PEDIGREES FROM THE PAST 

The First Ahnentafel

Wikipedia describes this document as “The first ahnentafel, published by Michaël Eytzinger in Thesaurus principum hac aetate in Europa viventium Cologne: 1590, pp. 146–147, in which Eytzinger first illustrates his new functional theory of numeration of ancestors; this schema showing Henry III of France as n° 1, de cujus, with his ancestors in five generations. The remainder of the volume shows 34 additional schemas for rulers and princes of Europe using his new method.”

Michaël Eytzinger devised his system 425 years ago, and genealogists still use it to enumerate ancestors today. Whenever we print an ahnentafel for one of our family tree members using a computerized genealogical program, we are following in Michaël’s footsteps.

RESEARCH TIP: Explore various ways of illustrating your own genealogy charts. In the coming weeks we will be featuring many family trees—some real, some fake, and all interesting—so be sure to check the QHGS Blog every Saturday for more “Pedigrees from the Past.”