Copyright© 2002 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

Ahnentafel is a word commonly used in genealogy although it probably confuses most newcomers. Ahnentafel is a German word that literally translates as "ancestor table". It is a list of all known ancestors of an individual and includes the full name of each ancestor as well as dates and places of birth, marriage, and death whenever possible. It also has a strict numbering scheme.

Once the reader is accustomed to ahnentafels, it becomes very easy to read these lists, to move up and down from parent to child and back again, and to understand the relationships of the listed people. Ahnentafels are very good at presenting a lot of information in a compact format. However, the numbering system is the key to understanding ahnentafels.

To visualize the numbers, first consider this typical pedigree chart:

Carefully observe the numbers in the above chart. You will notice that every person listed has a number and that there is a mathematical relationship between parents and children. The number of a father is always double that of his child's. The number of the mother is always double that of her child's plus one. The number of a child is always one-half that of a parent (ignoring any remainder).

In the above example, the father of person #6 is #12 (the father is double the child's number). The mother of #6 is #13 (the mother is double plus one of the child's). The child of #12 and #13 is #6 (the child is always one-half the parent's number, ignoring remainders).

Now, let's take the above chart and write it in ahnentafel format:

1. person
2. father
3. mother
4. paternal grandfather
5. paternal grandmother
6. maternal grandfather
7. maternal grandmother
8. great-grandfather
9. great-grandmother
10. great-grandfather
11. great-grandmother
12. great-grandfather
13. great-grandmother
14. great-grandfather
15. great-grandmother

For a more detailed example of an ahnentafel, here's an excerpt from the ahnentafel of one well-known American:

1. George Walker Bush, b. New Haven, Conn., 6 July 1946, m. 5 Nov. 1977, Laura Lane Welch
2. George Herbert Walker Bush, b. Milton, Mass., 12 June 1924, m. Rye, N.Y., 6 Jan. 1945
3. Barbara Pierce
4. Prescott Sheldon Bush, b. Columbus, Ohio, 15 May 1895, m. Kennebunkport, Maine, 6 Aug. 1921, d. New York, N.Y., 8 Oct. 1972
5. Dorothy Walker, b. near Walker's Point, York Co., Me., 1 July 1901, d. Greenwich, Conn., 19 Nov. 1992
6. Marvin Pierce, b. Sharpsville, Pa., 17 June 1893, m. Aug. 1918, d. Rye, N.Y., 17 July 1969
7. Pauline Robinson, b. Ohio, April 1896, d. Rye, N.Y., 23 Sept. 1949
8. Samuel Prescott Bush, b. Brick Church, N.J., 4 Oct. 1863, m. Columbus, Ohio, 20 June 1894, d. Columbus, Ohio, 8 Feb. 1948
9. Flora Sheldon, b. Franklin Co., Ohio, 17 Mar. 1872, d. "Watch Hill", R.I., 4 Sept. 1920
10. George Herbert Walker, b. St. Louis, Mo., 11 June 1875, m. St. Louis, Mo., 17 Jan. 1899, d. New York, N.Y., 24 June 1953
11. Lucretia [Loulie] Wear, b. St. Louis, Mo., 17 Sept. 1874, d. Biddeford, Me., 28 Aug. 1961
12. Scott Pierce, b. Sparkville, Pa., 18 Jan. [or June?] 1866, m. 26 Nov. 1891
13. Mabel Marvin, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 June 1869
14. James Edgar Robinson, b. near Marysville, Oh., 15 Aug. 1868, m. Marion Co., Ohio, 31 March 1895, d. 1931
15. Lula Dell Flickinger, b. Byhalia, Ohio, March 1875

Notice that the mathematical rules about relationships shown in the pedigree chart still apply in the ahnentafel chart. Also, the true ahnentafel lists the person's full name, along with dates and places of birth, marriage, and death, if known.

All modern genealogy programs can produce ahnentafel charts. Of course, you could also create an ahnentafel chart by hand or by using a word processor. Whatever method you choose, an ahnentafel is an easy method of presenting a lot of ancestral data in a compact format.

Eneclann Publications has a new Windows CD-ROM disk with information of interest to many people with ancestry in western Ireland. "Memorials of the Dead: Counties Galway & Mayo" contains a lot of information that has not been published previously. I had a chance to use the new CD this week and was impressed by it.

Gravestone inscriptions and church memorials are an important source for genealogical research in any location. Their importance is even greater in the west of Ireland, where many of the handwritten parish records have not survived the ravages of time. On this CD-ROM, Ian Cantwell provides comprehensive coverage for the surviving memorials found in the 128 graveyards in the western half of counties Galway and Mayo. The CD also includes:

• over 3,000 memorials up to 1901
• over 8,000 names
• detailed maps
• indexes of names, addresses & occupations

Cantwell also states that many of the memorials were erected by American relatives. In these cases, Cantwell was able to included details about those who paid for the memorials, usually including their addresses in America. That information often is the only location clue available when later generations are trying to find their Irish origins.

The author also presents a statistical analysis of rates and dates of death, including the Famine period (1845-48). He also provides an entertaining commentary, a guide for further research, detailed maps, and introductory descriptions of each graveyard or church in the collection.

I found the new CD-ROM to be quite easy to install, although perhaps not quite as easy as some other CDs I have written about. It did not have an "autostart" feature to automatically launch when the CD-ROM disk is inserted into the computer. However, the printed instructions included with the CD-ROM disk were concise and easy to follow. The entire installation was done in less than two minutes.

You can search the data on this CD-ROM by any of several methods, including by surname, by place name, by the name of the church and/or graveyard, and even by the occupation of the deceased. You can also conduct a free text search, looking for any words in a record.

I started by looking for any records for people named Brady. The CD-ROM found three such records, two in Castlebar Old and one in the Oughterard Church of Ireland. Here is the information from the first one that I will use to illustrate a typical record found:

Church/Graveyard: Castlebar Old
Surname: Brady

Description of the Church/Graveyard:

Situated just outside the town on the Westport road. It is the largest graveyard in this area of West Mayo. Of interest are the many memorials to the military; the Famine victims Rev Richard Gibbons and James McManus; and the cholera outbreak of October 1832. All the memorials have been transcribed and photographed by a local Government sponsored youth group in the 1980s and their results are in the Castlebar County Library. The transcriptions below were made independently.

County: Mayo

Memorial Inscription:

Erected by
John T. Brady
to the memory of his beloved wife
Maryanne who died on the 16th of May
1882 aged 28 years

Description: Graveyard

I experimented with other searches, including by location and by occupation. One occupation listed was "Air Force," a term I haven’t encountered often with genealogy searches. However, one of the entries in this CD-ROM cited a memorial in the graveyard of the Castlebar Church of Ireland:

In loving memory of
Major Harry Francis Chads M.C.
the Border Regiment
who was accidentally killed at Castlebar
on 28th August 1920
whilst flying on duty
Erected by the officers, non commissioned officers
and men of the 2nd Battalion

Searches on this CD-ROM were always fast; most data was displayed within a second or two on my aging Pentium III system. I also experimented with the maps and found them to be very useful. You can start on a map of western Ireland and then click on a location of interest. Each time you click on a map, you obtain a "zoomed in" image. Click again and it zooms in further, always centered on the point upon which you clicked. When you finally reach a level of detail where individual cemeteries and churches are displayed, clicking on a cemetery then produces a listing of the memorials located there.

Eneclann has a winner with this new CD-ROM disk. Ian Cantwell obviously has spent hundreds of hours in compiling and editing this valuable genealogy reference. Eneclann has published Cantwell’s data in a form that is quick and very easy to use. If you are searching for ancestors in western Ireland, this disk may be a valuable resource.

"Memorials of the Dead: Counties Galway & Mayo" on CD-ROM, by Ian Cantwell, requires Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT 4.0, ME, XP, or higher. It also requires a 166 MHz Pentium processor or faster and at least 32 megabytes of RAM memory. (I suspect that Windows XP and 2000 will require more memory than that.)

[Return to Table of Contents]

The Washtenaw County, Michigan Web site provides a variety of online services. For instance, Washtenaw has put its property assessment database online, which means if you're armed with a street address, you can look up the assessed value or last sale price of just about any property in the county. You can also check out the history of sales over recent years and even view a legal description of the property. Other services include the capability to pay speeding fines online by charging them to a credit card.

Anyone with Washtenaw County ancestors will be pleased to learn that they can also order vital records online at the same Web site. Records available include:

Birth Certificates - 1867 to present

Death Records - 1867 to present

Marriage Records - 1833 to present

The charge for the first copy of a vital record is $13. Each additional copy is $4. A $2 convenience fee also applies for each record ordered. If you are 65 or older and ordering a copy of your own birth certificate, the cost is $5 for the first copy and $4 for each additional copy of the same record. A $2 convenience fee also applies.

In addition, more recent deaths and marriage records may be searched directly online:

Death Records - 1964 to present

Marriage Records - 1970 to present

My thanks to Thomas Cooper for telling me about the Washtenaw County Web site.

[Return to Table of Contents]

[Return to Table of Contents]

The following was written by Curt Witcher, President of the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society:

A Message from the NGS President

The Executive Director Search Committee and the Board of Directors join me in welcoming Wendy Herr as the new NGS Executive Director. Ms. Herr joined us on October 1st--and ushered in a new era of leadership here at the National Genealogical Society.

Wendy Herr is an extremely experienced and articulate association executive. She has more than twenty years of progressively responsible association management experience. For the last three years, Ms. Herr has headed her own association management consulting firm, specializing in assisting smaller associations with every aspect of their management activities, from strategic initiatives and member recruitment to fund raising and financial turn-arounds.

In her previous association experiences, Ms. Herr has been involved with property management, strategic planning, partnership development, fundraising and grant writing, as well as program and product development and delivery. She has written extensively and edited a number of publications, both publicity pieces as well as informational items for societies' memberships. She has also testified on Capitol Hill and is familiar with the details involved in general advocacy as well as legislative advocacy.

Ms. Herr possesses a tremendous amount of financial ability and savvy including more than seven years of experience as the chief financial officer and chief operations officer of a private, non-profit, community behavioral health provider based in Pennsylvania. She is very familiar with budgeting processes, writing grants, and building non-dues revenue sources. Her work with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Washington, D.C. from 1997 to 1999 provides her with a strong accounting background.

Ms. Herr has demonstrated abilities in working with many of the types of programs the National Genealogical Society offers. From online retailing to human resource management, from seminar and workshop planning to annual conference staging and execution, she brings much experience and fresh ideas to our important programs.

I know you will find Ms. Herr as interesting, competent, and pleasant to work with as I have. She is a people-oriented person and finds instilling that energy and enthusiasm for the customer service a keystone piece of her management style. In addition, she enjoys doing genealogical research and has a deep appreciation for the work it involves as well as the delight it brings! Please join me in welcoming her to the National Genealogical Society. It is great to have her on board!

Curt B. Witcher
President, National Genealogical Society
Manager, Historical Genealogy Department
Allen County Public Library
P. O. Box 2270, 900 Webster Street
Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
CWitcher@ACPL.Lib.in.us
260-421-1226
Fax: 260-422-9688

The following was written by Wendy Herr, the new NGS Executive Director:

A Message from the Executive Director

On October 1, 2002, I had the great honor of taking over the Executive Director position at the NGS. I look forward to meeting the membership and welcome the opportunity to hear your views on issues facing genealogists today. One of my plans is to sponsor events at Glebe House, a beautiful historic building where NGS is housed, where I can meet as many volunteers as possible. As a diehard tea drinker, I was thinking of sponsoring "High Teas" on occasion, and also using the lovely silver punch bowl that was so generously donated several years ago.

By way of background, I wanted you to know that I have been a professional association executive for nearly twenty years, and prior to that was a chief financial officer in a healthcare organization. My undergraduate degree was from Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia, and my Master in Public Administration is from the Pennsylvania State University. In recent years I have headed my own firm specializing in association management consulting and non-profit financial management.

I've always been interested in genealogy. My early appreciation for the field came from a very determined mother that shared her love of the search, as well as an appreciation for the historical heritage of her family with me. I look forward to combining my fondness for genealogy with my professional expertise in fostering and managing a value-driven, thriving society with a growing number of members. I welcome your support as NGS enters the Second Century of service with new and exciting projects and programs!

Wendy W. Herr, Executive Director NGS
herr@ngsgenealogy.org

Comment: It is great to hear of Wendy Herr’s appointment. I suspect she will be a great asset to NGS.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Because of this newsletter, I get to see thousands of personal Web sites in which people publish information about their own genealogy. I have seen some great ones, some good ones, and some not-so-good ones. I am no longer easily impressed. I thought I had "seen them all" until this week, when I encountered a family Web site that made me sit up and pay close attention.

Carlos Vanni in Santiago, Chile, has created a terrific memorial to his ancestors and the small villages in Italy where they originated. Carlos is a descendant of Alessio Vanni, who emigrated in 1858 from the Tuscan village of Fabbriche di Vallico, Garfagnana, as a plaster figurine maker. The family tree has 13 generations, starting in 1560.

Carlos has created a multimedia tribute that is difficult to describe. It has maps, music, pictures, and more, all created with artistry. In fact, there are three sites: one in Italian, one in Spanish, and the third one in English, all at the same URL. The Macromedia Flash files are huge; I found they were slow to download, even on my cable modem. I suspect they will be glacial on a dial-up modem. However, if you have some time, you have to see this one. I don’t have an award for "the nicest looking genealogy site on the Web." However, if I did, The VanniFamily.com probably would receive the award.

Lt. Edward J. Johnston was the first assistant engineer on the CSS Atlanta when it was captured by the Union. Its officers arrived at Fort Warren prison on George’s Island in Boston Harbor in late June 1863. Johnston died there on Oct. 13, 1863. On October 12, 2002 his remains were exhumed and will be reburied alongside his wife in Fernandina Beach, Florida, on Oct. 26.

This is not the first time that Johnston has been reburied. In fact, it is the fourth time. He originally was buried on the prison island where he died. When the fort closed, Johnston was reburied on Governor’s Island and then later on Deer Island, which also closed. Johnston was then re-buried in Ayer, Massachusetts at the Fort Devens Army cemetery in 1939.

Johnston was born in Dublin, Ireland, and came to the U.S. when he was 3, but the exact date of his birth is not known. When he was about 14, Johnston went to sea and became an engineer. He returned to Ireland when he was about 17 and stayed for a couple of years, then returned to the United States and married. He was about 39 when he died. According to the 1860 census he had four children.

A military ceremony was held by Civil War reenactors at Fort Devens on Oct. 12. The ceremony included remarks by officials, a pardon and return of citizenship, eulogy, rifle salute and drummer and fifer. More than a dozen of Johnston’s great-great-grandchildren were among the guests. His remains will be driven to Florida in a cortege that includes a funeral home van and vehicles for the gravestone and honor guard. State police escorts will accompany the procession through each state during the three-day drive to Florida.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, reenactors and area officials are going all out "to welcome this man home." A Confederate honor guard will be posted for 11 days at the Oxley-Heard Funeral Home in Fernandina Beach, which for years has handled burials for Johnston’s descendants.

On the morning of Oct. 26 the casket will be moved to the CSS Belle, a navy reenacting boat, which will carry it up the Amelia River to a docking point near Bosque Bella Cemetery. The Confederate military ceremony will begin at 2. Johnston’s casket will be covered with two flags — a copy of the CSS Atlanta flag made by Chapman and the bonnie blue flag from the casket of his granddaughter who was president of the Florida UDC.

To discuss this story further on the message board for newsletter readers, go to http://www.RootsForumcom and click on "Message Board."

[Return to Table of Contents]

A few weeks ago thousands of genealogists received "spam mail" that proclaimed:

We're sending this e-mail to inform you that you can receive Unlimited Access to billions of genealogical records connecting to your family within seconds for a low One Time Access Fee & Never have to Pay Anything Again!

The ad went on with glowing words about the number of records available. It even proclaimed, "…search billions upon billions of genealogy records all across the Internet all at once." Billions upon billions? That sounds like an incredibly large number to me!

All of this was to be accessible for a "One Time Access Fee of Only $59.00," and the advertisement cautioned that the offer was only good until October 15, 2002. It looks like the person or persons that sent the e-mail messages encountered a bit of a problem before the deadline date: GenealogyExperts.com has now been offline for several days, apparently shut down after the hosting provider received complaints about the site’s "services."

Similar offers have appeared in the past few months from other company names. They all claimed to offer access to huge numbers of records but never gave details about where these records were obtained. In each case, the company disappeared within a few weeks after their first e-mails were sent.

I suspect this latest outfit and others will soon reappear under new names. The names will be slightly different each time, but the spam mail messages will all be quite similar. Each e-mail message will claim to offer access to huge numbers of genealogy records but will not mention the actual origin of those records. GenealogyExperts.com is simply the latest name used, but I am sure new names will pop up in future "offers."

If you paid money to one of these "services" and were disappointed with the results, contact your credit card company to obtain a refund. You are entitled to your money back. Most credit cards have the appropriate toll-free customer service telephone number printed on the back of the card. The same number will also appear on your monthly credit card statement. Call them.

[Return to Table of Contents]

- Correction: Sacramento German Genealogy Society Meeting

I am told that there was an error in last week’s "Upcoming Events." It listed the wrong date for a seminar in Sacramento, California. The listing should have stated:

[Return to Table of Contents]

Every American school child learns that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci of Florence, Italy. In 1499, Vespucci sailed with Alonso de Hojeda as an astronomer and navigator to a previously-unknown land that is now called Brazil. On that trip, Vespucci derived a valid astronomical method in determining longitude, replacing the previous method that relied upon dead reckoning.

Millions of people have been taught that Amerigo Vespucci also gave his name to the new lands although nobody seem to be able to refer to any documents as proof of this act. Now a British writer has claimed that America was named not after the Florentine navigator. Instead, he claims that the newly-discovered lands were named after an anglicised Welshman named Richard Amerike.

Although the Vikings and possibly others had visited the Western Hemisphere for centuries, Europeans were generally unaware of these lands until Giovanni Caboto landed there in 1497. (The Italian Giovanni Caboto later changed his name to John Cabot, apparently to more easily obtain funding from his English sponsors.) Cabot sailed from Bristol, England, which was his home for 15 years. His voyage was sponsored by a group of the city's businessmen, who wanted to make more money through the discovery of the fabled route to the spices and silks of the Orient by sailing westwards.

Writing for the BBC, author Peter Macdonald writes that Richard Amerike was one of the more prominent Bristol businessmen. Descending from the Earls of Gwent, Richard Ap Meryk - Welsh for Richard, son of Meryk - was born in 1445 at the family home, Meryk Court, Weston-under-Penyard, near Ross-on-Wye. (Elizabeth, granddaughter of one of his ancestors, Hywel Ap Meurig, married Sir John Poyntz in 1343. Queen Elizabeth II is descended from their Tudor lineage, as was Diana, Princess of Wales, via the Spencer family connections.)

The Welsh name of Richard Ap Meryk became anglicized to Richard Amerike. He contributed the most money towards financing John Cabot’s voyage of discovery. Oak trees from Amerike’s estate were used to construct Cabot’s ship, the 21-metre-long Matthew. He also arranged that Cabot's family should live in a house belonging to one of his friends until Cabot returned. But, as the main sponsor of the voyage of discovery, he wanted something more. He asked Cabot that any newly discovered lands should be named after him.

Peter Macdonald then goes on to write about the naming of the lands after the Bristol merchant. He also notes a similarity between Richard Amerike’s coat of arms and the flag of the United States, created nearly 300 years later. Is this story accurate? Was America named after an English merchant of Welsh descent? I’m not sure, but I did find this to be an interesting story.

My thanks to Anne Lehmkuhl for telling me about this story.

[Return to Table of Contents]

[Return to Table of Contents]

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is being written and sent via e-mail at no charge. I expect to write one new issue on a more or less weekly basis. However, life sometimes interferes, and the need to earn a living may create an occasional delay.

COPYRIGHTS: The contents of this newsletter are copyright by Richard W. Eastman with the following exception:

Many of the articles published in these newsletters contain quotes or references from others, especially from other Web sites, software user’s manuals, press releases and other public announcements. Any words in this newsletter attributed to another person or organization remain the copyrighted materials of the original author(s).

You are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute articles from this newsletter to other parties provided:

1. You do so strictly for non-commercial purposes
2. You may not republish any articles containing words attributed to another person or organization until you obtain permission from that person or organization. While you do have permission to republish words written by Richard W. Eastman, you do not have automatic authority to republish words written by others, even if their words appear in this newsletter.

Also, please include the following statement with any articles you re-distribute:

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2002 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Subscription information: This newsletter is sent to you free of charge. Please feel free to copy this subscription information and pass it on to anyone else who you think might be interested in obtaining a free subscription.