An ahnentafel is an "ancestor table." It lists all known ancestors for the
first person listed -- person number one.
The father for any named person has the number equal to the person's number
times two. The mother's number is the person's number times two plus one.
Therefore, a man's wife has a number one greater than his own. This means,
then, that all males have an even person number and all females have an odd
person number. For instance, the father of person 10 is person 20 and 10's
mother is 21. The mother's father is person number 42. By the same token,
you can quickly determine the grandfather by multiplying the person's number
by 4. Conversely, you can find the child for any person by dividing their
number by 2.
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