re: Isn't pretty much everybody alive from a royal blood line?

I am a descendent of a Scottish monarch.

This question is actually really easy to answer.

Let's go back in time.

1 Generation: 2 people are responsible for your existence. (25 years back, roughly)

2 Generations: 4 people are responsible for your existence. (50 years back, roughly)

3 Generations: 8 (75 years)

4 Generations: 16 (100 years)

5 Generations: 32 (125 years) (Give or take a few years, this is around the turn of 1900)

6 Generations: 64 (150 years) (Civil War)

7 Generations: 128 (175 years)

8 Generations: 256 (200 years) (Battle of New Orleans)

9 Generations: 512 (225 years)

10 Generations: 1,024 (250 years) (Thirteen Colonies growing restless)

Let's stop here for just a sec... do you think any of those 1,024 motherfrickers are related to royalty?

11 Generations: 2,048 (275 years) How about now? Odds are growing in your favor.

12 generations: 4,096 (300 years) Yeah... pretty much definite now. And it's only 1716.

Here's the point. Most people think they are related to a small number of people who somehow make a narrow lineage through history, ending with them. But in reality, that "line" looks more like a funnel. And that funnel is HUGE.

Around the year 1716, there were 4,096 people who had to survive to reproduce in order for you to exist today. Think about that. If a single one didn't make it... you would not be here.

One more thing... the number is actually just a little smaller, due to inbreeding. Yes... inbreeding. But the concept is easy to understand. Past a certain point in history, we are all related.