Ahnentafel

An ahnentafel is a special format for showing someone's ancestors. The starting individual is given the number 1. The father of someone on the list is double that person's number. So the subject being #1, his/her father would be #2 whose father would be #4, etc. The mother of a person is double their number plus 1. So the mother of the subject would be #3, whose mother would be #7.

Example:


 * 1 Subject
 * 2 Father
 * 3 Mother
 * 4 Father's Father
 * 5 Father's Mother
 * 6 Mother's Father
 * 7 Mother's Mother

In this way it is possible to make very long lists of ancestors but with a numbering system that allows you to keep track of who is who.