Numbering Systems Used in Van Voorhees Genealogy Publications

An understanding of the numbering systems used in our genealogy books and CD will increase their usefulness.

Our books and CD are descending genealogies. We use the NGSQ (National Genealogical Society Quarterly) numbering system. This system deals with all known members of one generation before moving to the next. It uses three types of numbers: one to uniquely identify the individual, one to indicate the generation into which that person falls, and one to denote his or her birth order within the nuclear family.

The NGSQ System assigns a number to each infant, whether or not that child is known to have left progeny. To distinguish between individuals who are carried forward and those who are not, the NGSQ System adds a plus sign (+) preceding the number of anyone who is to be separately treated.

Individual Numbers

The Arabic number to the left of each person’s name uniquely identifies that individual by a number that will not be assigned to anyone else in that specific genealogy. Steven Coerte Vanvoorhees, the immigrant ancestor, is #1. Note that his two wives are not numbered. His children in birth order, both male and female, are numbered #2 thru #11. A plus sign in front of a number indicates more about that individual will follow in later generations.

Generation Numbers

In superscript, immediately after the given name of the individual, there appears a number generally called the generation number. The immigrant ancestor is considered generation 1 and his children generation 2, etc. On the list of each individual’s children, a superscript Arabic number is placed after the first child’s given name to denote the generation of all the children in the list.

Birth-order Numbers

When each list of children is presented, birth order is designated by the use of small Roman numerals. These are placed between the individual’s Arabic identification number and the individual’s name.

Our year 2000 book covered the first 6 generations plus the children of 6. Our year 2003 book(s) covered generations 7 and 8 and the children of 8. Our new CD covers generation 9 and the children of 9. Thus generation 7 appears in both year 2000 and year 2003 books and generation 9 appears in the year 2003 books and in the CD. Flo Christoph spent scores of hours making sure all these numbers match (thank you again Flo for all your hard work).

The books and the CD are one genealogy.Master Genealogist calls it a Journal report. It is important to realize that we can’t come along later and add an individual (that may have been recently discovered). Doing so would change every number downstream of that individual. So when we discover a new individual he or she goes into the “Update” file and not into the genealogy itself. Appendix A in the year 2003 book is the “Update” for the year 2000 book. The “Update” file on the CD updates generations 1-8.

Another set of numbers we use and you may hear us refer to are TMG (The Master Genealogist) numbers. When an individual is added to our Master Genealogist database he or she is assigned a TMG number.This number never changes. So if we know the TMG number for an individual we can easily look in the database and find that specific person. These TMG numbers are not used in the books and CD per se because we felt they would have no meaning to our membership at large and when included they add to much clutter. However you will see TMG numbers in, for example, identification of pictures.

For further information please see: “Numbering Your Genealogy” Special Publication No. 64 by Curran, Crane, and Wray, published in 1999 for the National Genealogical Society. This article is based on this publication.