French Family Association

The Official Website of the Surname French

Harry Dana French Research
“How To” Use a Lineage List

Revision 8-1 January 1992

A Lineage List is an organized listing of the known descendants of the earliest ancestor and represents a summary of our current best knowledge of this family. For genealogists, the Lineage List is a research tool, which provides a quick reference to the entire family. It is neither a complete nor necessarily accurate document, however, and will benefit from your comments and your research contributions to the next revision, which you can send to marafrench@mindspring.com.

A word on the organization of the Lineage List: To accommodate the growing number of family entries, a system for organizing and recording this information was required. In this system, children are listed under their parents and the names are indented three spaces to the right. This means that all of the descendants of the First Generation's first child are listed before their second child.

While it is possible to obtain the simple record of the children of a given set of parents, the Lineage List is not set up with this as its primary purpose and is often inconvenient. The listing is also not designed to give the reader an idea of the individual family member's place in history. Both of these are important aspects of family history and are served through detailed family sheets. A sheet for each family (parents and children) is prepared and includes any information about that family's history that comes to our attention and, more importantly the source of that information. These family sheets have not yet been made available to interested researchers.

A series of codes is used to enrich the Lineage List.  They are described in the following example.

* asterisk = no descendants from that couple

5  .  .  .  Nancy BED French H Nathan (né Jones)- Owen

5 1st .  .  John Milton 4 MAY 1791 BED r French & Thirza Day(1)

6,6 1st  .  .  Ovid 3 NOV 1816 COL r French & Jane Snow(l)   (See page 19)

6,6 2nd  .  .  Ovid 3 NOV 1816 COL r French & Sarah M. Learned [Mrs. Shaw](2)

5 2nd .  .  John Milton 4_MAY 1791 BED r French & Malvina B. rm Barrows(2)

6  .  .  .  .  Lillian "Lillie" 9 SEP 1867 mr French*

6   The number at the extreme left indicates the generation of the family member. The emigrant is generation 1, their children are generation 2; their grandchildren are generation 3; and so on.

      7,7   This code, located at the extreme left of the line, indicates that the family member has multiple lines of descent from the emigrant.

      (See page 19)   Where a family has multiple lines of descent from the emigrant, the page in the Lineage List where that other line is recorded is indicated by this text note.

      6 1st    Day(l)

      6 2nd    Barrows(2)   This coding indicates multiple marriages, where the family member had more than one spouse.

      4 MAY 1791 This is the birthdate of the family member given in day/month/year format.  This date form was adopted since it resists misinterpretation. In some cases, the date may be preceded by 'bpt.' if the date is a baptismal date or by 'ca.' if the date is only an approximation.

      MST   A birthplace code.  The meaning of each code is listed as follows, for example, MST stands for Maidstone, VT

      mr   Many people are interested in Mayflower and American Revolution descent. Where this information is available, Mayflower descent is indicated by a small m; descent from a participant in the American Revolution is indicated by a small r.

      French*   The asterisk at the end of a line indicates that it is thought that the individual or family had no offspring.  Individuals confirmed to have died before the age of 20 are systematically assigned asterisks until the history of that person is better known.

      "Lillie"   Nicknames and other names which refer to an individual are listed in quotation marks after the person's given name.

       [Mrs. Shaw]   Widows who remarry a French descendant have their previous married name listed in brackets.

       (né Jones)   Where the person listed was born with a different surname, that surname is listed in the above format.

                                       Art Westneat

                                       French Family Association