Charlemagne is Your Ancestor

You are a direct descendant of Charlemagne, Carolingian King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, the great European conciliator.



"we are all special, which means none of us are. If you’re vaguely of European extraction, you are also the fruits of Charlemagne’s prodigious loins. A fecund ruler, he sired at least 18 children by motley wives and concubines, including Charles the Younger, Pippin the Hunchback, Drogo of Metz, Hruodrud, Ruodhaid, and not forgetting Hugh."

"This is merely a numbers game. You have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on. But this ancestral expansion is not borne back ceaselessly into the past. If it were, your family tree when Charlemagne was Le Grand Fromage would harbour more than a billion ancestors – more people than were alive then. What this means is that pedigrees begin to fold in on themselves a few generations back, and become less arboreal, and more web-like. In 2013, geneticists Peter Ralph and Graham Coop showed that all Europeans are descended from exactly the same people. Basically, everyone alive in the ninth century who left descendants is the ancestor of every living European today, including Charlemagne, Drogo, Pippin and Hugh. Quel dommage."

Click to read the full article:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford



I prepared the spreadsheet below to examine this claim. It is likely true. As you can see we quickly have far more ancestors than ever existing, which means that we are descended from the same people on multiple lines. Go back far enough and we are all related, to the same person.  All Europeans are likely related to Charlemagne or someone like him. Go back a few thousand more years and all people are related to one person.

Year	Generations	Years	Ancestors	Notes
2000	1	25	You
1975	2	50	2
1950	3	75	4
1925	4	100	8
1900	5	125	16
1875	6	150	32
1850	7	175	64
1825	8	200	128
1800	9	225	256
1775	10	250	512
1750	11	275	1,024
1725	12	300	2,048
1700	13	325	4,096
1675	14	350	8,192
1650	15	375	16,384
1625	16	400	32,768
1600	17	425	65,536
1575	18	450	131,072
1550	19	475	262,144
1525	20	500	524,288
1500	21	525	1,048,576	1 million ancestors
1475	22	550	2,097,152
1450	23	575	4,194,304
1425	24	600	8,388,608
1400	25	625	16,777,216
1375	26	650	33,554,432
1350	27	675	67,108,864
1325	28	700	134,217,728
1300	29	725	268,435,456
1275	30	750	536,870,912	Charlemagne
1250	31	775	1,073,741,824	1 billion ancestors
1225	32	800	2,147,483,648	- many more then existed
1200	33	825	4,294,967,296	- we descend from the same
1175	34	850	8,589,934,592
1150	35	875	17,179,869,184	same ancestor on multiple lines
1125	36	900	34,359,738,368
1100	37	925	68,719,476,736
1075	38	950	137,438,953,472
1050	39	975	274,877,906,944	Vikings in America
1025	40	1000	549,755,813,888
1000	41	1025	1,099,511,627,776	1 trillion ancestors
975	42	1050	2,199,023,255,552
950	43	1075	4,398,046,511,104
925	44	1100	8,796,093,022,208	All Europeans descended
900	45	1125	17,592,186,044,416	from one person?
875	46	1150	35,184,372,088,832
850	47	1175	70,368,744,177,664
825	48	1200	140,737,488,355,328
800	49	1225	281,474,976,710,656	Charlemagne - Probable ancestor
775	50	1250	562,949,953,421,312	of all Europeans
750	51	1275	1,125,899,906,842,620
725	52	1300	2,251,799,813,685,250
700	53	1325	4,503,599,627,370,500
675	54	1350	9,007,199,254,740,990
650	55	1375	18,014,398,509,482,000
625	56	1400	36,028,797,018,964,000
600	57	1425	72,057,594,037,927,900	Islam
575	58	1450	144,115,188,075,856,000
550	59	1475	288,230,376,151,712,000
525	60	1500	576,460,752,303,424,000
500	61	1525	1,152,921,504,606,850,000
475	62	1550	2,305,843,009,213,690,000
450	63	1575	4,611,686,018,427,390,000	All Europeans descended
425	64	1600	9,223,372,036,854,780,000	from one person?
400	65	1625	18,446,744,073,709,600,000
375	66	1650	36,893,488,147,419,100,000
350	67	1675	73,786,976,294,838,200,000
325	68	1700	147,573,952,589,676,000,000
300	69	1725	295,147,905,179,353,000,000
275	70	1750	590,295,810,358,706,000,000
250	71	1775	1,180,591,620,717,410,000,000
225	72	1800	2,361,183,241,434,820,000,000
200	73	1825	4,722,366,482,869,650,000,000	All Europeans descended
175	74	1850	9,444,732,965,739,290,000,000	from one person?
150	75	1875	18,889,465,931,478,600,000,000
125	76	1900	37,778,931,862,957,200,000,000
100	77	1925	75,557,863,725,914,300,000,000	One person ancestor of all ?
75	78	1950	151,115,727,451,829,000,000,000
50	79	1975	302,231,454,903,657,000,000,000
25	80	2000	604,462,909,807,315,000,000,000	Roman Empire, Caeser
0	81	2025	1,208,925,819,614,630,000,000,000	Christianity