Randy Seaver, over at Geneamusings, hosts a weekly “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” event every week…Most weeks I don’t even catch the event for one reason or another. Other weeks I look at his challenge and say…”Huh?”, then I shrug my shoulders and move on.
This week, however, I’m taking him up on his challenge, because I find it to be a great way to keep track of my research progress this year. So although he has dated his challenge for 2016, I’m dating it 2015…because since the beginning of this new year I have not yet discovered any new ancestors (I’ll compare the numbers at the end of the year to see how I’ve done.). His challenge is to determine how complete my genealogy research is by compiling a score based on the number of direct ancestors that I’ve located.
It’s simple really – by counting myself, my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on, and so on….for just 10 generations that equals a potential of 1,023 people who are, as Crista Cowan states, “responsible for your existence.”
Generation |
Relationship | Possible People | My Identified People |
1 |
You | 1 |
1 |
2 |
Parents | 2 |
2 |
3 |
Grandparents | 4 |
4 |
4 |
Great-grandparents | 8 | 8 |
5 |
2x Great-grandparents | 16 | 16 |
6 |
3x Great- grandparents | 32 | 32 |
7 |
4x Great- grandparents | 64 |
46 |
8 | 5x Great-grandparents | 128 |
45 |
9 | 6x Great- grandparents | 256 |
44 |
10 | 7x Great-grandparents | 512 |
45 |
TOTAL |
1,023 |
243 |
My 10 generations show that I’ve located a mere 243 of these ancestors…that’s only 24%!! Looks like I have some work to do this year!
The next time somebody tells you that they’ve finished their entire family tree, have them show you the numbers…and the aunts, uncles, cousins that aren’t even included with these numbers. There is always a new family member to discover!!
~C.