Saturday, October 12, 2013

Saturday Night Fun Henry Numbers

1)  Do you know what a "Henry Number" is?  It is a descendant numbering system from a specific person.  The Wikipedia article for Genealogical Numbering Systems describes it as:

"The Henry System is a descending system created by Reginald Buchanan Henry for a genealogy of the families of the presidents of the United States that he wrote in 1935.[3] It can be organized either by generation or not. The system begins with 1. The oldest child becomes 11, the next child is 12, and so on. The oldest child of 11 is 111, the next 112, and so on. The system allows one to derive an ancestor's relationship based on their number. For example, 621 is the first child of 62, who is the second child of 6, who is the sixth child of his parents.  In the Henry System, when there are more than nine children, X is used for the 10th child, A is used for the 11th child, B is used for the 12th child, and so on. In the Modified Henry System, when there are more than nine children, numbers greater than nine are placed in parentheses."

2)  Go to your first known ancestor with your birth surname and calculate your Henry Number from that person.  Show each generation of your line of ancestors with your birth surname with their Henry numbers.

3)  How did you calculate the Henry numbers?  What do these numbers tell you?

Well this will be short as my grandfather is the first person with my birth surname since he was born in Denmark and the patronymics change the surname each generation.

1     Anton Hansen
14   Claude Hansen
142 Charles Hansen  (me)

Did not have to calculate, just filled in the numbers. The first two children of my dad's generation were girls, and my sister was the oldest in my family. Actually I am the only male grandchild of my grandfather Anton and I am the youngest.
 

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