Numbering
With the hundreds (maybe even close to a thousand!) of documents and photographs that I've collected over the years validating my genealogy information, the only way to systematically file them and be able to retrieve them again is to come up with a numbering system to be assigned to each one. Every document and photograph is numbered upon receipt and prior to recording the information in the Kleinmann Genealogy database.
Although my system may not be perfect, and there may be better ways of doing it out there, it has served me well these past 28 years.
General Format
The document number shall consist of seven characters; the first three being letters, and the last four being numbers. Each character in the string has a specific meaning:
- the first is the Major Family Group
- the second is the Minor Family Group
- the third is the Document Class
- the fourth and fifth are the Document Type
- the sixth and seventh are the number of the document in the series
An example of a document number would look like this: GHC1211
Let's examine what each character means in more detail.
Character 1: Major Family Group
The first character in the string (GHC1211) refers to the Major Family Group. The Major Family Group is a letter referring to one of the four grandparent families:
- B - Bach
- G - Gerlach
- K - Kleinmann
- R - Reutzel
Therefore, in this example, this document pertains to an ancestor from the Gerlach side of the family.
Character 2: Minor Family Group
The second character in the string (GHC1211) refers to the Minor Family Group. The Minor Family Group is a letter referring to one of the four grandparent families of each grandparent (i.e. the sixteen great-great grandparent families):
| Major and Minor Family Group Combinations (Kleinmann) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major Group | Minor Group | Major Group | Minor Group | Major Group | Minor Group | Major Group | Minor Group | |||
| B - Bach |
B - Bach (Jacob) |
G - Gerlach | G - Gerlach (Andrew) | R - Reutzel | R - Reutzel (Henry) | K - Kleinmann | K - Kleinmann (Rudolph) | |||
| D - Bender (Katherine) |
R - Reichenecker (Mary) | S - Hesse (Emilie) | B - Bender (Mary) | |||||||
| H - Hof (Johann) |
H - Hoerner (Andrew) | H - Hess (Nicholas) | H - Huber (Nicholas) | |||||||
| Template:Nowrap (Martha) |
D - Gund (Katherine) | N - Noll (Christina) | G - Gebert (Mary) | |||||||
| Major and Minor Family Group Combinations (Viau) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major Group | Minor Group | Major Group | Minor Group | Major Group | Minor Group | Major Group | Minor Group | |||
| S - Sennett | S - Sennett (William) | W - Walters | W - Walter (Wesley) | F - Fiedler | F - Fiedler (unknown) | V - Viau | V - View (William) | |||
| B - Barrington (Charlotte) | B - Boyington (Nancy) | X - (unknown) | A - Abbott (Mary) | |||||||
| F - Foran (John) | R - Reiman (Charles) | A - Adler (unknown) | K - Kane (Edward) | |||||||
| O - O'Connor (Johanna) | H - Hoyt (Elmina) | X - (unknown) | W - Margaret Wall | |||||||
Therefore, in this example, this document pertains to an ancestor from the Hoerner side of the Gerlach family.
Character 3: Document Class
The third character in the string (GHC1211) refers to the Document Class. That is, the type of document or artifact the item is. There are four choices:
- A - artifact, or other real object
- C - Census record
- L - life record (i.e. vital document, newspaper article, other paper record, etc.)
- P - photograph
Therefore, in this example, the document is a census record for an ancestor from the Hoerner side of the Gerlach family.
Characters 4 & 5: Document Type
The fourth and fifth characters in the string (GHC1211) refer to the Document Type. The choices depend on the Document Class.
- ARTIFACTS
- CENSUS RECORDS
- With the Census Records document class, the following document types exist:
| Federal | New York |
|---|---|
| 01 (1790) | 30 (1825) |
| 02 (1800) | 31 (1835) |
| 03 (1810) | 32 (1845) |
| 04 (1820) | 33 (1855) |
| 05 (1830) | 34 (1865) |
| 06 (1840) | 35 (1875) |
| 07 (1850) | 36 (1892) |
| 08 (1860) | 37 (1905) |
| 09 (1870) | 38 (1915) |
| 10 (1880) | 39 (1925) |
| 11 (1890) | |
| 12 (1900) | |
| 13 (1910) | |
| 14 (1920) | |
| 15 (1930) | |
| 16 (1940) |
- Life Records
- Birth
- 10 - government birth record
- 11 - religious birth record
- 16 - newspaper birth announcement
- 19 - other databases and indexes
- Baptism
- 20 - government christening record
- 21 - religious christening record
- 26 - newspaper christening announcement
- 29 - other databases and indexes
- Marriage
- 30 - government marriage record
- 31 - religious marriage record
- 32 - invitations
- 36 - newspaper wedding announcements
- 38 - divorce records
- 39 - other databases and indexes
- Death
- 40 - government death record
- 41 - religious death record
- 42 - funeral cards
- 44 - cemetery record
- 45 - Find-A-Grave records
- 46 - obituary
- 48 - wills
- 49 - Social Security Death Index; other databases and indexes
- Military
- 66 - World War I Draft Cards
- 68 - World War II Draft Cards
- Education
- Land Ownership
- Immigration and Citizenship
- Other
- 94 - First Communion
- Photographs
Therefore, in this example, the document is a 1900 U. S. Census record for an ancestor in the Hoerner side of the Gerlach family.
Characters 6 & 7: Sequential Number
The sixth and seventh characters in the string (GHC1211) refer to the simple sequential number of the document in the series.
Therefore, in this example, the document is the 11th document in my collection from the 1900 U. S. Census for an ancestor in the Hoerner side of the Gerlach family.