Dumes Key: AEa The 'Dumes Key' is an easy way to determine someone's place in the family tree.

At the top of the tree are brothers Chaim (A), Jossel-Leib (B) and Schender (C). Each generation adds a letter; the letter represents your birth order, A for the 1st, B for the 2nd, etc.

So Sarah, first child of Chaim, is AA. Her husband, Jacob Kaplan, is Aa, the lower-case a indicating that he married into the Dumes family.

I've also used the lower-case letter for my two step-sons to indicate a non-bloodline Dumes relationship.

They were married in 1983.