 
Reginald Buchanan Henry, M.D., born in 1881, was a physician and genealogist. In his book, Genealogies of the Families of the Presidents (Rutland, VT: The Tuttle Co., 1935), Dr. Henry presented a numbering scheme to show the descendants of the Presidential families featured in his book. Although there may have been earlier genealogists who came up with a similar numbering scheme for a descendancy, Dr. Henry’s book seems to be the earliest genealogy book published which employed this particular method of numbering descendants. For that reason, genealogists today using this numbering scheme refer to it as "The Henry System."
The Henry System differs radically from the Register or Modified Register numbering systems. While the Register system employs an arabic number assigned to each descendant, the numbers are consecutive, and supply only an identification of a person in a descendancy. The numbers in the Henry System, on the other hand, are more meaningful, because by looking at a person’s number only, a relative position in the descendancy can be determined, i.e., the number of generations removed from the first progenitor, and the birth order of the person, and the lineage of the person back to the first progenitor.
Using the same family from our previous article, here is an example of the Henry System:
1 Franklin Work
11 Frances Eleanor Work
12 George Paul Work
13 Lucy Bond Work
11 Frances Eleanor Work
(m. Burke Roche)
111 Eileen Burke Roche
112 Cynthia Burke Roche
113 Edmund Maurice Burke Roche
114 Francis George Burke Roche
In this system, the number identifies the blood-line descendant, as well as the lineage back to number 1. Each number is a discreet identification number, an indication of the birth order, and the number of generations removed from the person who starts the descendancy.
Franklin Work, as number 1, starts the descendancy. His first child was Frances Eleanor Work. Her number repeats Franklin’s number, and then gives her birth order, expressed as a 1, thus, her number is 11. (Spoken as "one-one", not "eleven"). The 4th child of Frances Eleanor Work was Francis George, whose number repeats his mother’s number (11), then adds a number indicating his birth order (114) . . . and so on.
The previous example has repeated the two-column arrangement, but this is not a required feature of the Henry System. For example, a descendancy could be tabulated in chart form as in the example shown below:
To extend the descendancy using descendant number 142, Elizabeth Cook, her children would be 1421, 1422, 1423, and so on. The descent comes down on either males or females, but is based on the blood-line descendants only. Therefore, as was true in the Register or Modified Register systems, the spouses who marry into the descendancy do not receive a number assignment in the Henry System.
With the Henry System, an ID number is possible for a person such as 1559856. To read this number, start from right to left: the 6th child, of the 5th child, of the 8th child, of the 9th child, of the 5th child, of the 5th child, of number 1. The descent from number 1 to the person 1559856 is as follows:
1
15
155
1559
15598
155985
1559856
Therefore, to trace the lineage back to the progenitor, just remove the last digit to find the number of the person’s blood-line parent. One digit is one generation.
However, there is a problem with the Henry numbers if there are more than 9 children in a family. This is because each digit is meant to represent one generation, and to have a "13" for a thirteenth child, the double digits would cause the numbers to go awry. So, there are some methods a genealogist can use to indicate a person who was in a family with more than 9 children. In the example above, say that the 9th child should have been the 13th child:
Method 1: 1-5-5-13-8-5-6 (all generations separated)
Method 2: 155(13)856 (double digits only separated)
Method 3: 155-13-856 ( " " " " )
Method 4: 155D856 (Alpha characters for 10 or higher)
Any of the above will solve the problem of double digits, but the one that is probably the most useful is Method 4, particularly if a genealogist plans on entering such numbers into a computer. The "D" in Method 4 represents the 13th child.
Hexadecimal numbers have a base of 16 rather than 10 as in decimal numbers, and use alpha characters to extend the number to the 16th position. But using alpha characters for the 10th or higher numbers in the Henry System is not really a hexadecimal system, it is just a technique to assign single digit numbers. (The numerical positions in a hexadecimal system are not the same).
A comparison of decimal numbers with extended Henry numbers is as follows:
Number of children in a family
Decimal Henry
11
22
33
44
55
66
77
88
99
10A
11B
12C
13D
14E
15F
16G
17H
. . . and so on. . . .
Using alpha characters for the 10th and later children in a family solves the problem of double digit numbers as part of the Henry numbering system because every numerical position/generation is back to one digit again.
Now you need to go back to an earlier article of the Genealogy Bulletin, "Ahnentafels and Collaterals by the Numbers". That article is where I explained a system in which the ahnentafel numbers for pedigree ancestors have been combined with Henry numbers for collateral descendants. Taking these two systems and putting them together allows a genealogist to assign ID numbers for ancestors, siblings of ancestors, and collateral descendants, all because of the Henry System. Check it out.
Bill Dollarhide welcomes your comments. Send your Email message to: Bill@HeritageQuest.com
William Dollarhide is a valued member of the Heritage Quest staff. A genealogist since 1971, he started the Dollarhide Systems for Genealogical Records and founded the Genealogy Bulletin, a Heritage Quest publication since 1994, making its online debut in '99. In addition to his Bulletin articles, he writes features for Heritage Quest Magazine and numerous monograph titles.
Mr. Dollarhide is a compelling speaker and has been recognized for his genealogical merits by numerous organizations. He is the author of seven best-selling books:
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