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"Who is the man in the first picture, believed to be my great great grandfather?
Can anyone provide more information about him?"
The man in the first picture is referred to as a "great great grandfather" because he is the grandfather of your great grandfather.
There is a system for naming ancestors that involves counting the number of generations back and adding "great" for each generation.
However, this system can become unwieldy, and many people prefer to use the Chicago Manual of Style's recommended approach of abbreviating the number of greats and then adding "g-g-g" for "great grand."
The average human generation is about 25-30 years, so if your great great grandfather was alive 10 generations ago, it would be around 250-300 years in the past.
In a family tree, the first generation includes you and your siblings and cousins, and each subsequent generation goes back one level, so your parents are in the second generation, and their parents are in the third generation.
Genealogical terminology can be confusing, with terms like "once removed" or "half" added to describe relationships, but the basic idea is to specify the relationship to a common ancestor.
To calculate the number of ancestors in each generation, you can use a formula that doubles the number of ancestors in each previous generation, so in the eighth generation, you would have 128 ancestors, and in the tenth generation, you would have 1,024 ancestors.
If your great great grandfather was a Civil War hero, it's possible that he served in one of the six all-Black infantry regiments created by Congress after the Civil War, such as the 25th Infantry Regiment or the 9th Cavalry Regiment.
The use of the term "great" in genealogical terminology is standard and widely accepted, but some people prefer to use other terms like "grand" or "great-grand" for clarity and simplicity.
There are many ways to organize and visualize a family tree, from traditional printouts or diagrams to digital tools and software that allow you to build and explore your genealogy online.
In addition to the standard "great" terminology, there are other ways to refer to ancestors and descendants, such as "forebear" or "ancestor" for those who came before, and "descendant" or "offspring" for those who came after.
While genealogy can be a complex and technical field, it can also be a rewarding and fascinating way to learn about your family history and heritage.
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