Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What is Your Birth Surname Henry Number?

From Randy over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1) Do you know what a "Henry Number" is? It is a descendant numbering system from a specific person.  The Wikipedia article for Genealogical Numbering Systems describes it as:

"The Henry System is a descending system created by Reginald Buchanan Henry for a genealogy of the families of the presidents of the United States that he wrote in 1935.[3] It can be organized either by generation or not. The system begins with 1. The oldest child becomes 11, the next child is 12, and so on. The oldest child of 11 is 111, the next 112, and so on. The system allows one to derive an ancestor's relationship based on their number. For example, 621 is the first child of 62, who is the second child of 6, who is the sixth child of his parents.


In the Henry System, when there are more than nine children, X is used for the 10th child, A is used for the 11th child, B is used for the 12th child, and so on. In the Modified Henry System, when there are more than nine children, numbers greater than nine are placed in parentheses."

(2)  Go to your first known ancestor with your birth surname in your software program and calculate your Henry Number from that person. Show each generation of your line of ancestors with your birth surname with their Henry numbers.

(3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.

Here's mine:

First of all, I am going to admit that I had never heard of the Henry System nor have I paid any attention to any other numbering system out there.  It's never too late to learn something new.  

My first known ancestor with my birth surname of Tapley is Hosea Tapley (1691-1778).  Here is my Tapley line with their Henry numbers:

1                                    Hosea Tapley (1691-1778)

13                                 Joel Tapley (abt 1720-abt 1790-1791)

132                               Newhampton Tapley (?-1807)

1321                             Sarah Tapley (1775-bet 1850-1860)*

13211                           George Washington Tapley (1814-aft 1880)

132112                        James Madison Tapley (1847-1912)

1321123                     Lusion Keman Tapley (1870-1935)

13211236                  Gilbert Earl Tapley (1928-2008)

132112362                Mary Elizabeth Tapley (1967-)  ** This is ME!

*Yes, I know something is different on my Descendents report.  There is a woman listed!  That is probably not proper in the serious genealogy research world, however, I can tell you that my family tree is not normal or "proper."  Sarah Tapley had her children out of wedlock.  It is/was well known who the father was, but Sarah never married and chose to give her children the Tapley name.  Therefore, the following generations are Tapleys... and not Swains.  

Also, Sarah had twins.  So I do not know if George Washington was born first or his brother, but the report chose George Washington.  

I actually think I should have been 13211264 because my father had children with a previous wife, but that's not how my software program figured it.  It seems the program has his wives out of order.  

I probably do not have a full listing of children for the earlier generations.  That issue, along with program fallacies such as mentioned above, I'm not sure the Henry Numbering System is for me.  However, it was good to get the exposure to something new.  

I use Family Tree Maker 2019 and used the Descendant Report for this information.  I could choose between four different numbering systems, and the only Henry was "Modified Henry."  I don't know what the modifications are.  

I'm headed to share this information now!  Happy Saturday!