Can you be descended from a historical figure?

This is a genealogy question that I'm asking to all of you, if it's possible that you're an ancestor of a historical figure like Genghis Khan or Thomas Jefferson. As a Filipino, I could be descended from local tribes and Spanish conquistadors, but what about a certain historical leader? What should I do to find any of my possible famous ancestors?





Plus, can you be descended from a historical figure?Can you be descended from a historical figure?
I think my ancestors were just slackers.Can you be descended from a historical figure?
my husband is indeed related to Daniel Boone and verified thru DNA testing as well as a cousin painstaking documention over many years, so yes, it is possible.
If an historical figure had descendents, of course you can be descended from them. George Washington had no children, so anyone claiming descent from him is a phony. But Genghis Khan is said to have fathered hundreds of children, and half the human race may be his descendents. The further back in time, the more descendents, but also it gets harder to prove when you go back more than a couple centuries.


A cousin of my 4X great grandfather married a cousin of Martha Washington. I have a common ancestor with George Bush, and another with astronaut Alan Shepherd and two other American Presidents.
it is possible that one of my ancestors signed the declaration of Independence
TOTALLY I KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS RELATED TO OPRAH AND ELVIS
Of course, a person can be descended from anyone who had children ....





there is a universal DNA program you can join for a few $$. You send them a swab and they let you know what your heritage is.
Statistically speaking, odds are that most Europeans are descended from Charlemagne, and Edward III is the ancestor of most everyone of English descent.





Indeed, most everyone alive today descends from ';aristocracy'; at a least some point in time. During the fourteenth century, at least in Europe and the Middle East, the Black Death killed a large part of the urban poor and the serfs tied to the land while those who could afford to do so escaped to a country estate.





I really am an 8th cousin twice removed of Elizabeth II (through the Queen Mum) as well as a 9th cousin of both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush (according to Ancestry.com). No, I personally don't know anybody famous.
Sure, of course you could! Why not? You could be a descendant or your ancestors could also be related by marriage to a famous person. I'm related (via marriages, not directly) to George Washington.





If you want to trace your ancestry, you have to start from yourself and work backwards as far as you can. It would be impossible to research all the descendants a famous person that you ';think'; you might be related to -- well, not impossible, but you would probably have to research 1000 of them before you would find one!





For advice on starting your family history, see ';How do I get started?'; at familysearch.org.
Yeah, but don't forget for every famous somebody there were 999 ordinary nobodies- labourers, tradesmen, washerwomen etc.... so probability says you are much more likely to be descended from them ( I know I am).
First, everyone who has lived is ';historical';.


Second, if you go back 10 generations, in roughly 200 years, you have over 1000 grandparents. Let's count it out. 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 gggggggggparents. It is not only likely that each of us is related to nobility or royalty of some sort, it's virtually impossible to avoid it. Why? Because the world's population was so much smaller, and in another 10 generations you have a geometric increase in the number. Let's count it out... 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144, 524288 gggggggggggggggggggparents.





You can quickly see this only takes you back (using 20 years as the average generational length over time) roughly 400 years, yet you now have over a half million grandparents. Let's count out another 200 years - taking us back to 100 years before Christopher Columbus naval voyage, circa 1400 AD. You would now count 1,048,576 %26gt; 2,097,152 %26gt; 4,194,304 %26gt; 8,388,608 %26gt; 16,777,216 %26gt; 33,554,432 %26gt; 67,108,864 %26gt; 134,217,738 %26gt; 268,435,468 %26gt; 536,870,918.


So after 30 generations, and approximately 600 years, we all have over 536 MILLION separate grandparents/grandparent occurrences. I say occurrences because you quickly realize that it doesn't take long for this formula, going back in actual history, to actual people, for the number of grandparents to exceed the world's population. Meaning, at one point you'll have the same persons as individual grandparent more than one time. The likelihood of any of us being related to a given person in history increases with every generation we go back, because our number of ancestors increases each generation we go back, while the world's population is smaller and smaller. We are all a lot more diverse in origins, and a lot more closely related than we might imagine. I'm very proud of my father's heredity family name, and my patriarchal ancestors have lived in the same place in Europe for almost 1000 years, and I have the documentation to prove it. Yet, in reality, to honor them only is foolhardy. There are millions of others I trace back to who were every bit as important, or I wouldn't be here. Perhaps that is why the apostle tells us in scripture to not occupy our time with worthless geneolagies, or perhaps it's because there were so many ';contrived'; geneolagies during that time. Either way, it's important to know we are truly our brother's keeper - virtually everywhere we look! That said, never forget the most important relationship we can have - in this life or the next - is a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father through his Son, Jesus. Blessings on you and all your relations!
I am a descendant of Chief Powhatan.