The seven children of Louis Dondanville and Clara Brumbt begot 56 children. The six children of Michel Dontenville and Marie-Anne Duffner had additional 30 children. The descendants of Felix, and other Dontenvilles who came to America, also had large families. To identify each of these family units, and track their lineage, an indexing system has been established.

With each generation an additional digit is added to the index number. Had the index started with a common ancestor four generations before the first Dontenville came to America indexing for current generations would be unmanageable. The system began therefore with the generation of Ludwig, his cousins and his contemporaries. Descendants of Ludwig have been assigned index series 1.0. The system works as follows:

	Louis (Ludwig) Dondanville is	1.0
	Louis’s second child Wallace is	1.2
	Wallace’s ninth child Laurence is	12.9
	Laurence’s first child is	129.1
	That first child’s first child is	1291.1
	That first child’s second child is	1291.2
	and so on . . .

Descendants of Michel begin with 2.0. Louis and Michel's cousin Felix and his descendants have been assigned 3.0. Smaller Dontenville family groups, who were indirectly related to Simon Jude and his brothers, have been assigned index series 4.0 with August, who came to California around 1900, being 4.1, Alfred, who came to Ohio in 1913, is 4.2, and Archbishop Augustine Dontenville's family is 4.3. Gregorie Dontenville, second cousin of Ludwig, Michel, and Felix, has been assigned index series 5.0. Laurent Dontenville, whose sons Nicolas and Martin came to New York, has been assigned series 6.0.

Index numbers were not assigned chronologically. Simon Jude's descendants were the first family groups to be identified and therefore have the lower index numbers. Once the system is understood it serves to identify the major family groups, the period in time during which the family member lived and his relation to other family members. The index numbers applied to the first three generations of Dontenvilles, representing the major family groups, are listed below. If you have Acrobat Reader you may view the relationships between these family groups. Click here (PDF).

1 LOUIS DONDANVILLE - CLARA BRUMBT FAMILY

2 MICHEL DONTENVILLE - MARIE EMIE DUFFNER FAMILY

3 FELIX DONDEVILLE - MARGARET SCHMIDT FAMILY

4 ADDITIONAL DONTENVILLE FAMILIES

5 GREGOIRE DONTENVILLE - MADELAINE FREPPEL FAMILY

6 LAURENT DONTENVILLE - ELISABETH SIEDENMEYER FAMILY