One in a Million

It took 2 parents to get you here. Each of your parents had 2 parents, as did each of their parents. You are the product of 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, 32 great-great-great-grandparents, and so on. If you keep multiplying the number by 2, you would end up with over 1 million progenitors in a scant 500 years.

But let's be a bit more realistic. We can't assume that all of our ancestors were unrelated. In fact, just three generations back in my family, a brother married the sister of his 2 brothers-in-law. Huh?

George W. Coker married Annie Stinnett. His sister, Lizzie, married Annie's brother John. And his sister, Lettie, married Annie's brother, Thomas. I found double cousins that I never knew existed before 1992. What if some of us had met and married, not knowing our common history of shared great-great-grandparents? Probably not a really big deal except in the case of genetically inherited illnesses.

Slim pickings in the Ozarks back in the day account for families like this; likely due to geographic immobility. In those days, distant (and not-so-distant) cousins were more likely to have married than not. This results in the same remote ancestors showing up again and again. It is also very likely if your ancestors come from one location. In other words, if your ancestors came from a resticted locale, then the further back you go, the more likely it is that someone else from that locale is related to you. Factor in the history of slavery in the United States, and you'll understand why folks ask, "Who's your Momma?"