Every once in a while I get a request from a reader to post a blog about a certain Deep Thought they may have come up with. Most recently my grandfather, Roy Zeper, sent me a letter asking if I would do just that. Mind you, Roy Boy is 89 going on 21 and officially the oldest reader of Jordon's Deep Thoughts. Without further ado, I present "You and Your Ancestral Roots" by Roy Zeper (copyright 2006).
How many of your ancestors were alive 100 years ago? The answer...your 8 great-grandparents. How many of your ancestros were alive when Christopher Columbus discovered America? The answer will astound you.
America 1492 began as a good year. There was no industrial pollution, traffic jams, budget deficits, or income taxes [or Jordon's Deep Thoughts, amazing I know]. Also, no small pox, typhus, diptheria, or measles -- these would be gifts from the white man. And then, on October 12th, 3 ships appeared on the horizon. The lookout in the prow of the Pinta sang out "Tierra!" and Columbus raised his telescope. He was about to discover The New World. Have you ever thought about your ancestors who were alive in the year 1492? All 32,768 of them. Yes, 32,768. Let me explain. For example, take your great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. If you built a family tree starting with them, it would trace their decendants until you appear quite insignificantly somewhere along the bottom. Now, let's invert this family tree so you are at the top.
You had a father and a mother. In turn, each of your parents had 1 father and 1 mother (your 4 grandparents). Likewise, each of them had 2 parents, your 8 great-grandparents. Let's assume there are 3 generations in every century and call the first century of your ancestral roots AR1. Basically, this takes us back to 1900 A.D. Now let's continue this magical genealogical journey back another 100 years to 1800 or AR2. Your 8 great-grandparents each had 8 of their own great-grandparents. 64 ancestors; 32 men and 32 women met and had offspring that were responsible for you some 200 years later. If one of them had died before bearing their offspring, you would not be reading this today.
1492, AR5. Now, let's take another step back in time and revisit everyone's favorite explorer [except George Costanza who was partial to DeSoto] Christopher Columbus was busy sailing west to find a shorter route to India, or as many believed sailing west off the edge of the Earth. At that point in our Ancestral Roots timetable, you have a total of 32,768 ancestors walking around somewhere. [Mine were probably doing something awesome]. With these statistics you should consider yourself quite fortunate to be here today. Think of the odds of your existence some 500 years later. If only 1 of these 16,384 men or 16,384 women had died from the plague, famine, war, or disease before they reached maturity and bore their offspring, the chain would have been broken and you would not be reading this.
0, AR20. [Here's a deep thought, would 0 be B.C. or A.D.?] Baby Jesus is hanging out. I picture Baby Jesus to be wearing a tuxedo t-shirt because it means he wants to be formal, but he's here to party. Anyone get that one? The number of your ancestors has mushroomed from 32,768 just 1,500 years earlier to an astonishing 1,152,922,028,894,846,976. This is an impossible total; doesn't population grow? The mathematics are correct. There must be some logical explanation. Let's call it the Zeper Theory.
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