Saturday, September 21, 2013

Saturday Night Fun Children and Grandchildren

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Consider your Birth Surname families - the ones from your father back through his father all the way back to the first of that surname in your family group sheets or genealogy database.  List the father's name, and lifespan years.

2)  Use your paper charts or genealogy software program to create a Descendants chart (dropline or graphical) that provide the children and their children (i.e., up to the grandchildren of each father in the surname list).

3)  Count how many children they had (with all spouses), and the children of those children in your records and/or database.  Add those numbers to the list.  See my example below!  [Note: Do not count the spouses of the children]

4)  What does this list of children and grandchildren tell you about these persons in your birth surname line?  Does this task indicate areas that you need to do more research to fill out families and find potential cousins?

Mads Christensen (Mads died before his son was born)
1 son 
3 grandchildren

Mikkel Madsen  1807-1888
6 children
19 grandchildren

Hans Mikkelsen  1837-1892
10 children
25 grandchildren

Anton Mikkel Hansen 1870-1961
5 children
9 grandchildren

Claude Dillingham Hansen 1906-2008
2 children
1 grandchild

24 children average 4.8 per generation
60 grandchildren average 12 per generation

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