In the last article, "An Awful Ahnentafel," the German numbering system for a pedigree was explained. The ID numbers (or ahnentafel numbers) for a pedigree allow a genealogist to have unique numbers which can be used as controlling devices and for organizing a pedigree in different ways. The ahnentafel numbers can be used for making lists of ancestors, surnames, or even families.
Numbering Family Sheets
For every pair of ancestors on a pedigree chart or ancestor table, a family group sheet needs to be prepared. A rule in genealogy is to treat the brothers and sisters of our ancestors as equals that is, we need to gather sources and records about the siblings just like they were direct ancestors. (By coincidence, the siblings have the same set of parents as your ancestors).
Genealogy Rule #1: Treat the brothers and sisters of your ancestor as equals, even if some of them were in jail.
Genealogists learn that the place where a family lived is critical information in locating sources today. In some cases, it may be necessary to identify siblings, their spouses, their children, their grandchildren, or more . . . And hopefully locate a relative alive today who can share information about your common ancestor.
The ID numbers for each ancestor can be used for identifying the position of a particular family group sheet in numerical order. For example, the first group sheet in a notebook might be for number two and number three (the father and mother of number 1). The first family group sheet can be identified as "2/3" indicating the father/mother ID numbers, followed by groups sheets for each pair from a pedigree chart:
2/3 (father is 2, mother is 3)
4/5 (father is 4, mother is 5)
6/7 (father is 6, mother is 7)
8/9 (father is 8, mother is 9)
10/11 (father is 10, mother 11)
12/13 (father is 12, mother 13)
14/15 (Father is 14, mother is 15)
. . . and so on . . .
With this arrangement, the ID numbers identify the pedigree position of each family sheet. The sheets can be organized in a notebook numerically rather than alphabetically by surname. (The fact that several families all have a surname that starts with "B" may place ancestral and collateral families together who are not related at all).
But the real advantage to organizing family sheets in numerical order is when there are many "extra" families. A family group sheet becomes a tremendous tool in understanding the places where an ancestor and each sibling was born, married, or died. It is necessary to have more choices for research on the parents by drawing from information about each of the siblings.
If you need to branch out to the collateral siblings of your ancestors, then an ID number for these extra people will be useful.
ID Numbers of Collaterals
Your ancestor's brothers and sisters along with their descendants are collateral to the pedigree. There is a method of giving all these related persons ID numbers as well.
But first, let's modify the ahnentafel numbering rules slightly. What if we assigned ID numbers to all our ancestors with a number that adds a decimal and a zero, such as:
1 = 1.0
2 = 2.0
3 = 3.0
4 = 4.0
5 = 5.0
. . . and so on . . .
An ID number adding the "point zero" will be reserved for indicating a direct ancestor.
Now you can give ID numbers to the brothers and sisters of 1.0 as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, or to the brothers and sisters of 2.0 as 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and so on.
If you prepare a family group sheet for your ancestor number 12 and 13 (now to be shown as 12.0 and 13.0), their children could be numbered 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and so on. The decimal order can indicate an approximate birth order for all siblings except for the sibling who is your ancestor.
Since we are reserving ID 6.0 for ancestor number six (6 and 6.0 are identical), it becomes a flag that indicates which of the siblings is the direct ancestor. But the birth order for the ancestor needs to be determined by his/her position on a family group listing.
Let's say ancestor 12.0 and 13.0 had four children, and your ancestor was the fourth child. That child would be ID number 6.0 who is one-half the number of his father 12.0 remember the rule of doubling to find a father, this is going in the other direction so divide in half any father's ID number to find the ID number of "pedigree child", for example:
12.0 - Father
13.0 - Mother
6.1 - child 1 (male or female)
6.2 - child 2 (male or female)
6.3 - child 3 (male or female)
6.0 - child 4 (your ancestor, a male)
What if 12.0 and 13.0 had four children and your ancestor was the second child in the family:
12.0 - Father
13.0 - Mother
6.1 - child 1 (male or female)
6.0 - child 2 Your ancestor, a male)
6.3 - child 3 (male or female)
6.4 - child 4 (male or female)
In the example above, your ancestor retains the number 6.0 regardless of his position in the birth order of siblings. There is no 6.2 because 6.0 takes that position as the second child.
The rule of odd and even for direct ancestors is maintained by adding "point zero" to each ancestor's ID number. However, for brothers or sisters of an ancestor, the ID number mush apply to either male or female therefore, 6.3 simply indicates that that person is a (male or female) collateral sibling of your (male) ancestor 6.0.
On some family sheets the order of children must be approximated due to a lack of precise dates of birth from reference sources. In some cases, genealogists list the children in the only way possible by guessing. If exact dates of birth are not known, the same would be true for assigning ID numbers to the siblings of an ancestor. But, once the numbers are assigned, you should not change them . . . because we can use the collateral ID numbers to identify the descendants of siblings as well.
Around the Brick Wall
Every genealogist will eventually hit a "brick wall" on a particular lineage. This occurs when information about the parents of a person is seemingly impossible to locate. There is only one way of dealing with an impassable brick wall, and that is to go another direction using the collateral lines to solve the problem.
For example, a female ancestor who died in childbirth at the age of sixteen may have left very few marks to follow. Or, a young man killed in battle may have had a wife and child, but never owned land, never left any documents to find in local records, and never appeared in any history books. These are "brick wall" types.
But each of these ancestors may have had brothers or sisters who lived to a ripe old age, left many documents, family Bibles, memories, etc., and these people are the ones a genealogist must trace to solve the brick wall problems.
Identifying the collateral lines that connect with a pedigree and then tracing the descendants of those collateral lines can become unmanageable unless there is a numbering system that integrates both the ahnentafel (pedigree) numbers with a descendancy numbering system. One could think of the pedigree as moving "up" and the descendancy moving "down." The brick wall in the pedigree causes us to move sideways (to a sibling), then down again.
Assigning ID numbers to ancestors then joining numbers for collaterals will allow a method of organizing, sorting, and finding related families.
Here is a method of assigning ID numbers to a collateral family based on their numerical relationship to an ahnentafel/pedigree:
12 - John Smith, Sr. (father) (pedigree ancestor)
13 - Elizabeth Jones (mother) (pedigree ancestor)
6.1 - John Smith, Jr. (1st child), married 6.1*, Martha Black
6.0 - William Smith (2nd child), (pedigree child),
married 7.0, Jane Doe
6.3 - Wilma Smith, (3rd child), married 6.3*, James Brown
Collateral family:
6.1 - John Smith, Jr.
6.1* - Martha Black
6.11 - John Smith, III (1st child) married, 6.11*, Karen Jackson
6.12 - Evelyn Smith, (2nd child), married 6.12*,
Harold Johnson
Spouses can be assigned numbers that are derived from the collateral, e.g., the spouse of 6.1 is 6.1* . Children of 6.1 and 6.1* can continue the numbers (6.11, 6.12, etc.) of the collateral sibling by adding a digit and birth order.
I will continue with more on these collateral numbers in the next article.
The Census Book, by William Dollarhide
