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[ Generations: Ancestors arranged by generation ]

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Ancestors Arranged by Generation

This page contains two generation lists:

The Family Generations list arranges kin according to generations that step backward from the generation of babies in the early Twenty-first Century (the "leading-edge" generation) to their parents and then their grandparents and so on.(1) Do not be dismayed to discover that you happen to be two or three generations back from (earlier than) the "leading-edge" generation. The "leading-edge" generation was defined as the greatest number of generation descent steps from our ancestors in the "turn-of-the-century" generation, those ancestors who lived their childhood and youth in the Nineteenth Century and were the first to become parents in the Twentieth Century (for example, Anna Martha Franz Hawes [1877-1969] and Mary Caroline Findley Edmands [1887-1970]). Individuals of the "leading-edge" generation are great-great-great-grandchildren (3rd-great-grandchildren) of the "turn-of-the-century" generation. You might be a great-grandchild of a "turn-of-the-century" ancestor, listed as two generations back from the leading-edge generation, yet still be quite "young."
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The Historical Generations list arranges kin in groups whose members were born within a given range of dates and who generally share a common "peer personality."(2) The concept of historical generations, fully explored in William Strauss and Neil Howe, Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991)--refined in their The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy (New York: Broadway Books [Bantam-Doubleday-Dell], 1997), and elaborated in their 13th GEN: ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE, FAIL? (New York: Vintage, 1993) and their Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage, 2000)--effectively explains every perceived "generation gap," at least in the United States. They show how each historical generation group is shaped by its "age location," its "age-determined participation in epochal events that occur during its lifecycle [p. 32]." This age location produces a "peer personality," which they define as "a set of collective behavioral traits and attitudes that later expresses itself throughout a generation's lifecycle trajectory." Strauss and Howe have corresponded recurring patterns of "generational constellations" (the interplay of the different generations alive at the same time) with recurring types of historical events [p. 33].

Strauss and Howe have grouped the generations into cycles (or saecula)--usually four generations to a cycle (or saeculum), beginning with a dominant, outward-directed idealist generation, followed by a recessive, inward-directed reactive generation, followed in turn by a dominant, outward-directed civic generation, followed by a recessive, inward-directed adaptive generation. (Their "Civil War Cycle" was an exception; it lacks the civic generation.) A cycle lasts for nearly a century. A particular generation within a cycle resembles in its peer personality the corresponding generation in a different cycle far more closely than it might resemble a different generation within its own cycle.

These historical generations do not align themselves with the genealogical family generations (grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, and so on). Two siblings within a family are members of different historical generations if their birthyears (or, to use the technical term Strauss and Howe employ, cohorts) fall on opposite sides of a boundary between those generations; this situation frequently occurs in families. Moreover, individuals are not necessarily in a generation just contiguous to that of their parents, unless they belong to the "last wave" of a particular generation (those born in the generation's last few birthyears). Typically, the "first wave" of a particular generation (those born in the generations first few birthyears) are children of the historical generation two before it. For example, the parents of most Boom Generation members who were born in the mid-1940s (the first wave of the Boom Generation) were members of the Greatest Generation--two historical generations earlier. On the other hand, the typical parents of most Boom Generation members who were born in the late 1950s (the last wave of the Boom Generation) are members of the Silent Generation--the very next historical generation earlier.

Of course, it is possible that an individual born in the last wave of the Boom Generation to be the child of another Boom Generation member, from the generation's first wave. Likewise, it is possible for a member of the Boom Generation's first wave to be the child of a member of the last wave of the Lost Generation--three historical generations earlier. But these situations are rare.

Strauss and Howe make a strong point (pp. 62-63) that each historical generation has an especially strong nurturing influence on the second succeeding generation. For example, the Greatest Generation has had a strong nurturing influence on the Boom Generation. This condition holds, even though quite a few last-wave Boom Generation individuals were children of first-wave Silent Generation parents. Why would that be? These Silent Generation parents would still be in their twenties and thirties and still themselves under the influence of their Greatest Generation elders in their forties and fifties, including school principals, scout leaders, Dr. Spock, and Walt Disney.

Being a member of a historical generation does not mean that an individual necessarily displays all the aspects of that generation's peer personality. An individual can set himself or herself apart from his or her peers. Nevertheless, many of the life issues of each individual are determined in relationship to the peer personality of the individual's historical generation--either in conformance with that personality or in opposition to it. As Thomas Wolfe has his character Hunt Conroy say about his own Lost Generation in his You Can't Go Home Again (1934): "You belong to it, too. You came along at the same time. You can't get away from it. You're a part of it whether you want to be or not." Individuals who do not conform to the peer norm, such as Jack Kerouac and Jimmy Carter in their Greatest Generation, are aware of their nonconformity, feel suppressed among their peers, and struggle against them.

I am reporting here some of the predictions that Strauss and Howe have made about the very youngest generations. We'll have to see how it all turns out. For more information on historical generations and how generational theory can help predict the future, see Strauss and Howe, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy (New York: Broadway Books [Bantam-Doubleday-Dell], 1997) and visit Strauss and Howe's fourthturning.com and lifecourse.com sites.

In my list, I have altered a few of the labels of Strauss and Howe: their "Thirteenth Generation" is here the more well-known label "Generation X" after Douglas Coupland, Generation X (New York: St. Martins Press, 1992). Their "G.I. Generation," which includes many individuals who were never G.I.'s, is here the "Greatest Generation," borrowed from the title of NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw's book about them: The Greatest Generation (New York: Dell, 2001). Their "Puritan Generation," which includes not only the religious Puritans but also fervent opponents of those religious dissenters, is here the "Righteous Generation." Their "Puritan Generation," which includes not only the religious Puritans but also fervent opponents of those religious dissenters, is here the "Righteous Generation." Their "Reprisal Generation" is here the "Picaresque Generation," and their "Parliamentary Generation" is here the "Sentimental Generation." I have retained Strauss and Howe's label "Republican Generation" even though many members of the generation were Federalists in opposition to that era's "Republican" Party (officially the "Democratic-Republican Party," actually the ancestor of today's "Democratic Party"); like them, I regard the label as applying to republican principles in general.

As with the family generations, I am not releasing to the public at large information on family members belonging to historical generations born after the year 1900 (that is, the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, the Boom Generation, Generation X, the Millennial Generation, and the New Adaptive Generation). Most of the individuals in those generations are still living; access to information on them will be restricted to family members and trusted associates. Pages for those individuals will be password-protected. The one exception is Allan Christie Edmands I, 1911-1945 in the Greatest Generation. Of course, I have included names of public celebrities in these modern historical generations.
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Family Generations

Historical Generations

The "leading-edge" generation (3rd-great-grandchildren of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)
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The pages for the "leading-edge" generation, one generation back, two generations back, three generations back, and four generations back are, for now, placeholders only. Individuals in those generations, most of them living, were born since the year 1900, and access to information about these individuals will be restricted to family members and trusted associates. Pages for those individuals will be password-protected. The one exception is Allan Christie Edmands I, 1911-1945 in Generation 4. To get directly to unrestricted information on ancestors, click Five generations back (the "turn-of-the-century" generation) or an earlier generation.
To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close)

One generation back (2nd-great-grandchildren of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)
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Two generations back (great-grandchildren of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)
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Three generations back (grandchildren of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)
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Four generations back (children of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)
(with one exception, a placeholder for now(3)

Five generations back (the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Six generations back (parents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Seven generations back (grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Eight generations back (great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Nine generations back (2nd-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Ten generations back (3rd-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Eleven generations back (4th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Twelve generations back (5th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Thirteen generations back (6th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Fourteen generations back (7th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Fifteen generations back (8th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Sixteen generations back (9th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Seventeen generations back (10th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Eighteen generations back (11th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Nineteen generations back (12th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Twenty generations back (13th-great-grandparents of the "turn-of-the-century" generation)

Millennial Cycle

New Adaptive Generation
(birthyears 2004 and beyond)

Millennial Generation
(1982-2003 birthyears)

Generation X
(1961-1981 birthyears)

Boom Generation
(1943-1960 birthyears)

Great Power Cycle

Silent Generation
(1925-1942 birthyears)

Greatest Generation
(1901-1924 birthyears)

Lost Generation
(1883-1900 birthyears)

Missionary Generation
(1860-1882 birthyears)

Civil War Cycle

Progressive Generation
(1843-1859 birthyears)

Gilded Generation
(1822-1842 birthyears)

Transcendental Generation
(1792-1821 birthyears)

Revolutionary Cycle

Compromise Generation
(1767-1791 birthyears)

Republican Generation
(1742-1766 birthyears)

Liberty Generation
(1724-1741 birthyears)

Awakening Generation
(1701-1723 birthyears)

New World Cycle

Enlightenment Generation
(1674-1700 birthyears)

Glorious Generation
(1648-1673 birthyears)

Cavalier Generation
(1618-1647 birthyears)

Righteous Generation
(1588-1617 birthyears)

Reformation Cycle

Sentimental Generation
(1566-1587 birthyears)

Elizabethan Generation
(1541-1565 birthyears)

Picaresque Generation
(1512-1540 birthyears)

Reformation Generation
(1483-1511 birthyears)

Late Medieval Half Cycle

Humanist Generation
(1461-1482 birthyears)

Arthurian Generation
(1433-1460 birthyears)

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