52W Mark V: Flipping the Script

You typically see pedigrees set out with the paternal side above and the maternal side below. Since this year I’m examining my Grandparent’s Great Great Grandparents (my Gx4 Grandparents), it would mean first looking at my paternal grandfather’s line, followed by my paternal grandmother’s line, my maternal grandfather’s line, closing with my maternal grandmother’s line.

I’ve decided to flip it around.

I still intend to follow the approach I described last post for this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge. However, I’m going to start where one would usually end, at the lowest branch of maternal grandmother’s pedigree chart, Klara Stumpf. For anyone familiar with Ahnentafels (a genealogical numbering system for listing a person’s direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent), Klara is the person who is last on the list of my seventh generation of ancestors.

However, as I noted last post, I’ve got 64 Gx4 Grandparents to fit into a 52 card deck. For seven, I don’t have as so much as a name, so I can leave them out of the deck. That still leaves 57 – four too many.

For my maternal grandmother, I know four pairs of her Gx2 Grandparents. If I combine those sets together, it brings me to 52. The only remaining person on that line is my maternal grandmother’s direct paternal Gx2 Grandfather, who I both know and don’t know. It’s either Michael or Bernard Lerner, sons of Franz Ignaz and and Maria Eva Geiger. Since I am uncertain as to which brother is my Gx4 Grandfather, by leaving them out it brings this year’s deck to 52.

However, in fairness, I’ll set out what I do know about Michael and Bernard:

• Michael Lerner was born on July 11, 1793 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. He was married to Maria Eva Eberle, born June 3, 1793 in Pleisweiler, Bergzabern, Pfalz, although the evidence of this marriage is not verified.

• Bernard Lerner born February 27, 1798 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. Bernard was married to Barbara Heil, who was born about 1799 in Niederlustadt, Germersheim, Pfalz.

With that, let’s start the 2026 52 Ancestors Challenge!