No:
70 |
December 2011
|
News
Seminars
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the 2012 program.
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for more details and bookings.
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2001 to 22 Jan 2012
SA BDM Indexes to go online
In a major development the SA Attorney General, John Rau, has consented
to the SA Genealogy & Heraldry Society's request to provide these
indexes online in addition to their availability in CD and print.
State Records of SA website
The online collection catalogue is currently not functional. Telephone
the duty archivist 08 8204 8791 for support until the problem is fixed.
Numbering
systems in family history
Last
month we discussed pedigree charts and family sheets, the basic tools
in genealogy. This raised a number of questions from readers and in
particular the numbering systems used.
Ahnentafel System
Each system has its own shortcomings and the beautifully simple original
scheme developed centuries ago is still the most popular and is used
on pedigree charts.
This system is called the Stradonitz [or Sosa-Stradonitz or Ahnentafel
ahnen tafel = ancestor table] System and dates from 1676
when it was first used by Spanish genealogist, Jerome de Sosa. The
main weakness of the system is that it only applies to the person
(and their siblings) whose pedigree is being examined. The other weakness
is that only a person's direct ancestors have a number. This weakness
is not unique to this system. Its great strength is that everyone
has an allocated number, even before they are located. The person
whose pedigree it is, is number 1. Their father is No 2, their mother
No 3, their paternal grandfather No 4, and so on. In this system,
a person's father's number is always twice the person's number and
his or her mother's number is twice plus one. That means you can easily
assign a number to any direct ancestor. If the person you are looking
at is #7 then you know their father will be #14 and their mother #15.
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In
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News
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State Records of SA website
Feature
article
Numbering
systems in family history |
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The
Ahnentafel System simplicity resides in the fact that it
is an ascending system working from the present back in time and as
such reflects the process of a genealogist as they work out their
family tree using first principles.
First
Generation
| 1
Subject |
Second
Generation
| 2
Father |
3
Mother |
Third
Generation
| 4
Father's father |
5
Father's mother |
6
Mother's father |
7
Mother's mother |
Third
Generation
| 8
Father's father's father |
9
Father's father's mother |
10
Father's mother's father |
11
Father's mother's mother |
12
Mother's father's father |
13
Mother's father's mother |
14
Mother's mother's father |
15
Mother's mother's mother |
While
this system is seemingly limitless there is a problem in that if a
person appears more than once in a family tree each entry would have
its own number and therefore would lead to the duplication of records
including those of that person's ancestors. Of course this problem
is not unique to this system!
Register System
The earliest recorded individual in this system is given
the number 1. Each child in that family is then numbered in order
of birth with lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, and so on)
and those whose lines are carried on in the work are also given an
Arabic number. This system is used in the New England Historic
Genealogical Society Register from which it gets its name.
Whereas the Ahnentafel System is an ascending number system,
the Register is a descending system because it starts with
an ancestor and works forward in time.
Thus you will often see listings with the following type of pattern:
|
| Example |
Generation
1
| Earliest
known ancestor
| 1
William JONES |
Generation
2
| 1st
child who has progeny
| 2
i James JONES |
2nd
child who has progeny
| 3
ii Thomas JONES |
3rd
child who has no progeny
| iii
Margaret JONES |
4th
child who has no progeny
| iv
Maryanne JONES |
1st
child who has progeny
| 2
James JONES |
Generation
3
| 2nd
child's progeny
| 8
i Harold JONES |
Generation
2
| 2nd
child who has progeny
| 3
Thomas JONES |
The main problem with this system is that every time you
locate a new generation back in time you need to renumber everyone.
Nevertheless it is a system widely used in publications and especially
those from the United States. Such a disadvantage is not a problem
if you use a family tree program on your computer as it will automatically
reassign the numbers to the printed reports.
NGSQ System
NGSQ represents National Genealogical Society Quarterly
as published by the United States organisation, the National Genealogical
Society and relates to the way the organisation publishes genealogical
data. At first inspection it looks like the Register System
and indeed is called the Modified Register System by some.
It is also known as the Record System. The key difference
is that every child including those without issue are given a number.
The symbol + denotes those with issue:
|
| Example |
Generation
1
| Earliest
known ancestor
| 1
William JONES |
Generation
2
| 1st
child who has progeny
| + 2
i James JONES |
2nd
child who has progeny
| +
3 ii Thomas JONES |
3rd
child who has no progeny
|
4 iii Margaret JONES |
4th
child who has no progeny
|
5 iv Maryanne JONES |
1st
child who has progeny
| 2
James JONES |
Generation
3
| 2nd
child's progeny
| +
8 i Harold JONES |
Generation
2
| 2nd
child who has progeny
| 3
Thomas JONES |
A major disadvantage of this system has to be its complexity
and in particular the problems revealed when a researcher wants to
include a newly discovered descendant. Because everyone is numbered,
this problem, shared by the Register System is far more of
a prominent.
Henry System
Reginald Buchanan Henry used this scheme in Genealogies
of the Families of the Presidents in 1935. In this system, the
progenitor or other individual is assigned the number 1. His first
child becomes 11, his next child is 12. The oldest child of number
11 is No. 111, the next 112, etc. When Henry encountered families
with more than nine children, he used the Roman numeral X for the
10th child, and then A, B, C for 11th, 12th and 13th children, etc.
[With computers use the letters B, C, etc for the 11th and 12th children,
rather than XI, XII etc and all will be correctly sorted.] The system
can be expanded by using a prefix letter for each family that marries
into the family being studied. The strength in this system is that
you can immediately work out the position of everyone within their
family. It is a very effective system to use with a computer.
First
Generation
| Earliest
known ancestor
| 1 |
Second
Generation
(children)
| 1st
child
| 11 |
2nd
child
| 12 |
Third
Generation
(grandchildren)
| 1st
child's 1st child
| 111 |
1st
child's 2nd child
| 112 |
1st
child's 3rd child
| 113 |
2nd
child's 1st child
| 121 |
Fourth
Generation
(gt grandchildren)
| 1st
child of 1st child's 1st child
| 1111 |
1st
child of 2nd child's 1st child
| 1211 |
10th
child of 1st child's 3rd child
| 113X |
11th
child of 1st child's 3rd child
| 113A |
12th
child of 1st child's 3rd child
|
113B |
d’Aboville System
This is similar to the Henry System, except that each digit
(or group of two digits for numbers larger than 9) is separated by
a period. Thus the first child of No. 1 is 1.1; the 10th would be
1.10. The first children of the latter would be 1.10.1. Thus depicting
the above list of Jones in the Henry and D’Aboville Systems
would look like:
First
Generation
| Earliest
known ancestor
| 1 |
Second
Generation
(children)
| 1st
child
| 1.1 |
2nd
child
| 1.2 |
Third
Generation
(grandchildren)
| 1st
child's 1st child
| 1.1.1 |
1st
child's 2nd child
| 1.1.2 |
1st
child's 3rd child
| 1.1.3 |
2nd
child's 1st child
| 1.2.1 |
Fourth
Generation
(gt grandchildren)
| 1st
child of 1st child's 1st child
| 1.1.1.1 |
1st
child of 2nd child's 1st child
| 1.2.1.1 |
10th
child of 1st child's 3rd child
| 1.1.3.10 |
11th
child of 1st child's 3rd child
| 1.1.3.11 |
12th
child of 1st child's 3rd child
|
1.1.3.12 |
In the opinion of the writer, this system is the
most appropriate and useful as it encapsulates much useful information
and gives every person a number that identifies their relationship
to everyone else in the chart. It lacks the weakness of every other
descent system in that every person does not require renumbering if
an earlier ancestor is located but rather just an additional number
to the front of the string. If another child is discovered, then major
changes in the numbering would have to be implemented! The writer
uses this system in a modified form to accommodate distaff lines by
adding a family prefix letter to the front. Thus the paternal line
has the prefix A and the maternal line, B, the paternal grandmother's
line, C, and the maternal grandmother's line, D and so on.
Paternal
| Maternal
|
A
| E
| C
| F
| B
| G
| D
| H |
g-grandfather
| g-grandmother
| g-grandfather
| g-grandmother
| g-grandfather
| g-grandmother
| g-grandfather
| g-grandmother |
grandfather
| grandmother
| grandfather
| grandmother
|
father
| mother
|
subject
|
Many family historians attempt to accommodate the shortcomings
of numbering systems with modifications. Some simple and some complex.
The weakness in all such modifications is that they are not widely
known and invariably create new problems.
Eytzinger Method, Kekule, Sosa Method, and Sosa-Stradonitz
Methods
These are just alternative names for the Register
System.
Meurgey de Tupigny System
The Meurgey de Tupigny System is a simple numbering
method used for single surname studies that was developed for the
Archives nationakes (France) in 1953 by Jaques Meurgey de
Tupigny. It is virtually unknown outside western Europe but as with
all things in research it is good to be aware of such schemes in case
you, like the writer did, come across them chasing your own ancestry.
In this system each generation is identified with an uppercase Roman
numeral and like the preceding systems is a descending system.
First
Generation
| Earliest
known ancestor
| I |
Second
Generation
(children)
| 1st
child
| II-1 |
2nd
child
| II-2 |
Third
Generation
(grandchildren)
| 1st
child's 1st child
| III-3 |
1st
child's 2nd child
| III-4 |
1st
child's 3rd child
| III-5 |
2nd
child's 1st child
| III-6 |
Fourth
Generation
(gt grandchildren)
| 1st
child of 1st child's 1st child
| IV-7 |
1st
child of 2nd child's 1st child
| IV-8 |
de Villiers/Pama System
This system exchanges the Roman numerals of the
previous system for lower case letters of the alphabet. It is primarily
a South African system having been promoted by the Genealogical
Society of South Africa.
First
Generation
| Earliest
known ancestor
| a |
Second
Generation
(children)
| 1st
child
| b1 |
2nd
child
| b2 |
Third
Generation
(grandchildren)
| 1st
child's 1st child
| c1 |
1st
child's 2nd child
| c2 |
1st
child's 3rd child
| c3 |
2nd
child's 1st child
| c1 |
Fourth
Generation
(gt grandchildren)
| 1st
child of 1st child's 1st child
| d1 |
1st
child of 2nd child's 1st child
| d1 |
Numbering Systems in Genealogical Software
Most genealogy software packages rely entirely on the computer to
assign numbers to individuals in the database and this usually happens
in the order the names are added to the database. As such they are
of no use for any other work. Husbands are then linked to wives and
parents linked to their children on the basis of these numbers. Most
genealogical database programs will print out charts using the ahnentafel
numbering system and some will allow you to print out your finished
product using the other systems. If not, there are utilities that
will help.
Comparison of the numbering systems
Examine the following family tree against the table.
Person
on chart above
| Ahnentafel
| Register
| NGSQ
| Henry
| d’Aboville
| Meurgey
de Tupigny
| de
Villiers /Pama |
Great
Grandfather
| 4
| 1
| 1
| 1
| 1
| I
| a |
Great
Aunt 3
| –
|
(1) iii
| 4
iii
| 13
| 1.3
| II-3
| b3 |
Grandfather
| –
| (1)
2 v
| 6
v
| 15
| 1.5
| II-5
| b5 |
Great
Aunt 5
| –
|
(1) 4 vii
| 8
vii
| 17
| 1.7
| II-7
| b7 |
Father
| 2
|
(2) 5 i
| 9
i
| 151
| 1.5.1
| III-1
| b5.c1 |
Uncle
2
| –
|
(2) 7 iii
| 11
iii
| 152
| 1.5.2
| III-3
| b5.c3 |
Aunt
| –
| (2)
9 v
| 13
v
| 155
| 1.5.5
| III-5
| b5.c5 |
Subject
| 1
| (5)
10 i
| 15
i
| 1511
| 1.5.1.1
| IV-1
| b5.c1.d1 |
Brother
| –
| (5)
11 ii
| 16
ii
| 1512
| 1.5.1.2
| IV-2
| b5.c1.d2 |
Daughter
| –
| (11)
13 ii
| 31
ii
| 15112
| 1.5.1.1.2
| V-3
| b5.c1.d1.e2 |
Son
2
| –
| (11)
14 iii
| 32
iii
| 15113
| 1.5.1.1.3
| V-4
| b5.c1.d1.e3 |
Grandson
3
| –
| (12)
iv
| 36
iv
| 151114
| 1.5.1.1.1.4
| VI-4
| b5.c1.d1.e1.f1 |
Granddaughter
2
| –
| (13)
i
| 37
i
| 151121
| 1.5.1.1.2.1
| VI-5
| b5.c1.d1.e2.f1 |
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