If you were born 66 years after your ancestor, which generation are you in? Third? Fourth? Fifth, or what?

Answer 1

This depends. If your ancestor is your grandfather, you would be in the second generation after him. If your ancestor is your great-grandfather, you would be in the third generation.

Like wendy c said, a generation is not a set amount of years. Generations can be as long as sixty years or they can be as short as sixteen years. It all depends on how old the parents were when the offspring were born. A dictionary definition can be found below.

Answer 2

Why don't we try this explanation? The modern length of a generation is given below and is used in helping to check genealogical facts and dates against others.

But, the fact remains, that if this ancestor was your great grandfather, the next generation would be grandparent, the next generation below would be uncle, aunt or parent, and finally you would be the next generation. But, you would need to factor in the known generations before your ancestor to get a true number for the generation you are actually in. So the amount of years between you and the ancestor doesn't decide the generation you are in, relationship does.

Ancestry Magazine
3/25/2006 - Archive
September / October 2005 Vol. 23 / No. 5
Research Cornerstones: How Long Is a Generation? Science Provides an Answer

How Long Is a Generation?
By Donn Devine, CG, CGI

We often reckon the passage of time by generations, but just how long is a generation?

As a matter of common knowledge, we know that a generation averages about 25 years—from the birth of a parent to the birth of a child—although it varies case by case. We also generally accept that the length of a generation was closer to 20 years in earlier times when humans mated younger and life expectancies were shorter.

In genealogy, the length of a generation is used principally as a check on the credibility of evidence—too long a span between parent and child, especially in a maternal line, has been reason to go back and take a more careful look at whether the evidence found reflects reality or whether a generation has been omitted or data for two different individuals has been attributed to the same person. For that purpose, the 20- and 25-year averages have worked quite acceptably; birth dates too far out of line with the average are properly suspect.

But now, researchers are finding that facts differ from what we’ve always assumed—generations may actually be longer than estimates previously indicated.

Several recent studies show that male-line generations, from father to son, are longer on average than female-line generations, from mother to daughter. They show, too, that both are longer than the 25-year interval that conventional wisdom has assigned a generation. The male generation is at least a third longer; the female generation is about one-sixth longer.

As early as 1973, archaeologist Kenneth Weiss questioned the accepted 20- and 25-year generational intervals, finding from an analysis of prehistoric burial sites that 27 years was a more appropriate interval but recognizing that his conclusion could have been affected if community members who died away from the village were buried elsewhere.
Source(s):

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/ar...

Answer 3

The rampant plagiarism aside, Wendy is the one with the correct answer. It has nothing to do with years and everything to do with how far you are in the family tree from the person with whom you're comparing yourself. If your grandfather got remarried at 50 and had a second family of children, and your mother was among that group, then you're not far down the tree...just two generations. If your father was the one who remarried at 50 and you were his youngest child, born 16 years later, then there's only one generation between the two of you. By contrast, if you're looking at a Jewish family from the 1700s where boys married at 13, you could easily have been someone's great-great grandchild in 66 years.

"Generations" are only measured as a passage of time in generalities, but never in specifics like figuring out how many branches of the family tree are between person A and person B.

Answer 4

A generation is about 20-25 years. The number of generations is determinted between one person and another. if your relative was born 66 years before you, then you would be considered 3rd generation from the relative you're comparing yourself to.

Answer 5

First, if he was your father or uncle.
Second, if he was your grandfather or great uncle.
Third, if he was your great grandfather, which is physically possible but highly improbable.
Fourth, if it was 70 years and there were a string of five 14-year old mothers. This is even more improbable.

If your dad had a fling when he was 16 which resulted in a daughter, then fathered you when he was 82, filthy rich and married to a 23-year old playmate, your "ancestor" could be your half-sister. You and she would be the same generation, although she would be old enough to be your grandmother.

While we're on the subject, here is something I copy and paste when people say they want information about their "great grandfather" but don't put in any dates. The wars and costumes assume you are in the USA, so if you are in the UK just translate accordingly.

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Consider this:

If you are now 16 and the result of a long line of teen-aged lovers,
You were born 16 years ago, in 1991;
Your father was born 16 years before that, in 1975;
Your grandfather was born 16 years before that, in 1959;
Your great grandfather was born 16 years before that, in 1943.

If you are now 80 and the result of a long line of men who had a child by their second wife when they were 60,
You were born 80 years ago, in 1927;
Your father was born 60 years before that, in 1867;
Your grandfather was born 60 years before that, in 1807;
Your great grandfather was born 60 years before that, in 1747.

Your Great-Grandfather born in 1943 could have been a 26-year old soldier in Viet Nam in 1969. When he got home in 1970 he might have gone to a disco in a powder-blue double-knit polyester leisure suit.

Your Great-Grandfather born in 1747 could have been a 29-year old soldier serving under George Washington in the American Revolution in 1776. When he got home in 1781, he might have danced a reel in a pair of silk knee breeches and shoes with silver buckles.

Both examples are extreme, both are physically possible, both show why a birth year or even a birth decade help more than the phrase "my (great) grandfather".

Answer 6

The number of years has NOTHING to do with it.
My grandfather is 2 generations away (either way, me to him or him to me). In my case, my grandfather was born in the 1840's, was in his 60's when my mother was born and she was in her 40's when I was born. LONG generations.
Your grandfather may have been 20 when your mother was born; and your mom could have been 16 at your birth. Short generations, BUT STILL ONLY 2 GENERATIONs.
You are one generation from your parents, and 2 from your grandparents. It is not measured in years, but levels.

Answer 7

It depends on whether your ancestor is your parent, a grandparent, great grandparent, and so forth:

-------Generation 1: Yourself, your brothers and sisters, and your first cousins are all members of the same generation.

-------Generation 2: Your parents, their brothers and sisters, who are your aunts and uncles, and their first cousins, who are your second cousins, are all part of that famous "generation gap" that is a generation older than you--even if not that many years separate you from them. Incidentally, the children of your first cousins are also your second cousins.

------Generation 3: Your grandparents, their brothers and sisters, who are your great aunts and uncles, and their first cousins, who are your third cousins, are a third generation.

------Generation 4: Your great-grandparents, their brothers and sisters, who are your great-great aunts and uncles, their first cousins, who are your fourth cousins, make up a fourth generation.

For instance, my father, born in 1920, was born 32 years before I was, which makes us one generation apart, and his father, born in 1879, was born 41 years before he was, but the span between grandfather and granddaughter still is just two generations apart and the generational span is three separate generations, even if 73 years separate our birth dates.

Similarly, I am 55. My oldest maternal first cousin is 6 years older than I am, but my youngest first cousin is 33, 22 years younger than I am and 28 years younger than my oldest maternal cousin. Indeed, some of my second cousins, who are children of my older cousin are older than my 33-year-old cousin. All first-cousins are considered members of the same generation, no matter how many years separate them from each other.

In other words, the years that separate generations don't determine which generation the individual is a member of within a family even if society refers to different age groups as generations, such as Baby Boomers (who were officially born between 1945-1960, a span of 15 years). Usually these generations average around 20 years apart.

Of course, only your parents, their parents, and the parents before them, and so on back in time can be your direct ancestors. Aunts and uncles and second and third cousins aren't your direct ancestors, even if you are still related.

Answer 8

Age is misleading as it's not what's used to trace generations. Track it back through parentage i.e) you, parent, grandparent, great-grandparent etc.

Answer 9

I think a generation is 20 years

Answer 10

.
I remember reading somewhere that appox. 35 years makes one generation.

If that is correct then you are at the second generation.