Ahnentafel Roulette!

This week's Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission is 'Ahnentafel Roulette.'

This mission has three steps:

1. Figure out how old your great-grandfather, or other ancestor, would he be if he had lived. Then, divide this number by 4 and round the answer off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
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?
3. Tell three facts about that person with the "roulette number." 

I chose my maternal great-great-grandfather, Frank Elbert for this mission because the numbers worked out. He was born in 1851, so he would be 160 years old if he were still alive today. I then divided 160 by 4, and got 40 as the ancestor ahnentafel number to look for.

My ancestor with ahnentafel number 40 is Robert Crist, who is my paternal 3rd great-grandfather.

Three facts about Robert Crist are:

• He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on 29 Nov 1825, but moved with his family to West Twp,. in Ohio, at the tender age of 2.
• As a youth, he taught in one of the old log schoolhouses in the community, but farmed in his later years.
• He married Mary Ruff on 1 July 1850, and they had 10 children together.

Why don't you spin the ahnentafel roulette wheel yourself?  You might get a nice genealogy surprise.