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260 |
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NATURAL INHERITANCE. |
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F, 2. |
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M; 3. |
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FF, 4. |
FM, 5. |
MF, 6. |
MM, 7. |
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FFF, 8. |
FMF, 10. |
MFF, 12. |
MMF, 14. |
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FFM, 9. |
FMM, 11. |
MFM, 13. |
MMM, 15. |
It will be observed that the double of the number of any ancestor is that of his or her Father ; and that the double of the number plus 1 is that of his or her Mother ; thus FM 5 has for her father FMF 10, and for her mother FMM 11.
When the word Brother or Sister has to be abbreviated it is safer not to be too stingy in assigning letters, but to write br, sr, and in the plural bra, 8rs ; also for the long phrase of " brothers and sisters," to write brsa.
All these symbols are brief enough to save a great deal of space, and they are perfectly explicit. When such a phrase has to be expressed as "the Fraternity of whom FF is one" I write in my own notes simply FF, but there has been no occasion to adopt this symbol in the present book.
I have not satisfied myself as to any system for expressing descendants. Theoretically, the above binary system admits of extension by the use of negative indices, but the practical applica. tion of the idea seems cumbrous.
We and the French sadly want a word that the Germans possess to stand for Brothers and Sisters. Fraternity refers properly to the brothers only, but its use has been legitimately extended here to mean the brothers and the sisters, after the qualities of the latter have been reduced to their male equivalents. The Greek' word adelphic would do for an adjective.
Pedigrees.-The method employed in the Record of Family Faculties for entering all the facts concerning each kinsman in a methodical manner was fully described in that book, and could not easily be epitomised here ; but a description of the method in which the manuscript extracts from the records have been made for my own use will be of service to others when epitomising their own family characteristics. It will be sufficient to describe the quarto books that contain the medical extracts. Each page is ten and a half inches high and eight and a half wide, and the two pages, 252, 253, that are
