Genealogy Resources: Steps In Time

LINEAGE CODE SYSTEM TUTORIAL

There is a tendency on the part of parents to name their children for a relative. Some parents also give their children only a first name. Others give a middle name, and others give a third and even a fourth name! (Look how many names Prince Charles has.) Naming practices can cause problems in genealogical research.

I have run into documenting problems related to naming many times. A father was named Thomas. His son was named Thomas. The grandfather was named Thomas. No middle names. This was an actual case I found in the 1820 Ohio Census. There were three Thomas Babbs in one county, with no way to determine their relationship to each other. Will the REAL Thomas Babb please stand up!

To provide some means of positive identification for people, an identification code of some type is beneficial. The system which I use gives a means of positive identification to each of my Babbs. It also provides a Babb researcher, at a glance, the generation to which someone belonged, his or her sex, and a lineage line from the first of the line (the immigrant ancestor) to come to America. Having eight settlers who had come to the various colonies, from whom the various lines could be traced, the system also shows from which each line has come.

I have tried various systems: numbers, letters and numbers, Roman Numerals of upper and lower cases and even a color code system. In large families, a system involving letters better answered my needs. I think you will find this system superior.

First: Capital letters indicate males; lower case letters indicate females.

Second: A letter has been assigned to each settler, and this letter is the first letter in each persons Lineage Code.

Third: Each child is assigned a letter in the order of birth, if known, and this letter added to the parent's Lineage Code establishes the child's code.

Fourth: The number of letters in a person's code indicate the generation and the letters are placed in groups of three to speed counting.

Example

Phillip Babb of Kittery, Maine 1652 was given the letter D

Phillip's children were:

A - William - DA
B - Thomas - DB
C - Phillip - DC
D - Sampson - DD
E - Peter - DE

Thomas' children were:

A - Peter - DBA
B - Thomas - DBB
C - Phillip - DBC
d - Mary - DBd
e - Rebecca - DBe
f - Lydia - DBf
g - Hulda - DBg

The single line of letters is birth order. The group of three letters refers to the individual lineage code.

Another use is to determine how closely related two Babbs are.

Example

My code letters are DBB DCF DFA a

Picking at random a person whose code letters are DBB DCA FAB b we can see that the letters duplicate through the fifth generation which means that the two of of us have the same great-great-great-grandfather and that our great-great-grandfathers were brothers and the rest are cousins.

In filing my family group sheets, I will place them in alphabetical order using the Lineage Code Letters.

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