The index number consists of the approximate birth year of the person, a dash ("-"), and a sequence counter (01 to 99). In the above case, Walter Raymond Wannall III was born in 1944, and he was the first person born in that year who was profiled in these pages, so he was assigned sequence counter number "01".

When birth years are unknown, or for offspring of women with a maiden name of Wannall or Wannell, the parent's index number (year of birth and sequence counter number) is used, coupled with a letter ("a" for first born, "b" for second, etc.) In some cases the birth year of a wife or husband is not known, and this spouse is profiled with her or his own page. Here we have constructed a temporary index number using the birth year of the spouse coupled with a new and unique sequence counter number.  We may change index numbers to reflect actual birth years if and when that information becomes available to us.

Locating People Using the Tree.  Find your name or the name of the desired person on the Family Tree, and click on the underlined index number in parentheses next to the name.  If there is no index number associated with the name, find the closest related person who has an assigned number and click on that person's index number to bring up the relative's profile page.  From there you can follow the links as described in "Tracing Lineage Using Profile Pages" below to find the information on your original person.

Locating People Using the Index. Many people who are profiled on these pages are not linked into a Family Tree, so you may need to go to the Names Index to find someone.  Here you should use the index number as a guide to finding the desired name.  When searching through the Names Index, keep in mind the index number was constructed using the birth year of the person or the parent's birth year/sequence counter plus a lower case letter.  If, for example,  you are trying to locate a Wannall named Steve (there are quite a few), and you know that he is about 30 years old, begin by looking at index numbers for people named "Stephen" or "Steven" from 1965 and forward. If you cannot find him, look for "Stephens" or "Stevens" with index numbers from about 1925 forward which have a lower case letter behind the sequence counter.  Once you have found the desired name on the index, you may click on that name to go to the profile page.

Tracing Lineage Using Profile Pages.  Each individual profile page contains a short biography (when available), a link to auxiliary pages when additional biographical or anecdotal  information is included, and a gallery connection when additional photos, documents, films, video clips, etc. are available.  Profile pages also include one or more of the following pieces of information: the father's name, mother's name, spouse name(s), and children's names.  In most cases each of these names will represent a "hyperlink", or passageway to another profile page.  Hyperlinks are usually differently colored text and underlined.  By clicking on one of these hyperlinks, you will go to the profile page of that person, from which other hyperlinks relative to that person are available (parents, spouses and children.)  Use these hyperlinks to move up, down and across the family tree.
 

Here are some examples.  If you want to locate all of your first cousins, go to your own profile page and click on your father's name.  From his page, click on his father's name (your grandfather).  The children listed on that page are your aunts and uncles.  Click on each of the aunts and uncles to see the names of their children, who are your first cousins.

You may trace your lineage back by examining the family tree or by following  the profile page hyperlinks for your parents, their parents, their parents, etc., until you get to your great, great, great, (whatever) grandfather.  Although there are earlier ancestors, at this time our deepest link for any living person is to Thomas Wannall, index 1783-01, but not all of us are descended from Thomas.  We have not been successful yet connecting the Wannalls and Wannells, nor have we found the British/American link for the Wannells.  Hopefully the gaps will be eventually closed.