Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence
Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" for her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.
This week's challenge is "So Many Descendants." Sometimes when we're researching, we'll come across a set of ancestors who seem to have a gajillion descendants. Who is that in your family tree?
I took this challenge as an opportunity to learn more about the computer database I am currently using, Reunion. Let's face it, data bases have a lot of power tucked in under the hood and finding it all can be and is a challenge.
So, off I went diving into the innards and hidden goodies. I found something called "Summary". It gives some fun numbers, like number of spouses, number of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, gg, ggg, etc., to the point of the last generation you have searched and/or recorded. You can print reports or just study them in amazement.
I decided to look at 4 lines, 2 of mine and 2 of Man's. My parent's surnames and his parent's surnames. Follow each surname to the last person I have recorded, noting that a few of the ancestors, I have researched further back, but, for any number of reasons, may not actually added those ancestor's names to the data base. Some are so far back that I am not comfortable with the amount of sourcing available. Hey, back before 1700 it can get sketchy in many countries. Anywhooo - - - - - -
So, off I went diving into the innards and hidden goodies. I found something called "Summary". It gives some fun numbers, like number of spouses, number of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, gg, ggg, etc., to the point of the last generation you have searched and/or recorded. You can print reports or just study them in amazement.
I decided to look at 4 lines, 2 of mine and 2 of Man's. My parent's surnames and his parent's surnames. Follow each surname to the last person I have recorded, noting that a few of the ancestors, I have researched further back, but, for any number of reasons, may not actually added those ancestor's names to the data base. Some are so far back that I am not comfortable with the amount of sourcing available. Hey, back before 1700 it can get sketchy in many countries. Anywhooo - - - - - -
4 lines, how many descendants. Let's see - -
Richard Lashbrook, Man's ancestor via the Stevens/Lashbrook lineage: 1 spouse, 1679 descendants in 8 generations. 14 children (2 of whom we have nothing more than their given names, so, it could very well be 12 children, eh?)
Karl "Carl\Charles" Herman Gehrke, Man's ancestor via the Gehrke lineage: 1 spouse, 454 descendants in 6 generations. 10 children, 6 of whom survived to have families of their own.
Richard Bowen, my ancestor via the Bowen lineage, 2 spouses, 587 descendants in 13 generations. 7 children. Time to fess up, I have not chased 4 of his children. It is what it is. Wink, wink.
H. Jacob Trumbo, my ancestor via the Trumbo lineage, 1 spouse, 533 descendants in 10 generations. 7 children. More fess up time, his generation and his children, not as well researched as I would like them to be. Another, it is what it is. Wink, wink.
The Karl "Carl\Charles" Herman Gehrke line only goes back to mid 1800, where the records end, as best we have ever been able to determine, barring new discoveries. The Lashbrook, Bowen and Trumbo lineages all go back to around 1700.
Total descendants currently in my data base from these 4 ancestors = 3253. Most children in the first generation = 14. Most generations = 13.
* Clip art courtesy of Clip Art Library.
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