The generation number is the first 2 digits of our Mal-ID Reference Number – you can find out what yours is here.

The complete name is actually Familial Generation, but I’ll use the one word variation because it is simpler 🙂

A generation is a group of living beings constituting a single step in the line of descent from an ancestor.
In developed nations the average generation length is in the high 20s and has even reached 30 years in some nations.
Factors such as greater industrialisation and demand for cheap labour, urbanisation, delayed first pregnancy and a greater uncertainty in both employment income and relationship stability have all contributed to the increase of the generation length from the late 18th century to the present. These changes can be attributed to social factors, such as GDP and state policy, globalization, automation, and related individual-level variables, particularly a woman’s educational attainment. Conversely, in less-developed nations, generation length has changed little and remains in the low 20s.
(Extract courtesy of Wikipedia)

Our family tree charts are presented with the oldest generations at the top of the tree and the younger generations at the bottom.
It is extremely rare to have more than 5 generations of the same family alive at the same time.

On our websites, the generation number is used on its own sometimes, when it helps to distinguish multiple family members with the same name in the same dialogue or page.
To help clarify that it is a generation, we use the following notation: ^(g44) – representing generation 44.

To put things in to perspective

• Our common ancestor John Maliphant (1691-1763) has the Mal-ID 40008, so he is ^(g40)
• Harry Maliphant (1520-1592) is the earliest we believe we can connect to at present and has Mal-ID 36001 – ^(g36)
• William Maliphant who died in 1362 and is buried at Upton Castle is estimated in ^(g29)
• Walter Maliphant who died in 1258 is estimated in ^(g26)
• Today’s new births are in ^(g50) & ^(g51)
  
  
  
• That is a 26 generation spread across some 760 years

Here are some statistics regarding the data we hold in the Family Tree.
The numbers you see in brackets are the numbers involved in the calculated averages.
Care should be taken in understanding these numbers – realistically only generations 43 to 48 have sufficient numbers to be meaningful.