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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-10 > 0844283959


From: Martin Vlietstra <>
Subject: Re: DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE-----HOW MANY?
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 20:19:19 +0100


In article <>, Gordon Fisher
<> writes
>
>
>It still seems to me that an undue amount of complete mixing, or
>homogenization, is being assumed.
..snip
> My experience with New England
>and royal and other lines leads me to strongly suspect that families
>"clump". That is, they tend to form isolated subpopulations. By
>"isolated", I mean that they don't interbreed, and haven't since the time of
>Charlemagne. (I leave aside the question of ultimate relationship based on
>much earlier ancestors.)
>
>What about all the people who were living at the time of Charmlemagne, in
>their millions. Is everybody now living descended from each and every one
>of those people? This seems to me to be an empirical questions, which can't
>be settled by pure mathematics alone. I have nothing against pure
>mathematics --- in fact, I'm a mathematician by profession. But I fail to
>see how it is that the relatively large numbers arising from exponentiation
>imply more or less complete mixing in populations.
>
>Gordon Fisher

While "clumping" of populations might have been the norm, the King spent
his time moving from centre to centre uin his realm. Could it have been
on these travels throughout the realm that certain kings, descended from
Charlemagne, spread their seed among the local ladies, thereby removing
introducing new blood into teh community?
--
Martin Vlietstra

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