I was always intrigued that a Revolutionary War General, Israel
Putnam, was supposedly my 7th. Great Grandfather. Thought I was
special until I did the math. Assuming all direct offspring survived
to have offspring, more than 800,000 thousand people could claim the
same lineage today. Add indirect ancestry, cousins, uncles, aunts,
etc.  and that number soars exponentially. But, of course, all didn't
have offspring, so I guess I am special.

Jerry Vorpahl
Sacramento, which Twain called, "Land of eternal summer."