Copyright © Janice Tracy, Mississippi Memories

Sunday, August 17, 2008

How Many Relatives Do You Have?

The following article contains a sprinkling of philosophy and some unique math. It was written by the Rev. Gene Britton of East Point, GA, and was printed in "The Southside Sun," a Virginia newspaper.

"Next time you're feeling rather important, try a little arithmetic trick based on the undebatable fact that it took two people, your parents, to get you here. Each of your parents has two parents, so in the generation just prior to that of your mother and father, there were four people whose pairing off and sharing love contributed to your existence. You are the product of eight great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, 32 great-great-great-grandparents, etc. Keep multiplying the number by two. If you figure an average of about 25 years between each generation, you'll discover that a scant 500 years ago, there were 1,048,576 people on this planet beginning in the production of you!"

Looks like I need to do more research, because I haven't made my numbers yet.

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