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From: John Steele Gordon <>
Subject: Re: What is the largest family tree ?
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 17:00:49 -0500


Denis Beauregard wrote:
>
> Is there a Guinness (or equivalent) record for the ancestors'
> tree with the highest number of different proven ancestors ?

The devil is in the word "proven" here.

> So, how large can grow a genealogy tree (with different persons) ?

There was an article on this subject in The New Yorker (of all places)
about five or ten years ago. You should be able to find it after a bit
of a slog through the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.
>
> My guess is for someone in North America, with great-grand-
> parents from 8 different cultures or area each with nearly
> complete records until the 1600s, and before that, many
> lines in the nobility toward some kings and then Charlemagne.

I suspect the number of people around with eight great grandparents each
from a different culture could have a convention in a phone booth. That
just doesn't happen that often. And it happens a lot more often today
than it did in our great grandparents' day.

John Steele Gordon (whose eight great grandparents were each and every
one a WASP, although born in five different states)

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