How to Construct a Family Tree Template
Putting together a family tree template is easiest done with a computer and printer. Although you can use butcher paper to make labels with your name, then your parents' names, your grandparents' names and on up through the branches of your family tree, there are free services online that will do the job for you. This will be a time-consuming hobby that will acquaint you with generations past.
Instructions
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Go High-Tech
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Go online and find My Heritage (http://www.uftree.com/family_tree_template.asp). You can use their free service, or pay a fee to upgrade for better features. If you have a lot of relatives and know all of their birthdays, wedding dates and dates of death, the process goes faster. There are bells and whistles to this program, adding a lot of potential to your family tree.
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Upload digital pictures of yourself, your parents, your grandparents and as many relatives as you can find. If there is only one grainy picture of your great-grandmother and you don't have it, ask the family member who does hold the precious picture to take a digital picture and send it to you.
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Write stories about your relatives if you so desire. You can also invite relatives to help work on the family tree.
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Print it and send it off to the relatives when you are finished.
Go Low-Tech
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Plan at least 4 inches per generation with a 2-inch straight linking line between generations.
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Unroll the butcher paper, but don't cut it until you have completed your family tree. Use a pencil unless you are absolutely sure of dates. You may discover that there are small discrepancies between certain events, such as marriages and birth dates of children.
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Measure the width of the paper and put a mark in the center. Write your name and birthday on an Avery label. Stick that over the center mark.
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Use your ruler to make a 2-inch straight line to the right of the label. Make a perpendicular line 5 inches long that bisects the linking line. Make a 2-inch linking line at both the top and bottom of the perpendicular line.
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Write the name of your mother, her date of birth and date of death (if appropriate) on a label. Do the same for your father on another label. Put your mother's label on the top and your father's on the bottom to the right of the linking lines.
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Link the center of the space between the two labels with a dotted line. In the center of that line make a line for the parents' wedding anniversary date. Continue adding generations for both sets of parents in the same manner for as many generations as you can verify.
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Tips & Warnings
You can add your siblings from your parents' marriage between their labels, beneath the wedding date. When you are finished with your tree, you can transfer the information to velum paper and put in the information with a calligrapher's pen.
