I recently discovered that I am a direct descendant of Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, around 900AD. He is my 39th Great Grandfather.

I thought that was kind of cool but in no way did I believe it was a fact. After looking into it it seems that it probably is a fact.

Starting with 4 Grandparents, the number doubles with each generation. This means that mathematically, 39 generations back I would have over 3 trillion Grandparents.

The world population in 900AD was less than 200 million, so we begin to see how likely it is that we are very likely related to anyone who had progeny, regardless of their station in life. Charles the Great fathered 20 children so he joins many well known ancients as a likely relative to everyone.

The real distinction would be to prove that you are not related to Charlemagne or any other ancient King.