by Richard A. Pence

The Last Word on Numbering Systems

Copyright 1995 by Richard A. Pence - Posted with Permission

It comes from yet another DIGEST reader: "A truly honest statement. As a genealogy teacher, I am sick unto death of people coming up with yet another numbering system. Gilbert Doane gave a numbering system in 'Searching for Your Ancestors' for pedigree charts that as worked for me for 20 years without renumbering. (One of the few genealogists I know that has never had to redo.) The Register system works just fine. Why change it? Computers need numbers for their own use. Numbers as supplied by Personal Ancestral File work just fine for the computer. Why try to make the computer compatible with anything else? Genealogy programs that print pedigree charts do not print books. Change for change sake is a pain in the neck as far as I am concerned. I do not like to waste my valuable research time trying to figure out how another enterprising author dreamed up the 'ultimate numbering system.'"

THE AUTHOR'S LAST WORD

I've learned that genealogical numbering systems is a topic on which EVERYONE has an opinion. I've got my opinion; I respect those of others. I offer these thoughts in support of my opinion:

• The Register and Record Systems - try as I might - badly confuse me. Both in trying to write material using either of them and in trying to follow a genealogy written with them.
• Computers are good at assigning numbers. Take a look at the code above your name on a mailing list label if you don't believe me. That number may mean something to a computer and even, perhaps, to someone who manages the mailing list. It doesn't tell me a heck of a lot. Neither do the numbers assigned by a computer to my genealogical database. If I assign the number, it has meaning to me and it might even make it easier for me when I'm entering data. I prefer being able to look at the number and being able to say, "Oh, yeah, he's a descendant of the Adam Pence who lived in Scott County, Kentucky; a third great grandson." It even beats getting the chance to power up the computer and having it figure that out for me.
• The main thing - as I heard a librarian plead one day - is don't make it so complicated that you confuse your reader. I've done that, so will quit.