After years of doing genealogy on computer, I've decided it's time to organize all my hard copy stuff (yeah, yeah, a bit backward, I know). To that end I recently purchased and have been reading Sharon Carmack's book "Organizing Your Family History Search". In chapter two she describes a filing system keyed to the ahnentafel numbers off your pedigree chart (i.e., file by family group, family groups get the number of the parents -- e.g., 4/5 would be my father's parents' family). Collateral children receive Roman numerals indicating birth order. E.g., 6/7iii would be the third child of my maternal grandparents (i.e., my uncle or aunt).

The limits of this system, however, become apparent as soon as one begins to stray from the pedigree chart. It doesn't accommodate multiple marriages (what number do I assign my father's second wife and my half-brothers?), unmarried females, or anything beyond first generation collaterals (e.g., my own cousins, nieces, nephews, etc.).

So I'm trying out some modifications of Carmack's system. As with Carmack’s system, individuals on my pedigree chart are assigned their ahnentanfels as filing/ID numbers, but rather than assign a family group the number of both parents, each family group is assigned the ahnentafel of its head of household only (just 4, rather than 4/5).

Individuals not on my pedigree are handled as follows:

Spice not on my pedigree chart (e.g., my father's second wife), receive their spouse's ahnentafel, postfixed with a letter (a, b, c, etc.) indicating spousal order (this should work for both men and women). Thus, my father’s second wife would be 2b (his first wife is, of course, my mother, so her ID is just her ahnentafel – or 3). 2b will also be assigned as the family group number for my father’s second family, thus distinguishing it from his first family, which is family group 2 (or 2a if you prefer, though that wouldn’t strictly be necessary). And thus my own half-brothers would be numbers 2b.1 and 2b.2.

Collateral descendents of a direct ancestor receive that ancestor’s ahnentafel, followed by a dot and a number indicating birth order – one dot-and-number for each generation removed. E.g., 4.2 would be an aunt or uncle (the second child of my paternal grandparents), and also the family group number for that family. 4.2.3 would be the third child of that aunt or uncle – i.e., my 1st cousin -- and so forth. So, for example, 2b.2.1 is my half-nephew – the first child of my 2nd half-brother – and 4.2.3.2 is my first cousin once removed (my cousin’s second child).

Sorry for the long explanation. What does anyone think? Or is there a better widely-used system than the one Carmack details?

Lee Kaiwen