Dear Vi! I would say, without seeing the tree and trying to read out of it how it has been constructed, it is just about impossible to explain the numbers that show in it! Maybe you could try to post part of the tree? Very sincerely yours, Lars E. Oyane ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Apr 30, 2015, at 10:16 AM, VIOLET MARTIN via wrote: > A few years ago I received a family tree from Norway. > There were numbers behind the family names; > Example: John Doe ( 139439) > Mary Smith ( 38164) > > There was an explanation for the numbers. > Somewhere I lost it. Could someone > explain to me what the purpose of the numbers > were and how to use them. > Thank You > > Sincerely, Vi Martin