Tiny Tafel Reports

With so much information that can be part of an average family tree, there are a number of report types that can be used to summarize the contents of your tree. Tiny tafel reports are a common feature available in many genealogy software programs and isn't something you'd likely use otherwise.

Tiny Tafel reports are basically a surname summary of the ancestors of any one person, and do not contain many other details. Their formatting is very precise, as they were designed in 1986 for use with computer programs.

The basic Tiny Tafel consists of a series of columns (shown in an example below) for each ancestor's surname in your tree. The columns are:

• Soundex code
• Earliest year that surname occurs
• Latest year that surname occurs
• Surname

There are some other variations to the Tiny Tafel, but this is basically the layout. Here is how part of this report looks like, from my own family tree:

R516 1799 1915 Rumford
S120 1343 1450 Savage
S352 1438 1438 Sidington
S354 1362 1413 De Stanley
S354 1386 1430 Stanley

So, I have Rumfords as my ancestors, with birthdates between 1799 and 1915. Some formats of Tiny Tafels would have a * between the dates to indicate a particular interest in that ancestor name, and there may be place names after the surnames, marked by a /.

These reports are a quick and easy way to compile a list of ancestor surnames that are relevant to your particular family tree search.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the word "tafel" comes from the German word for "table".

_{This article was originally published at Suite101.com}