It can't be done

In my last post, I showed an ancestral line from William the Conqueror all the way to my grandfather.

Here is another ancestral line from a contemporary of William down to my grandfather. It was chosen more or less at random from 64 possible ancestral lines leading to Margred Verch Llywelyn, and from there this line is the same as the first one.

Iwerydd Verch CYNFYN             1024
Owain Ap EDWIN                   1044
Angharad Verch OWAIN             1065
Susanna Verch GRUFFYDD           1095
Margred Verch MADOG              1129
Llewelyn Ap IORWERTH             1173
Margred Verch Llywelyn           1210
Maud de Clifford                 1234
Eleanor Giffard                  1275
Elizabeth le Strange             1308
Roger Corbet                     1330
Robert Corbet                    1383
Roger Corbet                     1412
Anne Corbet                      1438
Blanche Sturry                   1472
Thomas Whitcomb                  1502
William Whitcomb                 1528
John Whitcomb                    1558
John Whitcomb                    1588
Johnathan Whitcomb               1628
Johnathan Whitcomb               1669
Johnathan Whitcomb               1690
William Whitcomb                 1719
Oliver Whitcomb                  1749
Oliver Whitcomb                  1772
Hannah Whitcomb                  1806
Lucinda Haws                     1828
Mary Elizabeth Holdaway          1856
Arthur Marion Conrad             1882

There are 268,435,456 ancestral lines of 28 generations (2 raised to the power 28). Counting ancestral lines from around 1000 AD down to myself there are well over a billion -- 268,435,456 for each of my four grandparents.

I don't think it is particularly easy to understand just how many lines this makes. But, a simple calculation will convince you that, if you set yourself the task of contemplating each one of the ancestral lines of 30 generations for just one second each, it would take you just over 34 years to complete the task.

And, if you wanted to go back another 300 years (10 generations) on each line, you would need 34,000 years to contemplate each line for one second. Oh, wait. Let's give you credit for the 34 years you have already spent. That leaves you a mere 33,966 years to go!

Well, that's one reason it can't be done.

Mercifully, there are not enough surviving records to complete the research going back 30 generations. And, of course, that's another reason it can't be done.

So far, I've found about 10 lines that go back that far, meaning that I am one millionth of a percent done with my genealogy research.

Still, it's a fun hobby. Fits right in with my fascination with time.