Comments on: Not another famous ancestor!

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 03:09:08 +0000

Thank you for saying so well what I have wished I could say. I’ve been infuriated by posts from people who claim direct descent from people like Charlemagne, Robert the Bruce, Charles II and so on. For Heavens’ sake – the records are just not that good. There are fires, wars, natural disasters and man-made disasters. And unless you are a member of a Royal Family – your family records are probably non-existent beyond the past 200 years.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:40:31 +0000

My great-grandmother was Annie Stuart Ferguson of Dunblane. Are we related?

By: Sean Scott

Sean Scott — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 08:31:33 +0000

Well, according to Mr. Chang, it was Charlemagne that patronized Eadgifu..mystery solved!

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:53:31 +0000

That makes no sense at all!

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 23:40:29 +0000

Let’s say the time since Charlemagne was about 1200 years. Let’s also assume that a generation is, on average, 25 years. That means that, between now and Charlemagne, there have been approximately 1200/25=48 generations. This means that, going back to the time of Charlemagne, we have approximately 2^48 ancestors. This is approximately 2.81*10^14, or 281 trillion. The population of the world in 800 AD is estimated at between 220 and 270 million. This would mean that any European can be statistically expected to be directly descended from Charlemagne through several different routes.

By: Mamie10

Mamie10 — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 18:15:19 +0000

Bravo! I have a co-worker that got interested in her ancestry after she saw me working on mine. Within 2 weeks she had taken her story back to Adam…..yes, that’s right….Adam of the Garden Adams. Every time I think of it, I chuckle.

By: RobSchellinger

RobSchellinger — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 20:44:36 +0000

I’ve hit a dead end on my mom’s side in 18th century South Carolina and my dad’s side when they left Germany. Nobody famous that I know of.

I watched the Smithsonian doco on finding the body of Richard III. They were only able to find one living direct relative. If you had asked me, I would’ve guessed there’s probably several that had branched out over the past few hundred years. The fact that there was only one I found surprising.

By: Alex Forman

Alex Forman — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:32:33 +0000

I have had signifigant proof of relation to Robert the Bruce for five months now from a professional expert Genealogist lab, and furthermore he is actually a direct relative, and I am his ancestor (great grandson) of about 18 generations. I never knew that so many people thought that he was their ancestor, and most people are wrong, as I have Genealogy charts with none of their “ancestors” on it.

By: Loretta

Loretta — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 01:22:15 +0000

This hilarious! Thanks

-Loretta, a.k.a. Barking Up the Wrong Tree Blog

By: rodgermoffet

rodgermoffet — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 10:21:41 +0000

A good mate of mine who is an esteemed genealogist described it to me like this: “Genealogy is similar to Ginger Rodgers dancing with Fred Astaire. Fred was good but Ginger did the same thing except in heels and backwards”