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Archiver > APG > 2008-04 > 1208907962


From: Jeanette Daniels <>
Subject: Re: [APG] NGSQ Style: Lettering pre-American generations: whybother?
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:46:02 -0700 (PDT)


"I have been told (but haven't personally done one),
that "overseas" Chinese presently in North America have thirty or more
mainland China generations reliably documented. Just what letter is
generation thirty, anyway?

Melinde"

Your right, Melinde! I have a Korean friend who was able to trace back 61 generations. Think what that would be to compile!

Jeanette

----- Original Message ----
From: Melinde Sanborn <>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 6:37:47 AM
Subject: Re: [APG] NGSQ Style: Lettering pre-American generations: why bother?

Two further points - last week I helped a Colby College student find her
family and was stunned to find her great-grandfather in the 1930 census as
an infant. That's four generations right there. The demographic has changed
since the 1840s - 1880s when some of these systems were established by
genealogists of English descent who could trace maybe five old country
generations (if they weren't royal). As for the royals, I've never seen the
lineage of Princess Ileana (aka Mother Alexandra), daughter and sister of
the last Kings of Romania, who lived the last quarter of her life in Ellwood
City, Pennsylvania, marked out alphabetically: Ileana(1), Carol I(A),
Ferdinand I(B), Leopold(C), Karl III(D), Karl III(E)[yes, 2 3s], etc.

My first Syrian lineage done for a 4th generation American went back many
generations in the Middle East. The letters, as in Joan's example, didn't
convey the time depth. I have been told (but haven't personally done one),
that "overseas" Chinese presently in North America have thirty or more
mainland China generations reliably documented. Just what letter is
generation thirty, anyway?

Melinde

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:] On Behalf
Of Joan Lowrey
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:12 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [APG] NGSQ Style: Lettering pre-American generations: why
bother?

I agree with Worth S. Anderson on all points regarding the numbering
foreign ancestors, i.e, using alphabetical letters going back from
the immigrant. This concept, which was and still is employed by the
old Henry system, is indeed cumbersome, to say the least. In addition
to the difficulties listed by Worth, I will add that those of us with
only a few generations in the U.S. and 10 or more generations in
Europe would have a difficult time, as would our readers, recalling
what number is represented by superscript J, for example. I would
never use this method.

What seems to me to be the problem is that every discussion on
genealogical numbering systems is locked into the concept that the
numbers must be permanent. But they do not. The purpose for which the
numbering system will be used needs to be considered.

When I am writing a book and using the narrative descendency format,
the numbering is related to nothing else but that one book. It is the
descendency of one person, but that person doesn't have to be the
immigrant. He/she might have been born in 1500 in Germany and the
immigrant arrived in America in 1887. It might start with an
American-born ancestor whose immigrant ancestor in unknown. It is the
history of a family, not necessarily the descendency of an immigrant.
It starts with number 1 being the earliest known ancestor, whoever,
whenever and wherever he/she may have been. If I later publish a
revision of the book because I have found additional ancestors, then,
again, the earliest known ancestor will be number 1, and everyone
will be renumbered. The renumbering is of no consequence. The
personal numbers in each revision do not have to match because it
will be a new snapshot in time---it will replace the previous version.

If I were maintaining a database for something like the Mayflower
Society or a family organization which is publishing a series of
books which must be linked together, then I would want to maintain a
static numbering system. But for those of us who are publishing
single-edition books on families, starting with number 1 as the
earliest ancestor is the most logical system.

Joan Neumann Lowrey
La Jolla, California






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