrong of this matter. All that matters for the purpose of historic research is that it has been that way. Thus, we have to dig up great grandmother June’s original last name in order to continue the genealogistic hunt.

          Is genealogistic a word? It should be.

          The point is that you have to research many, many last names if you want to fully research your family background.

          And be careful what you look for. You might discover that you are descended from a Confederate soldier. In today’s politically-correct world, that is a no-no.

          Then again, you might discover that you are descended from a Revolutionary War freedom fighter or a Hall of Fame baseball player such as Honus Wagner. A Wagner link might finally explain your irrational love of the Pittsburgh Pirates or your inexplicable ability to move equally quickly to your left and right.

          It is a wonderful pursuit. It is both challenging and frustrating. But the insights you gain into your family’s life in the past is worth the effort.

          Thanks for reading.