no pun
July 4, 2008 (Friday)
Today is the Fourth of July, 2008, 232nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, followed by the Revolutionary War. My Great Great Great Grandfather, Nicholas Fake, was a solder during that war. His father, George Fake, an immigrant from Germany, had served in the Albany militia. I’m relying on what others have told me about this. At any rate, I’m thankful to be counted among their descendants.
Of course, we all need to realize that merely following our family name through our male ancestors does not give us a complete picture of who we are. I am six generations away from George Fake, who was one of 64 people in that generation whose descendants finally resulted in my birth. Add all the others in succeeding generations who contributed genes to create little Charlie Fake, and it comes to 126 people, with many different family names. That’s going back about 200 years from my birth. If you go back six more generations, another 200 years, the number is 4,222. So, who knows? You and I may be kissin’ cousins, whoever you are!
Using the formula, 2 parents, 4 grandparents, etc., there were theoretically billions of people somewhere on earth in the days when Jesus walked the earth, to whom you are genetically related. The number is many times more than the entire world population at that time (hence the word, “theoretically”). Remember the story of the guy who agreed to work for a month being paid a penny the first day, doubled every day for a month? He agreed to be paid only for the last day. The pay for the 30th day was well over a billion dollars! The same thing happens when you count up your ancestors, doubling the number each generation (about 33 years).
One thing we know, we all are ultimately brothers and sisters in the human family, no matter how you choose to believe it all started. If that has any significance at all, it is that we should learn to get along with each other. I can hear our Heavenly Father now, calling downstairs to His disobedient kids on Earth, “Do you hear me? I said, ‘Stop that fighting!’ Don’t make me come down there!”
FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY:
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From a previous blog, I offer this beautiful rendering of
“America, Why I Love Her,” with the voice of John Wayne: