Help making sure I have figured out the correct number of generations of ancestors with pedigree collapse

+5 votes
139 views
I need some one more knowledgeable than I to check my calculations on the number of ancestors in each generation in my tree with recent pedigree collapse. My grandparents were first cousins.

2 Parents; 4 Grandparents; 8 Great-Grandparents

14 Gr. Great-Grandparents; 28 Gr.Gr.Gr. Grandparents; 56 4x Great grandparents; 112 5xgreat-grandparents.

Would that be correct?
in Genealogy Help by L. Harrington G2G6 Mach 1 (15.0k points)
The arithmetic looks good to me L., as long as you know there weren't any more cousins back in those generations before your grandparents.
And if they lived in the same area for a number of generations, I would bet there are some more cousin (1st, 2nd and 3d), marriages.That is true on one of my paternal grandmother's lines
We should probably say, for the benefit of any readers that come along, that there is a 100% chance there are more cousin marriages back there somewhere.  Those 3G- and 4G-grandparents all had pedigree collapse in their ancestry too, even if they didn't know the term.  So L., the numbers are just a matter of what you want to accomplish and how far back you want to investigate.

1 Answer

+2 votes

Your calculations are correct, provided (as already pointed out) that there was no further pedigree collapse.

If there is no collapse at all, you have 2^n ancestors at generation n, where 2^n is 2 raised to the nth power: 2^1 = 2, 2^2 = 2*2 = 4, 2^3 = 2*2*2 = 8, and so on.

If your grandparents were first cousins, then one pair of their grandparents were identical: the same people. That is, a pair of your great-great-grandparents (four generations back) overlapped. So you had 2^4 - 2 = 16 - 2 = 14 gggparents.

Taking this further, because the whole trees overlapped, you had 2^5 - 2^2 = 32 - 4 = 28 ggggparents, 2^6 - 2^3 = 64 - 8 = 56 gggggparents and so on.

The general formula is that you had

  • 2^n ancestors at generation n above you for n <= 3
  • 2^n - 2^(n-3) ancestors at generation n above you for n > 3.

You could express 2^n - 2^(n-3) = 8 * (2^(n-3)) - 2^(n-3) more simply as 7 * (2^(n-3)). If you calculate this for n = 4, 5, 6, 7 you get 14, 28, 56, 112, just as you found.

The sequence continues doubling each time: 224, 448, 896, 1792. But as Dennis and Daniel have said, there was almost certainly more collapse as long ago as that, so the true numbers would be lower.

by Jim Richardson G2G Astronaut (1.0m points)

Related questions

+7 votes
0 answers
+11 votes
13 answers
650 views asked Sep 23, 2022 in The Tree House by Savanna King G2G5 (5.4k points)
+11 votes
2 answers
+11 votes
1 answer
357 views asked Mar 18, 2018 in WikiTree Tech by Barry Smith G2G6 Pilot (292k points)
+13 votes
1 answer
+15 votes
2 answers

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...