It is said that if you pick an ancestor back ten generations, there would be close to one million descendants. Many of us probably have those "Aunt Marys" in our family that traced our ancestral lines back to "Noah", or at least back into the 1500-1600s. These will be our "ANCESTRAL" lines or looking from present to past ancesty.
Around 2012 or so, an emphasis was placed on finding all the collateral line descendants (or non direct line cousins) of a common ancestor. This is called "Descendancy Research". If you were to pick an ancestor just four generations back (such as a great-great grandparent), there will a total of FIFTEEN collateral descendant lines to research in addition to your direct line. Sorry…just when you thought that your family history was done! Actually, it is quite exciting to think that we can work on finding new people in these lines, AND during a time period when records are more easily found. Don't forget that your collateral line living cousins may often have photos, histories, or other information about your family members just waiting to be shared with you.
As an example, Lydia has 7 other siblings. My direct descendancy line is through my grandfather, the farthest to the right. Lydia and her siblings married, had families, and created descendancy lines. These are the “Collateral Lines” that we can also do research on, not just from a direct line ancestor.
