> > In case some haven't run across this term, the Kekule Number is a > > term used in Europe and is the same as what is known in North > > America as the ahnentafel number or the Stradonitz number. > > > > Richard A. Pence <richardpence@pipeline.com> > > A few of us are so ignorant that we need the whole concept > explained. What is the application of these numbers, please? > > "Mike Rogers" <mike.rogers@mikerog.demon.co.uk> Mike: My article on "Numbering Systems In Genealogy" can be found here: http://www.saintclair.org/numbers/ It gives a full description on the Sosa-Stradonitz / ahnentafel / Kekule number system. The short answer is that an ahnentafel (from the German, ahnen=ancestor and tafel=table - an ancestor table) is a list of ancestors numbered beginning with the subject (your or a child) as No. 1. The parents are 2 and 3, the grandparents are 4, 5, 6 and 7, and so on. This is the same as the numbers used on most ancestor charts. Regards, Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>