P Numbers

P NUMBERS

You may have noticed terms such as [P5] or [P4B] appended to some names. These are really for my personal use as they define my ancestors, although they may be of some help to someone who shares a common ancestor.

The system of defining ancestors in common use is cumbersome and confusing. We can easily recognize the terms 'grandparent' or 'great-grandparent', but beyond that it is not so easy. 'Great-great-great-grandparent' or 'GGG Grandparent' or 'G3 grand-parent' hardly trips of the tongue.

The system used here has (I believe) the benefit of simplicity. Anyone interested in gardening will have come across the term 'F1 hybrid'. It means of course the offspring of two unrelated parents. They can be designate as P1 ancestors.

P1 - my parents
P1B - a parent's brother, my uncle
P1S - a parent's sister, my aunt

P2 - a grandparent
P2B - a grandparent's brother, my great-uncle
P2S - a grandparent's sister, my great-aunt

P3 - a great-grandparent
P3B - a great-grandparent's brother, my great-great-uncle
P3S - a great-grandparent's sister, my great-great-aunt

etcetera...

Cousins

It is also simple to record the relationships within ancestral generations. For example:

P4 - one of my great-great-grandparents
P4B - my great-great-grandparent's brother, my great-great-great-uncle
P3C1 - his child, a first cousin (C1) of one of my great-grandparents (P3)
P2C2 - his (or her) child, a second cousin (C2) of one of my grandparents (P2)
P1C3 - his (or her) child, a third cousin (C3) of one of my parents (P1)
C4 - his (or her) child, one of my fourth cousins

The relationship of these individuals to me is straightforward:

P3C1 - my first cousin (C1) three times removed (P3)
P2C2 - my second cousin (C2) twice removed (P2)
P1C3 - my third cousin (C3) once removed (P1)
C4 - my fourth cousin

Number of ancestors in each generation

The number of ancestors double for each prior generation, e.g.

Each person has two P1 ancestors (parents)
Each person has four P2 ancestors (grandparents)
P3 = 8
P4 = 16
P5 = 32
P6 = 64
P7 = 128
P8 = 256
P9 = 512
P10 = 1024
P11 = 2048
P12 = 4096
P13 = 8192, etc

It is amazing how quickly we are up into the millions! And then one gets to a point where theoretically there should be more ancestors than there were people in the world. Fortunately inbreeding explains everything - we are all related in some way.