How to Trace Your Family Tree

There are many different ways to arrange your lineage into a family tree, which depicts the family's genealogy. The methods listed below are three of the most popular.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Ascendant Chart (also known as Ancestor Diagram)

1. Search your house or ask family members if they have a genealogy chart before you begin researching on your own - you may save lots of time.
2. Begin this diagram with you, then chart your ancestors backward in time.
3. Write your name halfway down on the left side of a piece of paper turned horizontally; include the date and place of your birth.
4. Print your father's name above and to the right of your name. Include the dates and places of his birth, marriage and, if applicable, death.
5. Write your mother's name below and to the right of your name. Add the dates and places of her birth, marriage and, if appropriate, death.
6. Write the name of your paternal grandfather above and to the right of your father's name, including all necessary information mentioned above.
7. Write the name of your paternal grandmother below and to the right of your father's name, adding appropriate details.
8. Repeat this pattern of information for your maternal grandparents and for all other ancestors you wish to trace.

Descendant Chart in Graphic Form

9. Begin this type of chart with the progenitor of a line and track descendants through successive generations.
10. Write at the top of your paper, side by side, the names of the first husband and wife you'd like to document; include dates and places of birth, marriage and death.
11. Draw a box around each name and connect them with a horizontal line, indicating marriage.
12. Draw a vertical line down from the progenitors.
13. Connect this line to the names of their children, which should fall on the second row.
14. Add the name of each child's spouse, indicating matrimony with a horizontal connecting line.
15. Include the necessary birth, death and marriage information for each person you include.
16. Repeat this documentation for succeeding generations until you reach the present time.

Descendant Chart in Text Form

17. Write "1" and the name of the progenitor at the top of your paper.
18. Go to the next line, indent a little, and write the name of his wife.
19. Drop to the next row, indent even more and write "2" and the name of the oldest child.
20. Add the second child's name on the next line, also preceded by "2" and indented the same amount as the first child.
21. Repeat for all children.
22. Duplicate these steps until you reach the descendants in the present time.
23. Include dates and places of birth, death and marriage next to each name.

Tips & Warnings

• Ancestor diagrams only track direct bloodlines, omitting "collateral" branches, which include siblings, aunts/uncles and nieces/nephews.
• It's customary to write the father's name above the mother's name in this sort of pedigree.
• Each generation is numbered, with all members of the same generation having the same number (1, 2, 3, etc). Spouses, entering the family from outside, are not numbered.