How Does a Family Tree Work?
Other People Are Reading
-
List of Relatives
-
A family tree is what is commonly referred to as a collection of a person's ancestors or relatives. Creating your family tree or charting your family's history can be as simple as starting a generation or two back and charting the branches going forward or to tracing your lineage back many generations. The popular interest in genealogy, which is the exploration of family history, has made it easier to pursue your own family history .
Gather the Family Facts
-
Who is related to who and how? Whatever generation you choose to start your family history with, you will start with a husband and wife. Information to include are dates and places of birth, baptism, marriage, death or burial. Women should be listed with their maiden names. Next you would list the children of this marriage and note their pertinent information, such as name, gender, date and location of birth, marriage or partnership, and death. Children should be listed by birth order. It is also a good idea to document the source of your information for future reference and documentation. Some people find it easier to work backwards from the present generation to the past and to trace their ancestors back as far as they are able. Potential sources of information are relatives, family documents and the Internet.
-
What to Do With the Facts
-
Family trees can be prepared as descendant charts, family group sheets, photographic pedigree charts, a traditional tree format, by hand or on a computer. They can be made into gifts and displays. There are now many pre-printed or computer-generated templates available. Some are traditional tree motifs complete with foliage and branches, while others are charts. It can be a very time consuming process depending on factors such as how much of the information you have readily available and the size of the family. The time invested will, however, create lasting documentation for the current and future generations of your family.
-
Resources
- Photo Credit Kate Woods
