GENEALOGY ~ A List of 12 Generations of Gleason's

Since my database contains over 3,300 individuals and you, my readership are only interested in a small fraction of deceased souls, I am restricting this effort to my (our) paternal Leeson/Gleason grandparents which consist of the following twelve gentlemen and their wives. In many, if not most of these ancestors, there is much more information concerning their lives which I hope to present but I think I should touch on a few aspects of genealogy for those of you who aren't familiar with ancestors and among other things, the base 2 that Noah had such a fixation on. 

10G ~ Thomas Leeson (abt 1547-aft 1614) Sulgrave, Eng  & Joan Lowe (abt 1550-bef 1614 Co. Derby, Eng   
 9G ~ Thomsa Leeson (abt 1577-1621 or 1628) Sulgrave, Eng & Margaret Kirton? (1580-? Great Brington, Eng
 8G ~ Thomas Leeson/Gleason (1607-1686) Sulgrave, Eng & Susanna Page (abt 1611-1690/1691) Sulgrave?, Eng
 7G ~ Thomas Leeson/Gleason (1637-1705) Sulgrave, Eng & Sarah ? (abt 1640-1703)
 6G ~ Isaac Gleason (1674-1737) Middlesex, MA & Deborah Leland (1679-?) Sherborun, MA
 5G ~ Isaac Gleason (1706-1777) Sherborn, MA & Thankful Wilson (1706-1800) Framingham, MA
 4G ~ Benjamin Gleason (1749-1814) Framingham, MA & Mary Cole (1753-1839) Westmoreland, NH
 3G ~ Bildad Gleason (1787-1854) Westmoreland, NH & Cynthiia Gilmore (1790-1877) Westmoreland?, NH
 2G ~ William 'Nelson' Gleason (1816-1896) Westmoreland, NH? & Rebecca Riser (1821-1870) Schenectady, NY
 1G ~ William James Gleason (1838-1913) Binghampton, NY & Julia Amy Lee (1845-1927) Coventry, NY
GF ~ Walter Ernest Gleason (1872-1936) WI & Mabel Stuart White (1877-1914) Fulton, WI
  F ~ Clyde Walter Gleason (1899-1995) Milford, WI & Florence Erbes (1903-1997) Poynette, WI
                                                                                     &Emilie Marie Craddock (1903-1958) New Haven, CT
Since it usually requires a man and a woman to produce a child, and certainly to define a generation we can easily compute what a generation means to the Gleason family by simply noting that the time between '10G Thomas' and 'F Clyde' is a span of 352 years over 12 generations.  So a Gleason generation is about 29 years whereas that can vary from family to family with a 'guesstimate' value of 25 years during modern times and about 20 for archaeological digs.

It is also obvious that we always have a mother and a father, two people for each descendant so we have two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and on, and on by powers of two, or 2^n.  For example, 10G Thomas has 2^12 grandparents in that generation or 4096 very old folks! If you'd like to know how many ancestors you have in total at the 12th generation (10G) you merely double that number 4096 to 8102 and for accuracy, subtract 2 giving you 8100 not counting yourself. Kinda neat, huh?

Now it just happens that we, my dear cousins, sister 'n niece, are related to Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, poet and daughter of Edward and Emily of Amherst, MA, born 10 December 1830 and died 15 May 1886. By attaching her genealogy to our own "Dickinsons", we can show that she is our "6C4R" or sixth cousin four times removed!

Now, of course Deirdre is my sister since we (almost) have the same parents and Jennifer who is her daughter is my niece (and J's brothers are my nephews.... My father, Clyde had a sister named Claire who was therefore my aunt and her children, Mabel and Evelyn were therefore my first cousins (Dierdre's also). That is the easy part! 

Now, consider that the children of my 1st cousins are also my 1st cousins but once removed (1C1R). However, the children of my 1st cousin are 2nd cousins to my children!  ....and on, ....and on. It can be a bit challenging so it helps to have a computer which figures it out for you automatically.