# Greatest Degree of Great-ness Ever Recorded.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-degree-of-great-ness-ever-recorded/815420>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 4, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-degree-of-great-ness-ever-recorded/815420 "2018-06-04T17:49:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-degree-of-great-ness-ever-recorded/815420/1 "2018-06-04T17:49:18Z")

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I think having a living great grandparent is commonplace now. I know my cousin’s son, and his great grandfather, had lives which briefly coincided. He was just a baby. But my grandfather might have held him (in the old age home, presumably).

It is sometimes weird to think of the possibilities. Prince William has a couple of children now. The queen of England is their great grandmother. But if the queen mother lived, she would have been their great-great grandmother. And she had a long life, so it could have happened.

Mathematically, it gets even weirder. Both boys and girls can become fertile at age 9. If we keep adding nines together (i.e., 9+9+9+9+9…), we can get many degrees of “great”-ness indeed.

My question is simple: What is the highest degree of “great”, with a living relative, ever recorded? I know there has to be an upward limit. What is it?

Thank you in advance for all who reply:)

🙂 🙂 🙂

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-degree-of-great-ness-ever-recorded/815420/2 "2018-06-04T18:23:27Z")

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[Seven generations.](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-living-generations-(ever)/). Four ‘greats’.

BTW, my great-grandmother lived to see the birth of a great-great-great-granddaughter, making six.