Ahnentafel numbering
Roberta
Hello,
I use this numbering for my filing system. Have run across the
situation of having 1st cousins marrying. He is number 22 and she
is number 23. His mother would be 45 and her father would be 46.
This makes THEIR father both 90 and 92. So going further back, I'm
wondering, do I drop one number "line" or use both, with empty
lineage?
Hope this makes sense. Thank you,
Roberta
"Roberta" <gma...@gmail.com>
Peter J Seymour
> I use this numbering for my filing system. Have run across the
> situation of having 1st cousins marrying. He is number 22 and she
> is number 23. His mother would be 45 and her father would be 46.
> This makes THEIR father both 90 and 92. So going further back, I'm
> wondering, do I drop one number "line" or use both, with empty
> lineage?
>
I understand what you are saying as that you have encountered a
problem trying to give each individual in a file a single unique
number.
As I understand it, there are two points to note about ahnentafel
numbering:
-- It is relative to a defined beginning individual. Therefore you
can get into difficulty if you try to use it for numbering a
collection of individuals.
-- It defines both the relationship of an ancestor to that defined
individual and also the ancestral route that links the two
individuals. Therefore it is possible, as in your example, for an
ancestor to have two or more ahnentafel numbers relative to the
defined individual. This makes it not a useful system for permanent
numbering of a collection of related individuals.
Its main use seems to be in reports where you are looking at the
ancestors of an individual. If you end up with multiple ahnentafel
numbers, so be it, that is correct. Dropping one or the other may
be a solution to your problem but will defeat the purpose of that
numbering system and may lead to a confusing situation. The easiest
solution is to allow affected ancestors to appear multiple times in
the tree. This is okay for computer generated reports, but may not
be convenient otherwise.
I suspect you would be better off using some other system for unique
numbering of the individuals.
Incidentally, you don't have to go back many generations before
ahnentafel numbers start to become so large as to be effectively
meaningless to the reader. I imagine that the inventor only
envisaged its use for small numbers of generations.
Regards
Peter
Peter J Seymour <mo...@pjsey.demon.co.uk>
singhals
> I use this numbering for my filing system. Have run across the
> situation of having 1st cousins marrying. He is number 22 and she
> is number 23. His mother would be 45 and her father would be 46.
> This makes THEIR father both 90 and 92. So going further back, I'm
> wondering, do I drop one number "line" or use both, with empty
> lineage?
>
> "Roberta" <gma...@gmail.com>
Keep both, but instead of "empty lineage", put in the cross-
reference on the higher number (Already printed as #90).
I don't see why you're using this very customized numbering system
for filing anything though. The numbers for your ancestors and the
numbers for your child's ancestors will be different, and so will
the numbers for your grandkids or your nephews and first cousins,
although the ancestors themselves are the same. Most numbering
systems are static, to nail down exact identities at a snapshot of
time of publication. If there's a dynamic numbering system I've yet
to meet it. (Richard PENCE may have different information?)
Cheryl
singhals <sing...@erols.com>
Roberta
Peter,
Thank you for a clear and concise explanation of the system. Never
have seen it put so clearly.
I have understood the shortcomings of the system, but went ahead and
used it anyway. To date, and as far as I can tell, the oldest
ancestor will only be in the 500's and from about 300 back, I doubt,
I'll ever see any information on. Simply names.
So, unless I run into multiple situations as I've described, I'll
keep plodding on. At this point, I guess using 2 numbers for an
ancestors will keep the lines running.
Roberta
"Roberta" <gma...@gmail.com>
Roberta
No one in my family is at all interested in carrying on the
research. I'm mainly using the numbering system because I found it
-for me- the simplest to use with my paper files. I like filing by
family group. It keeps immediate family right there and the
numbering helps find earlier ancestors.
My own feeling, too, is that most people use a gen program these
days, so numbering really doesn't make any sense in that way.
So, I really don't need a numbering system, but use it because my
brain seems to like it!
Thanks for the input.
Roberta
"Roberta" <gma...@gmail.com>
Steve Hayes
On Sun, 17 May 2009 08:43:19 -0700 (PDT), "Roberta" <gma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> No one in my family is at all interested in carrying on the
> research. I'm mainly using the numbering system because I found it
> -for me- the simplest to use with my paper files. I like filing by
> family group. It keeps immediate family right there and the
> numbering helps find earlier ancestors.
>
> My own feeling, too, is that most people use a gen program these
> days, so numbering really doesn't make any sense in that way.
>
> So, I really don't need a numbering system, but use it because my
> brain seems to like it!
I use the numbers my genealogy program assigns to each person.
That doesn't keep the paper files in family groups, and I don't even
try to do that.
I give each document in my paper files its own serial number and
file them in numerical order, and have a computer index program to
find them again.
My genealogy program (Legacy) allows me to enter the document number
in the source records for each person, so it's easy to find in my
numerically ordered files.
Ahnentafel and descendant numbering only applies to one report out
of many possible ones.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Steve Hayes <haye...@hotmail.com>