In the words of Nightwish's new song Perfume Of The Timeless:
In order to be born
you needed:
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 second great-grandparents
32 third great-grandparents
64 fourth great-grandparents
128 fifth great-grandparents
256 sixth great-grandparents
512 seventh great-grandparents
1,024 eight great-grandparents
2,048 ninth great-grandparents
For you to be born today from
12 previous generations
you needed 4,094 ancestors
over the last 400 years.