Our next theme, for this 10th Sunday of the year, is Ancestors by Ahnentafel Number. What in the heck, you might ask, is an ahnentafel number? In which case, you may have been asking yourself this question for a long time since it’s emblazoned across the top of my website. Wikipedia provides the following:1
An ahnentafel (German for “ancestor table”; German: [ˈʔaːnənˌtaːfəl]) or ahnenreihe (“ancestor series”; German: [ˈʔaːnənˌʁaɪə]) is a genealogical numbering system for listing a person’s direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent.
What this means in practical terms is that every direct ancestor in my family tree is assigned a number. Most genealogy software programs will helpfully spit out reports or pedigree charts that automatically assign ahnentafel numbers depending on who you assign as the “home person” (or person #1) in your tree. From there, that person’s father becomes their number doubled (#2); their mother becomes their number doubled plus 1 (#3). That pattern continues throughout; your paternal grandfather becomes #4, the paternal grandmother #5, the maternal grandfather is #6, and the maternal grandmother #7, and so on.
So here we are on the tenth Sunday of 2026, taking a look at #10 in my ahnentafel numbering system: my great-grandfather, Carl Ozro Wilson. Carl has shown up in this blog a number of times previously; if you ever want to quickly find prior entries for a particular family member, you can take a look at the Subject Index. In Carl’s case, the index links to two blog posts that had at least some focus on him; one discussed his marriage, and the other his obituary. There is also this excellent article written by our cousin David Johnson about Carl and Sophie (Roberg) Wilson.
Because Carl has already received some air time here, I’m not going to give a full narrative rundown of his life but will instead focus on a few highlights. Photos are always a good starting point. This first one shows Carl (standing on the left) with four siblings. Carl was born 8 February 1885 in Creighton, Nebraska. In the back are Maud Ethel, born 1881, and Jerry Erving, born 1884. The baby perched on the table is Pearl Ethel, born 1892, and at the bottom right is Carolyne B., born 1889. I’ve never noticed before but now feel compelled to ask rhetorically: did Maud and Pearl really both have Ethel as a middle name? Anyway…
Some 14 years later the next photo was taken, a wedding portrait of Carl and Sophie.
Then, around 1920, this one, showing Sophie and Carl along with baby Mildred Genevieve (born 1919), Ozro Willie (born 1911), Pearl Jeanette (born 1912), my grandmother Blanche Agnes (born 1908), and Clarence Salmer (born 1915).
Finally I have an undated photo purported to be of Carl (in the dark jacket) picking corn. Who is that child with him?
Again, rather than reiterate what has already been captured here, I’ll include some geographical highlights from Carl’s life:
- 8 February 1885: born Creighton, Nebraska
- 1900 census: Lincoln, Nebraska
- 13 March 1907: married Sophie Roberg in Boone County, Nebraska
- 1907-1915: lived in Newman Grove, Nebraska
- 1910 census: Midland, Nebraska
- 1920 census: Mellette County, South Dakota
- 1929-1939: Wood, South Dakota (managed restaurant/liquor store)
- 1930 census: Wood, South Dakota
- 10 June 1939: dies of heart attack in Wood, South Dakota (found dying in his liquor store/restaurant)
- 13 June 1939: buried at Winner Cemetery, Winner, South Dakota
There you have it – a quick recap of the life of Carl Ozro Wilson, ahnentafel #10. If you want more details, or if you want an ahnentafel report of your own, just let me know. I’m happy to oblige.
- Wikipedia contributors, “Ahnentafel,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahnentafel&oldid=1313256358 (accessed March 7, 2026). ↩︎
