Every once in awhile, someone comes by and wants to know, "What
in the world is an Ahnentafel To me, it's both hard to say and
hard to understand, but both can be accomplished with a little
diligence. An Ahnentafel starts with a specified person and
lists his/her ancestors. The first person, whether male or
female, is number "1." That person's father is number "2" and
all following father's are a multiple of "2." That first
person's mother is the fathers number plus "1." The wife's
number is always "1" plus her husbands number. If the father's
number is "8," the wife is number "9." Her father is 2 times 9,
which is 18. It really isn't complicated. Honest. Did you know
that there were income taxes during the Civil War? If your
ancestor was in the United States during this time, you might
find information on him or her in the Civil War Income Tax
Records. The Internal Revenue Act of 1862 instituted a tax to
pay for the war. This tax was in effect from 1862-1872 and the
records are available through the National