So, What the Heck IS an Ahnentafel?

In my last blog post, I referred to myself as Ahnentafel #1. (You may notice that in the navigation menu to the right of this post, there is a link that says Ahnentafel.) German for “Ancestor Table,” an Ahnentafel is a genealogy convention for numbering a person’s direct-line ancestors. In this numbering scheme, every person has a number. Their father is twice their number, and their mother is the father’s number plus one. So, all males are even numbers; and all females are odd numbers. The person in the #1 position can be either male or female, though.

For example, in my case, I am #1; my father is #2 (2x1); and my mother is #3 (2+1). My mother’s parents would be numbered as follows: She is #3; her father is #6 (2x3); and her mother is #7 (6+1). Another example is for my paternal grandfather. He is #4; his father is #8 (2x4); and his mother is #9 (8+1).

To be fair, I have not seen anyone list their Ahnentafel table the way that I have presented mine on this blog. This construct is purely my own invention. I wanted to be able to see the father and mother and the children of a family group all in one place, with all ancestral lines together. So, I created a table where they are all listed side-by-side as follows (see the "Ahnentafel" link to the right for a larger table; I have made this one smaller for demonstration purposes only):

#	FATHER	MOTHER	CHILDREN
1		Christine Jane UNDERWOOD
2-3	Stephen Alexander UNDERWOOD, Jr.	Corinne Jane McCORMACK	Stephen Patrick UNDERWOOD Katherine Patricia UNDERWOOD Gregory Lee UNDERWOOD Douglas Alan UNDERWOOD Christine Jane UNDERWOOD
4-5	Stephen Alexander UNDERWOOD, Sr.	Mary Frances AHERN	Jerrold Edward UNDERWOOD Stephen Alexander UNDERWOOD, Jr. Richard Anthony UNDERWOOD James Vincent UNDERWOOD Albert Joseph UNDERWOOD
6-7	Elliott Hartford McCORMACK	Inger Dorthea STAPP	Carol Hartford McCORMACK Corinne Jane McCORMACK
8-9	Stephen Alexander "S.A." UNDERWOOD	Sarah Angeline "Anna" WHITWELL	Baby Boy UNDERWOOD Jerrold Roscoe UNDERWOOD Franklin Mason UNDERWOOD Infant UNDERWOOD George Arthur UNDERWOOD Herbert Whitwell UNDERWOOD Twin Girl UNDERWOOD Stephen Alexander UNDERWOOD, Sr.
10-11	Daniel AHERN	Sarah FLAHERTY	Mary Frances AHERN Daniel Edward AHERN Margaret Justine AHERN Henry William AHERN
12-13	John Findley McCORMACK	Estella ELLIOTT	Elliott Hartford McCORMACK
14-15	John Seldon STAPP	Inger Christine JENSEN	Anna May STAPP Esther Belinda STAP Inger Dorthea STAPP Lillie Viola STAPP
16-17	Thomas UNDERWOOD	Hester Ann WALDRIP	Sarah UNDERWOOD James H. UNDERWOOD Rachel M. UNDERWOOD Stephen Alexander UNDERWOOD Thomas UNDERWOOD Elizabeth UNDERWOOD Johanna UNDERWOOD Tealie UNDERWOOD

For me, this works. For others, they may shy away from something that is different from how they may have seen an Ahnentafel displayed before. I invite you to research on your own and decide for yourself how to display your own family line.

I want to make one point, though. Even though this table focuses on the direct-line ancestors, I don’t make the mistake of researching only those people. I like to research collateral lines because I find that branching out from my straight-line pedigree affords me the ability to put family groups back together and determine whether a person happens to belong to my family. This has been called cluster genealogy by some while the great genealogy guru Elizabeth Shown Mills calls it the FAN Principle: researching the Friends/Associates/Neighbors of your ancestors.

If you wish to follow my Ahnentafel table example for your own genealogy, please feel free to do so. Everything on my blog is here for your use. I simply ask that you credit my work. You may copy-and-paste the citation formula at the bottom of the page, and all you must do is change out the dates and post titles. Good luck in your research!

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Coming Up Next: Genealogy Research Conventions (This will explain why I used capital letters for the surnames above.)

Coming Up Soon: Genealogy Software—Gotta Get It Now!