SNGF – Ahnentafel Roulette

Here are the guidelines for Genea-Musings’ Randy Seaver’s latest version of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

My father was born in 1931 and would have been 78 this November 14; dividing that by four equals 19.5.

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person?

Well, I could pick 19 or 20; 19 would be my brickwall Lizzie Smith’s father, whom I don’t know (working on it, though!), 20 would be my great-great grandfather Joseph Madison Carroll Norman, who is the head of the family I just happen to be working on (cue the Twilight Zone music!) (well, I have taken a little break to prepare my brickwall materials for a workshop my genealogy society is doing, but most of my work this year is on the Normans).

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number."

Since I have just been working on him, this is not too hard to do.

(a) J.M.C. Norman had three wives, Rebecca Monk (my great-great grandmother and my #21 – remember that SNGF?), Mary Patterson, and Mary Frances Karr.

(b) By those three wives, J.M.C. Norman had about 27 children (that is why I am spending so much time on this family).

(c) J.M.C. Norman served in Company H, 25th Regiment Alabama Infantry during the Civil War.