How to Chart Out Genealogy Lineages
Doing a family genealogy can be fun and rewarding. It can bring you ancestors alive. The most visual result of such research is a pedigree chart.
A pedigree chart contains basic information on a single individual's direct line of ancestors. However, some more complex pedigree charts will include siblings of ancestors as well.
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Things You'll Need
- Pedigree charts
- Writing utensils or
- Computer and printer
- Genealogical research
Instructions
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Decide whether you want to write the chart up by hand or use a computer program.
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Industry standards are to use full names, although it is becoming more standard to include nicknames in quotations. Use a woman's maiden name; if unknown leave blank.
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Typically dates are day month year format, with the month using standard abbreviations (April is Apr., October is Oct.).
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Place names are listed town, city, county, state, country. Towns and cities are never abbreviated, counties, states and countries typically are.
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In some charts the surname (also known as a last name) is in all capital letters, however, this is not the industry norm in the 20th and 21st centuries. All information is listed with a mix of upper and lower case letters.
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Each individual has a number, you are number 1. Your father would be 2, your mother would be 3. Males are in the even numbered slots, females in the odd.
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Charts are numbered as well, you are on chart numbered 1. Chart number 2 would start with one of you great grandparents or their parents depending on wither you are using a 4 generation or a 6 generation chart.
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Example: Full Name Birth Date Town, County, State, Country
Slot 1
John Xavier Doe (you) 1 Jan 1952 Hobukin, Green, New Jersey, USASlot 2
James Xavier Doe (your dad) 1 May 1923 Leicester, Leicestershire, EnglandSlot 3
Mary Elizabeth Book (your mom) 1 Sep 1926 Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
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