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Tricky one for me. We've managed to trace our family tree back 12 generations through family documents, etc. and our family are still in Ireland (where I'm fro
by Peroni 15y ago
Tricky one for me.
We've managed to trace our family tree back 12 generations through family documents, etc. and our family are still in Ireland (where I'm from).
From what we know though our family have had a presence in Ireland for over 500 years on both sides.
It's actually remarkable when you consider the earliest record of our surname in Ireland is in the 13th century.
- PeterMcCanney 15y agoWell I can beat that by about 600 years. The first mention of my family is around 6/700CE. We were followers of St.Cainnech http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cainnech_of_Aghaboe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cainnech_of_Aghaboe Myself, I've emigrated to the UK, twice. But now I'm back in Dublin.
- ma2rten 15y agoIf you go back 12 generations you have 2^12 = 4 096 ancestors. Seems rather unlikely that every single one of them is Irish. If you go back 20 generations you'd have 2^20 = 1 048 576 ancestors, which is probably larger then the population of Ireland by that time.
- ddlatham 15y agoWhile it's true there's likely an immigrant in the bunch, it's also very unlikely that all 4096 or 1048576 ancestors are distinct. The tree is bound to overlap.
- ma2rten 15y agoGood point!
- robert-boehnke 15y agoThis is also known as the Ancestors Paradox
- Nogwater 15y agoExcept that if you go back that far, not all of the ancestors are likely to be distinct.
- konop1 15y agoThe farther back you go the less likely it is that they would be immigrants. Back in the day when people had to walk or ride to where they wanted to go...
- rmc 15y agoGo back far enough and countries pop in and out of existance. Were there several countries in Ireland back then? Kings of Lenister/Munster/Meath, etc.? We'll get our cow back, etc.