Numbering: Ancestor, Descendant, Relative

What Are Ancestor, Descendant, and Relative Numbers?

Multiple Numbers

Ancestor Numbering
Descendant Numbering
Relative Numbering

Numbering Options

Numbering Tools
Showing Numbers in the Family View
Numbers in Lists, Reports, and Charts


ID Numbers

What Are Ancestor, Descendant, and Relative Numbers?

In addition to person and family ID numbers, Reunion has the ability to assign ancestor, descendant, and relative numbers to people in your family file. Some call this "Relationship Numbering."

Ancestor, descendant, and/or relative numbers will appear in the family view if you include them in the Family View Settings. Learn more.

Multiple Numbers

As the example above shows, Reunion can assign numbers using different numbering systems with different people as the source person simultaneously.

For example, you can assign ancestor numbers to your ancestors (you would be the source person) and also assign descendant numbers for the descendants of your earliest known immigrant ancestor (he would be the source person for those calculations). And finally, you could assign relative numbers for all the relatives of yet another person, perhaps your grandfather. In this scenario, some of the people in your family file will have only one type of number, but some will have multiple numbers. As if that wasn't enough, Reunion will also let you assign multiple instances of the same type of numbering system. For example, you could create descendant numbers for the descendants of your father's grandfather and then, in addition to those numbers, create descendant numbers for the descendants of your mother's grandmother. Reunion conveniently lets you include user-defined text prefixes to the numbers, to help you distinguish the different systems and source persons.

Ancestor Numbering

Ancestor numbers are the same as ahnentafel numbers, described here.

To assign ancestor numbers to the ancestors of a person...

  1. Navigate to the person's family.
  2. Select Change in the navbar.
  3. Select Numbering.
  4. Click the Ancestor button, shown below.

Numbering Options

Note: these options apply to ancestor, descendant, and relative numbering.

User-defined prefix
If you intend to assign numbers for multiple people simultaneously, it's a good idea to include a user prefix, such as the initials of the source person. In the example above, the user prefix "L" could mean the "Leister" branch.

Generation prefix
This is simply a number, in parentheses, representing the number of generations between a person and the source person of the numbering. These are also used in family history reports, explained here.

Generations
Set the total number of generations for number assignment using the Generations field.

Stop on duplicates
This button determines whether or not people will have more than one number assigned when they appear in your ancestry/descendancy more than once. For example, if your grandparents were second cousins and you started ahnentafel numbering beginning with you, then you would have great, great grandparents appearing in multiple lines of your ancestry. If you want only one number assigned to them, you should check the Stop on duplicates button. Otherwise, your great, great grandparents will have multiple ahnentafel numbers for their different instances in your ancestry. (Relative numbering never includes multiple numbers, thus the Stop on duplicates button does not appear in the Relative section of the Numbering window.)

Clear all ancestor/descendant/relative numbers first
To clear existing numbers prior to assigning new numbers, check the button Clear all [NumberType] numbers first. If this button is checked, Reunion will remove the relevant number assignments for all people prior to assigning new numbers. If this button is unchecked, Reunion will not change any existing numbering. One reason for doing this would be to assign numbers from two relatives back to a common ancestor. For example, if you assign ancestor numbers from you and from a second cousin, the common ancestor would be your great grandfather. Your great grandfather's family record would show two ancestor numbers — one representing the line from you and one representing the line from your second cousin.

Descendant Numbering

Descendant numbers refer to either...

To assign descendant numbers to the descendants of a person...

  1. Navigate to the person's family.
  2. Select Change in the navbar.
  3. Select Numbering.
  4. Click the Descendant button, shown below.

Relative Numbering

Relative numbers are a combination of ahnentafel numbers (for ancestors of a source person) and legal numbers (for descendants of the same source person).

To assign relative numbers to the relatives of a person...

  1. Navigate to the person's family.
  2. Select Change in the navbar.
  3. Select Numbering.
  4. Click the Relative button, shown below.

Numbering Tools

The Numbering Tools button (in the Change > Numbering panel) offers a quick way to...

If you select Clear numbers, the following window will appear...

This window provides an easy way to clear any of the three types of numbers for all or marked people — without generating new numbers.

One reason why you might want to clear numbers for marked people would be to help track multiple groups of people in your family file who may be related to you, or may be related somehow to each other, but you're not certain. I.e., they exist in your family file as independent islands, disconnected from each other. In this case, you could mark only the people in one group and then pick one person in the group and assign relative numbers with a user-defined prefix. Then do the same for the other islands, or groups, in your family file.

Flags provide another tool for handling islands. Learn more.

Showing Numbers in the Family View

To include numbers in the current family view, use the Numbering Tools button, as described in the previous section. Or, use the Family View Settings.

The advantage of configuring the Family View Settings is that the numbering field can be precisely positioned. If you simply choose one of the two items in the Numbering Tools menu, then the Numbering field will be added to the bottom of the fields (either under or inside the buttons for each couple).

To add the Numbering field using the Family View Settings...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Couple.
  4. Decide whether you want the numbering inside the couple buttons (the husband/wife), or under the couple buttons and click the appropriate button in the Fields section.
  5. Click the Add Field menu button and choose Numbering.
  6. Drag the Numbering field up or down to position it in the family view.
  7. Close the Family View Settings window.

The color of ancestor, descendant, and relative numbering prefixes in the family view ("A:" / "D:" / "R:") is the same color as source citations, which is selected in the family view settings. Learn more.

More information about configuring the family view appears here.

Numbers in Lists, Reports, and Charts

Many of Reunion's lists can display ancestor, descendant, and/or relative numbers in a column of the list.

If ancestor, descendant, and/or relative numbers are included in reports and charts, they will be appended to names.