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Question: If you have ancestry in an country or area, would you be descended from everyone there 20 generations back!?
i heard that if you have any ancestry in a county or area, you would be descended from everybody there 20 generations back!. it this true!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
It depends!. If the area was Monroe County, Virginia (Now WV) and you counted only white people, maybe!. If the area was "China", no!.

It is possible that you are 20th cousin, 0 to 4 times removed, or closer, to everyone else from, for instance, Norway (again counting only one race; Lapps didn't marry the more southerly Norse, and a Nigerian petroleum engineer working in the North Sea might raise a family in Oslo, but his kids wouldn't be cousins to the other Norwegians!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com

total generalization with no reason to believe it!.
"Standard" genealogy is 3-4 generations per century!. For most of my work, going back in the US for 10 generations will take you to immigrants and beginning of the country!. There isn't anyone aside from Native Amer!. who are here much longer!.
20 generations would ROUGHLY be 600 yrs!. For many places!.!. they have not been there that long!. Surnames in general don't start until ABOUT 1500s, and often there are no records prior to that, by which you can define if someone is/ isn't related!.
All of GENEALOGY is completely based in having a record that confirms a relationship!. Anthropology, etc are different focuses!.
People like to make generalizations!.!. but they just don't work in genealogy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!. No matter which of the nearly 7 Billion persons on earth you might consider, the answer would be no!.
Why!? 1) Because a great many of those people living at that time died, leaving no descendants!.
2!. Peoples migrated constantly; last night I was looking up an ancestor and found that he had "fled the country" (Austria) in 1680! Earlier peoples moved around to search for food or to evade enemy armies!.
3!. Of course, some people are sterile; they did not have "fertility clinics" back then, so either they had children or they didn't!.
4!. Not everyone chose to have children!.!.!.didn't marry or just did not have children!.
Of course, there are more reasons, but this should get you started!.Www@QuestionHome@Com