08/30/12

Scribner Family References:

At Attempt To Establish A Standardized Reference System for Descendents of John Scriven of Dover, New Hampshire

What follows is this researcher's proposal for establishing a comprehensive and systematic scheme for identifying the descendents of John Scriven of Dover, New Hampshire.  The essence of the scheme is as follows:

Identify the generation of descendency: John Scriven himself is designated as generation 00, and each descendent generation is consecutively numbered, as 01, 02, 03, etc.   Each of his children is given an alphabetical designation; all descendents of John, the eldest would be "A"; Edward as "B"; Elizabeth as "C"; and Thomas as "D".

Identify each individual descendent and their spouses: Each child born to that Scribner descendent is given an alphabetical designation in order of birth; spouses are given the same number as the descendent, with a numerical designation following the descendent in order of marriage.

Each item is separated by a period except for the initial descendency notation and generation number.  One note about form:  we do not use the letter "I" as it is too confusing with the number "1"; thus, we skip from H to J in lettering conventions.

So, under this system, following an outline descendent tree, we would use the following as reference numbers:

By way of explanation, John Scribner, Sr. is the eldest child in the first generation.  He is designation as "01" for the first generation, and "A" as the first child.  His wife carries the same designation with a "1" after the "A"; any subsequent spouses would be successively numbered.  His oldest child Joseph is designated first with an "A" meaning he is of John's line; he is then designated as "02" since he falls within the second generation; he is the eldest in that generation and so is then given the designation "A"; his spouses would have the same designation with successive numbers at the end in order of marriage, so Lydia is A.02.A1.  Joseph's son Joseph, Jr. is numbered as follows:  again he is of John's line, so his reference begins with "A"; he is in the third generation, so he is numbered 03; he is descended from the eldest in the 2nd generation, so that designation is "A"; he is himself the oldest in his generation, so he has a subsequent designation of "A" also.   Thus, birth order is described by the order of numerals; there should be the same number of alphabetical letters as the generational designation, and spouses are consecutively numbered.

Using this reference numbering system, we will create a table of individuals, listing each reference number.  As new individuals are found, they will be included consistently with this scheme, and we encourage all of you to adopt this standardized numbering scheme for your own research.  As we post biographies, images, etc. that apply to certain family groups or individuals, they will be posted using this scheme.  A comprehensive index of individuals, tagged to reference number, will be posted in the Data area.

If you have any questions or issues about this scheme, or if new numbering issues arise, please direct them to the webmaster.  As time permits,  the website will be reorganized to reflect this system.