I mentioned in last week's post that my family tree is full of generation gaps as a lot of my ancestor's had children late in life.  This has made geneaolgy fairly easy as living memory and family records go pretty far back.  For example, I am 41 years old. At this age, most of my peers have grandparents born around WWI or even the depression.  My grandfather was born the same year as the airplane, 1903.  His father was born during the civil war to a Civil War soldier.

Therefore, as late as 1994 I was able to talk to a person who knew someone that was in the Civil War. My grandfather knew his grandparents quite well and related some stories of them to me.

Most people know their grandparents and can ask them about their own grandparents.  That means that you can usually find out 4 generations back just by asking.  Knowing your great-grandparents is not that unusual any more either so you can sometimes go back five generations without much research. The old family bible on your great-aunt's coffee table can sometimes take you back further without even a trip to the library.

However, most people I know have ancesters with a little closer generation gap.  This means that even if they learn of the last five or six generations, it usually puts them back to the victorian era or the civil war at best.  Not so with my family. Going back just 4 generations puts our family to the civil war. Six generations to early Kentucky settlers and eight generations to the French and Indian War.

Here's the list from my father's side of the family. As you can see, there are some big jumps between birthdays of some generations.

       1. FatWhiteMan, I was born in 1965.

       2. My father, born 1944 - pretty normal gap.

       3. My grandfather, born 1903. He was 41 when my dad was born.

       4. Great-Grandfather, born 1864. He was 39 when my grandfather was born.

       5. Great-Great Grandfather, born 1829. Served in 45th Ky Mtd Infantry, Civil War.

       6. Great-Great-Great Grandfather, born 1811. Settled into Kentucky when he was 4 or 5.

       7. Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather, born ca. 1788 in Virginia. Settled into Kentucky with 4 sons                  1815-1816

       This is where family history ends and reseach takes over

       8. Great-great-great-great-great grandfather born 1766.

       9. Great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather born 1730's, Va. Served under Col. Washington in the                 French-Indian War.

I'm stretching the generations as well. I was 39 when my son was born. That puts another gap in his lineage too.