Hey, I didn't even know the guy

I have been doing some geneological research and have learned some fascinating things.

I found out that I have an ancestor who was a Lady in Waiting to the Queen of England. She fell out of favor, however, when she backed out of an arranged royal marriage and ran off with a dashing young sailor. (Isn't that romantic? What a gal!) They later joined the LDS church and set sail for America.

I also have an ancestor who was a town crier in Glamorganshire, Wales. Some of his young sons were Colliers (coal miners). His wife passed away, and so did 5 or 6 of his children. He eventually emmigrated to America as well because of his new found faith.

Many of my ancestors helped to settle America in the 1600s. I wonder what life was like for them. (To find out more about your ancestors, go to www.familysearch.org. Be aware that you will be unable to find information about any living relatives).

I'm also related to John D. Lee, the only man executed for his connection with the Mountain Meadows massacre. He was my Great, Great, Great Grandfather. I won't go into that horrible tragedy, but will say that there is a hidden blessing in being related to an infamous figure- much of his family history is done. This brings me to an interesting thought. My Step-Grandmother's ancestor witnessed against John D. Lee in his trial. They didn't realize they would share common posterity generations away.

So here's the interesting thought:

Call yourself the 1st generation. Each generation you go back to doubles:

Generation Person Number in that group

1st . . . . .You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2nd . . . . Your Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3rd . . . . Your Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4th . . . . Your Great Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5th . . . . Your Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6th . . . . Your Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . . . 32
7th . . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . . . .64
8th . . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . 128
9th . . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . 256
10th . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . 512

So, that's (not counting you) a total of 1,022 people that you are directly descended from. It took over a thousand people over 9 generations to make you! And now, a sobering thought. 10 generations ago, there were 512 people walking around that you are now related to. Chances are, they all didn't know each other, nor had any idea that they would all one day share a common descendent generations later.

This made me want to even nicer to everyone around me. Because hey, there are 512 of us walking around today that will share a common Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. grandchild, and I don't want any of them to write something crummy about me in their memoirs for our posterity to read!

Just a thought.