South Africa uses the De Villiers genealogical numbering system in all standard reference works. The system was devised by the South African genealogist, Christoffel Coetzee DE VILIERS, and first used in published works in the 1890s. The system was later revised by Dr. Cor PAMA.
Everyone has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, and this number doubles in every following generation...
Do you have all your ancestors?
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 great-great-grandparents
32 great-great-great-grandparents
64 great-great-great-great-grandparents
and so on and so on...
In De Villiers, “a” is the South African progenitor of the family.
His children are numbered chronologically as “b1”, “b2”, etc...
His grandchildren are “c”, his great-grandchildren are “d”. etc...
The “b” denotes the second generation of the family in South Africa, “c” the third, “d” the fourth, etc...
Many South African families today have already reached “j” - 9th, “k” - 10th, and “l” - 11th generation down from the original settler.