June Pelo.
Source unknown.
A progenitor (one who begets or brings forth) is an ancestor in the direct line, or a forefather. Any man or woman from whom you are lineally descended, such as your father and mother, your four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen 2nd great-grandparents, etc., is a progenitor. Every individual has numerous progenitors as he traces back equally all his various ancestral lines, and we are certain to share many lines in common with our friends and acquaintances. The amazing increase in the number of one’s progenitors from one generation to another for centuries, provided no intermarriages among these forefathers had occurred, is graphically shown by the following table:
Generation # of Ancestors
1 2
2 4
3 8
4 16
5 32
6 64
7 128
8 256
9 512
10 1,024
11 2,048
12 4,096
13 8,192
14 16,384
15 32,768
16 65,536
17 131,072
18 262,144
19 524,288
20 1,048,576
21 2,097,152
22 4,194,304
23 8,388,608
24 16,777,216
25 33,554,432
26 67,108,864
27 134,217,728
28 268,435,456
29 536,870,912
30 1,073,741,824
Allowing an average of three generations to a hundred years we find that in a generation less than 1,100 years, or back to the year 884 AD we would have had, according to this ratio, more than twice as many people for forefathers as are living in the whole world even today. A skilled mathematician once estimated that the population of the world had averaged a billion for each century. That would mean ten billion for each thousand years, or sixty billion people who have lived on the earth in six thousand years since Adam. If we should carry the above table back from 32 to 50 generations, we would have the amazing number of 563,959,785,421,512 ancestors in direct line.
In the Genealogical Library of the Church of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City is the largest collection of films of original genealogical records in the world. Most of the records are copied on roll film, 35 mm. In width, there being 100 feet to the roll, each roll containing sometimes 1,300 pages, sometimes 800 pages and sometimes 2,000 pages. In 1956 there were 31,598 rolls of American records, following by Sweden with 27,180 rolls, Great Britain, and Ireland with 15,453 rolls, Denmark with 14,027 rolls, Finland with 13, 722 rolls, Holland with 12,787 rolls, Germany with 6,591 rolls, Norway with 3,365 rolls, etc.