How Many Grandparents Do I Have?

Do you have any idea how many “grandparents” we each have?  Anyone who has spent time working on a family tree will see how fast this number increases as we work back thru the generations. For example:

• Your Parents = 2

• Your Grandparents = 4

• Your Great-Grandparents = 8 (generation 4)

• 2x G-Grands = 16 (generation 5)

• 3x G-Grands = 32 (generation 6)

• 4x G-Grands = 64 (generation 7)

• 5x G-Grands = 128 (generation 8)

• 6x G-Grands = 256 (generation 9)

• 7x G-Grands = 512 (generation 10)

Add this up and you have a total of 1,023 people, including you, and by the time you reach your 10x great-grandparents, you have a total of more than 4,000 people!  (For those of us who have worked in the computer field, these are very familiar numbers, 8-bit, 16-bit, floppy disks of 512k, etc.)

Here is a picture of one of my SIXTEEN great-grandmothers back 6 generations - Mary Jane VanDewalker from Michigan.

What does all of this mean?  I have a LOT of work to do if I expect to have all of these people assigned to their proper places in my family tree!