Explanation of Format for Ancestor Display

Ancestors are displayed in tabular rather than graphic format to facilitate printout. It is not uncommon to have 50 or even well over 100 known ancestors going back six, seven or more generations. A few lucky individuals actually have ancestors going back 23 or more generations, which in traditional format would require space for well over sixteen million ancestors!* Even in only six generation quantity, a graphic representation would require a number of sheets of paper when printing the displayed page. These would then need to be juggled, cut-and-pasted, or other manipulation. Assuming you would wish to print this page for future reference, the presentation has been made compact and usually requires but one or, occasionally, two sheets of paper. The trade-off was between compactness vs. pretty graphic and we opted for compactness. If you want an example of someone who would require space for almost sixty million, see Larry Wilkins.

* 2**23 = 8,388.608 in 23rd generation; 2**24 - 1 = 16,777,215 in all. It would seem the world used to be a pretty crowded place.


Conventional Display

TRADITIONAL PRESENTATION
(No room for #36 & #37)


We achieve great space savings in tabular format by only printing known ancestors and omitting the blank spaces that would otherwise be reserved for the unknown ones. In tabular format, each ancestor is shown with a number representing his placement on the chart, his birth name and, if known, year of birth. Furthermore, each generation is indented a bit more than the previous, making it easier to match spouses. This is why the chart appears to be "staggering right and left" which might, at first glance, be disconcerting or even thought an error in the display. 



  1 Subject we're tracing  1937
     2 His father  1905
        4 Paternal Grandfather  1873
           8 Great-grandfather  1849
           9 Great-grandmother  1851
              18 Great-great-grandfather  1823
                 36 Great-great-great-grandfather (father of #18)  1798
                 37 Great-great-great-grandmother (mother of #18)  1799
        5 Paternal Grandmother  1880
     3 His mother  1912
        7 Maternal Grandmother  1879

ANCESTORS IN CONDENSED TABULAR FORMAT


In addition, it may be noted that the chart numbers of male ancestors are all even while those of their wives are one greater. Thus, for example, the wife of #178 would be #179 and either of them may or may not be displayed, depending upon whether we have their name(s). For those of you more mathematically inclined, further note that each person's father's number is exactly double his, while his mother would be double plus one.

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