Why this will take FOREVER!!!

I have the "players" of the family tree only going back to the great-grandparents as this accounts for 30 direct ancestors and a slew of children, siblings and distant cousins.  Some of the branches will go back further than this and will be discussed at some point but for the mean time the better records are with the individuals born after the 18th century.

The number of individuals in a generation can be expressed by the formula:  2^n = x  where n is the generation number and x is the number of individuals in that generation.  The 2 is raised to the n power.  For example, the eighth generation has 128 individual which is 2^8 = 128.  For those that don't wish to hunt and dust off their calculator, here is a list of the size of generations 1-14:

Generation 1    :  2 Individuals
Generation 2    :  4 Individuals
Generation 3    :  8 Individuals
Generation 4    :  16 Individuals
Generation 5    :  32 Individuals
Generation 6    :  64 Individuals
Generation 7    :  128 Individuals
Generation 8    :  256 Individuals
Generation 9    :  512 Individuals
Generation 10  :  1024 Individuals
Generation 11  :  2048 Individuals
Generation 12  :  4096 Individuals
Generation 13  :  8152 Individuals
Generation 14  :  16384 Individuals

These generations obviously do not start with the self as the first generation.  The 15 generation pedigree charts do start with the self and can be come quite confusing if not properly labeled.  These folded paper charts can be obtained online or from a Latter Day Saints (aka LDS Mormon) store for about a dollar.  Fair warning though, the creases/folds will wear down over constant use but the charts are designed to fit into a three-ring binder.

16,000 people will indeed be too many to look after, let alone write a post about each one!  Thankfully, I won't have to.  For one, families in isolated and frontier areas tend to marry one other, creating duplicates in the genealogical record.  This is indeed what you are thinking: first and second cousins marrying one another, and this family tree is no exception.  Also on my side is the lack of historical records for poor farmers and immigrant labors, as well as common names making it difficult to pin down the correct individual in question.  The latter will become particularly true for the Irish ancestors on both sides of the trees though it does make for stunted branches.