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| | USF Africana Heritage Project: Slavery Era Ancestors, by Tom Blake |
 | | But, if you are 20 years old and your direct ancestors were all first-born to young mothers, you might have to go back six generations to get to 1865, and that sixth generation would include your 64 fourth great grandparents. |
 | | For each generation you go back, the number of direct ancestors doubles, because every ancestor had two parents in the previous generation (you have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, then 16, 32, 64 etc.). |
 | | The process of researching back from the 1930 census, the most recent one available, to the 1870 census, the first one where all persons were free, is fundamentally the same regardless of whether an ancestor had previously been enslaved. |
| www.africanaheritage.com /Slavery_Era_Ancestors.asp (653 words) |
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