Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

How to Create an Ahnentafel Report (Intermediate)

An Ahnentafel Report is a condensed report that includes everyone’s Ahnentafel number and their vital events (birth, marriage, death, burial). The Ahnentafel number is based on their location in your direct line pedigree. You are always #1, your father is #2, your mother is #3, your paternal grandfather is #4, your paternal grandmother is #5, your maternal grandfather is #6, your maternal grandmother is #7, and then the pattern continues.  The mathematical formula in play is that a person’s father is double their number and the person’s mother is double plus 1. These numbers are based on the anchor person for the report. Most people use themselves as the anchor but if you use someone else be aware that the Ahnentafel numbers you see relates to them and not to you. You can use the formula on anyone that appears in the report. For example, in my Ahnentafel Mathew Robert Patton is #44. His father will be #88 and his mother will be #89.

To create this report all you need to do is open the Ancestor Book Report (Reports > Ancestor Book) and choose your anchor person (usually you). Set it for ALL GENERATIONS. UNcheck the boxes for a Table of Contents, Indexes, and a Title Page. You can of course keep these but I prefer to make this report as concise and compact as possible. On the PAGE LAYOUT tab make sure that "Start new page after each generation" is NOT checked. I also like to check the box to "Print names in bold." Now click the REPORT OPTIONS button. On the INCLUDE tab UNcheck every box. On the FORMAT tab the only box that should be checked is the “Remove one or more leading commas from locations” OR “Use short location names” (my preference). On the NOTES/STORIES tab leave everything UNchecked. On the SOURCES tab leave everything UNchecked. You can include sources if you wish but again, you want this report to be short, to the point, and easy to read. On the PICTURES tab leave everything UNchecked.

(click image to enlarge)

Now Preview the report. I love this report! All of your levels of grandparents are grouped together. Here is a snippet from my personal file.

(click image to enlarge)

You can also use this as a missing information worksheet for your direct line. If you go back to the OPTIONS tab (where you set the number of generations) check mark the first two boxes that are in the "Insert Underlines for Missing" section. This is what it will look like:

(click image to enlarge)

I hope you find this report as useful as I have.

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News.  You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Certified Genealogist is a registered trademark and the designation CG is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by Board certificants who meet competency standards.