Blood lines

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    > [jacques:] Absolutely, "Guy" comes from Latin vitus "mistletoe".
    > Mistletoe, druids, Merlin, Arthur, holy grail... obvious.
    > "Jacques" is all about Santiago de Compostela, the coquille St
    > Jacques, and that takes us even further back, to our ancestors
    > who were clams -- as Scientology teaches us. Verily, my lineage
    > goes some way back!

Well, I don't even know where my great-grandfathers lived, or what
my family name means.(*)  But here is a little exercise you may enjoy:

Let's assume (conservatively) that the average human generation gap is
30 years.  So 30 years ago the average person had at least 2 living
ancestors, 60 years ago he had at least 4, 90 years ago at least 8,
and so forth. Now estimate (a) the number of living ancestors you had
by A.D. 1000; and (b) the probability that you and I are triply cousins
through Cleopatra,  King Arthur, and Empress Yamato of Japan.

All the best,

--stolfi 8-)

(*) "Stolfi" is almost surely germanic "Stolf" + Italian plural "-i",
and the original surname does seem to occur in Austria, just across
the Alps from the Veneto region where my parents lived. My son found
the other day a page in German about historical towns which seems to
say that "Stolf" once meant "See" (= a town where a Bishop "sits");
does that make sense? On the other hand, one of the knights in
"Orlando Furioso" (written ca. ~1600) is called Astolfo, and there are
several Astolfi right here in Campinas. Who knows...