PAFINDER MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE SUSQUEHANNA TRAILS PAF USER'S GROUP, YORK PA.

NOVEMBER 1994 Complimentary Copy IN THIS ISSUE ______

President's Message ...... 2 GENEALOGICAL

News from the Family NUMBERING SYSTEMS History Library...... 2 Most of us in STRAPAFUG use PAF as our software of choice. PAF Editor's Corner...... 2 automatically assigns a record identification number (RIN) to each individual as he/she is entered. PAF uses this RIN as a pointer when linking related persons. It's Snowing! ...... 6 While you are in the hunting stage of your genealogy, this number-ing system is What Do Those good enough. But what numbering system should you use when you publish your Letters Mean? ...... 7 genealogy? When you publish, you should use a numbering system that is widely excepted and understood. PAF's numbering system does not tell you at a glance "Not A Problem" where and individual falls out of your ancestral tree. Many individual numbering Software review ...... 8 systems have come and gone. Each had their pros and cons and most experts agree the perfect numbering system has yet to be devised. Four numbering systems have stood the test of time however, and we will take a look at each of them. I will also touch upon the Henry numbering system. The four systems are COMING EVENTS divided into two cate-gories: descending genealogies - those that trace the descendants of an ear-lier ancestor, and ascending genealogies - those that trace November 3, 7 PM the ancestors of a present day person. STRAPAFUG meeting The descending genealogy numbering systems are the Register System Custom Reports - Lloyd and the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Quarterly system (also known as the Keiger Modified Register System or Record System). Figure 1 is an example of the December 1, 6:30 PM Register system and figure 2 is an example of the NGS Quarterly sys-tem. The STRAPAFUG meeting Register system was developed in 1870 by the New England His-toric Holiday Party Genealogical Society. The NGS Quarterly system was developed in 1912 by the Keepsake Album - Buff National Genealogical Society. Both systems deal with all know persons of one Nettleship generation before moving to the next generation and use three types of numbers (unique individual number, generation number, and birth order number). The January 5, 7 PM primary difference between the two systems is how numbers are assigned to STRAPAFUG meeting children who are not carried forward into the next generation. The Register system Genbook Demonstration does not assign numbers to these children. The NGS Quarterly system does. The February 2, 7 PM NGS Quarterly system also uses a plus sign (+) in front of the unique individual STRAPAFUG meeting number to indicate that this person will be carried forward into the next generation PAFability Demonstration section and treated in greater detail. Notice that the generation number uses both numbers and letters. The numbers are used for ancestors that came to or where March 2, 7 PM born in America. STRAPAFUG meeting

April 6, 7 PM Continued on page 3 STRAPAFUG meeting

PAFINDER 2 October 1994