The Gruner Archive uses a neutral generational numbering system rather than relationship terms such as “grandparents” or “great-grandparents.” This allows the archive to be used consistently by family members from different branches and generations.

The pages are organized in a hierarchical family-group numbering system inspired by Ahnentafel numbering.

Each core family is assigned a number in the form Generation.Family, such as 2.1 or 3.4.

For any family numbered G.N, its two parent families in the previous historical generation are numbered:

For example, the parent families of 2.2 are:

• 3.3 = the paternal family of the person represented in 2.2
• 3.4 = the maternal family of the person represented in 2.2

This structure allows readers to identify not only which ancestral family groups are connected, but also whether each group belongs to the paternal or maternal line.

The system is designed to remain consistent regardless of the reader’s own relationship to the people documented in the archive.