How to Make a Family Tree and Discover Your Fascinating Family History!
Making a family tree requires that you study and trace your family pedigree.
You will be required to collect names of family members, living and deceased, connecting with relatives who are primary, secondary or related by circumstantial evidence thus allowing you to build a cohesive family tree.
It requires calls, documentation of information retrieved, tracking leads and general detective work about people that are mentioned in passing.
I decided to start my search by making a phone call to the most natural, historian in my family.
My mother.
I make the phone call, "Mom, you won't believe it, yes, yes I know its nearly midnight, yes I know you are going to sleep, but you're not going to believe it, I found the link to grandad's maternal family...
I know, I'll send it through now.
Did you know Bertha? Is she related?" This is just one of many conversations that are involved when you start on that journey of researching your family history.
It's amazing what you will unearth on your way and it will astound you how much time you can lose as you pursue and use all of your skills and memories to find obscure relations.
You can take weeks or months just tracing a line in your tree, working out the details of who, what, when and where, only to be stymied by a missing name or link, only to find that, days later more information comes to you making it possible to put it all together..
Researching your family tree can become a mesmerizing pastime, a leisure pursuit that can be your weekend escape or you can take it on as a full time obsession, involve your family and relatives.
Most of all, it will always be great fun, a wonderful trek down the history of your family line and a really unique way to meet and connect with distant relatives.
With new technology like the Internet, researching your past is easier than it was even five years ago.
You can Google anything or anyone.
Have you ever typed your own name into the Google search box with quotes around it.
If you haven't been living under a rock, you will find yourself.
If you type your last name, you will undoubtedly find a wealth of probably relatives you never knew you had.
It is now so much easier.
Trudging through churches, graveyards and old microfiche racks at the library are a thing of the past.
Most research places are now virtual in US, UK, Australia, and Canada.
In other words, it can be done online.
Where and How do you Start? That's always the question when it comes to genealogy.
Beyond your immediate family, how much do you know.
Well, of course, you start at home at the family that stares at you every night.
So, the first place you can start with your family tree is right at home, and believe it or not, the people you break bread and watch television with are a wealth of information.
Believe it or not, you can discover lots about your family really quickly.
Don't be shy.
Get out there, get on the phone, rekindle a relationship with Uncle Harry.
Speak to your relatives, and be ready for the most shocking,hilarious and weird stories, a big dose of the family gossip,years of passed down "knowledge" and a couple of urban legends that directly relate to your family history.
You know, Cousin Joey sold cars for a living; he was also an axe murderer in his spare time.
This is the stuff of legend and you should be craving, looking and listening for it at every turn - it is the lifeblood of any dedicated family tree researcher.
During my investigation, I couldn't find any information on my wife's maternal ancestors.
I happened to mention this at a family picnic and was told by her aunt that the name we were searching for had changed in its spelling! That small bit of data sent us tumbling down a path that was rife with gossip, relatives and folks who we never would've found had it not been for 82 year old Aunt Mamie.
She also shared with us why it had changed, which explained some of the problems we were having which I won't go into in this article.
But it was quite interesting, and our family line grew exponentially.
Within your close family relatives, you probably have more astounding tales than you could ever imagine.
There will be historic feats of bravery, times of unheralded compassion, and even at tales of tragic regret.
I discovered a myriad of fantastic stories about my grandfather, who during World War II, rescued a man from a collapsed bridge, under heavy fire, and years later met him in a business meeting.
Six degrees of separation.
Life and the universe is small.
There were stories of the wheelwright who attained riches, when the new Tetley's brewery was built, and lost it all in card game! Family history is not a listing of names and dates.
It's your ancestors lives, stories tell us that reveal where we came from, more about ourselves, our family and why we are who we are today.
It is so much more than numbers, names and dates on a chart.
Gossip, fantasy and facts When you begin talking to your relatives record everything they tell you.
No matter how trivial the comments might seem, they could tie in to something later on.
Like any good investigator, you never know when the records will become vital.
Use a tape recorder or mp3 recorder so that you don't miss anything.
Itwill save time and ensure you take dictation from the tape at your leisure.
Forget scribbling.
Use technology.
You want to record: 1.
Dates - Any dates given by family members are good, no matter what the event.
Weddings, christenings, engagements, births and deaths.
They may be only approximations or downright wrong, but they are a good starting point.
2.
Locations - Where did your family come from, where did people get married, hospitals they were born in, where did they live.
Some of these may be pretty vague, but they may be useful later.
3.
Names - Names are important, middle names, nicknames, last names with spelling changes - all of these are important.
Ask older relatives and find out if they were they named after someone special (aunt, uncles, grandparents).
This takes you further back into time and often names are passed down generations.
Did people have family names, such as Jack in place of John, that aren't their real name but were their handle or nickname.
4.
Occupations - What jobs did people do, where did they work, did they fight in the war, where did they serve? 5.
Stories - Are there any interesting stories? Stories are at the root based in fact.
Even if it sounds wild, it probably still have started somewhere.
Was there gossip about certain family members, did they have children out of wedlock? Stories are a way of passing down vital information.
6.
Documents - Any, and I mean any documents you can find need to be treated almost religiously.
The documents can be anything, soldiers pension; birth, marriage and death certificates; record of service books; christening invites ; you will be surprised at what wealth of information can be gathered from many seemingly minor documents.
Remember you are a investigator of history and any clues you collect now, will save you time later! If you want to know how to make a family tree successfully then the key is tenacity and good research.
And, whatever you do, don't forget to have fun with it.
You will be required to collect names of family members, living and deceased, connecting with relatives who are primary, secondary or related by circumstantial evidence thus allowing you to build a cohesive family tree.
It requires calls, documentation of information retrieved, tracking leads and general detective work about people that are mentioned in passing.
I decided to start my search by making a phone call to the most natural, historian in my family.
My mother.
I make the phone call, "Mom, you won't believe it, yes, yes I know its nearly midnight, yes I know you are going to sleep, but you're not going to believe it, I found the link to grandad's maternal family...
I know, I'll send it through now.
Did you know Bertha? Is she related?" This is just one of many conversations that are involved when you start on that journey of researching your family history.
It's amazing what you will unearth on your way and it will astound you how much time you can lose as you pursue and use all of your skills and memories to find obscure relations.
You can take weeks or months just tracing a line in your tree, working out the details of who, what, when and where, only to be stymied by a missing name or link, only to find that, days later more information comes to you making it possible to put it all together..
Researching your family tree can become a mesmerizing pastime, a leisure pursuit that can be your weekend escape or you can take it on as a full time obsession, involve your family and relatives.
Most of all, it will always be great fun, a wonderful trek down the history of your family line and a really unique way to meet and connect with distant relatives.
With new technology like the Internet, researching your past is easier than it was even five years ago.
You can Google anything or anyone.
Have you ever typed your own name into the Google search box with quotes around it.
If you haven't been living under a rock, you will find yourself.
If you type your last name, you will undoubtedly find a wealth of probably relatives you never knew you had.
It is now so much easier.
Trudging through churches, graveyards and old microfiche racks at the library are a thing of the past.
Most research places are now virtual in US, UK, Australia, and Canada.
In other words, it can be done online.
Where and How do you Start? That's always the question when it comes to genealogy.
Beyond your immediate family, how much do you know.
Well, of course, you start at home at the family that stares at you every night.
So, the first place you can start with your family tree is right at home, and believe it or not, the people you break bread and watch television with are a wealth of information.
Believe it or not, you can discover lots about your family really quickly.
Don't be shy.
Get out there, get on the phone, rekindle a relationship with Uncle Harry.
Speak to your relatives, and be ready for the most shocking,hilarious and weird stories, a big dose of the family gossip,years of passed down "knowledge" and a couple of urban legends that directly relate to your family history.
You know, Cousin Joey sold cars for a living; he was also an axe murderer in his spare time.
This is the stuff of legend and you should be craving, looking and listening for it at every turn - it is the lifeblood of any dedicated family tree researcher.
During my investigation, I couldn't find any information on my wife's maternal ancestors.
I happened to mention this at a family picnic and was told by her aunt that the name we were searching for had changed in its spelling! That small bit of data sent us tumbling down a path that was rife with gossip, relatives and folks who we never would've found had it not been for 82 year old Aunt Mamie.
She also shared with us why it had changed, which explained some of the problems we were having which I won't go into in this article.
But it was quite interesting, and our family line grew exponentially.
Within your close family relatives, you probably have more astounding tales than you could ever imagine.
There will be historic feats of bravery, times of unheralded compassion, and even at tales of tragic regret.
I discovered a myriad of fantastic stories about my grandfather, who during World War II, rescued a man from a collapsed bridge, under heavy fire, and years later met him in a business meeting.
Six degrees of separation.
Life and the universe is small.
There were stories of the wheelwright who attained riches, when the new Tetley's brewery was built, and lost it all in card game! Family history is not a listing of names and dates.
It's your ancestors lives, stories tell us that reveal where we came from, more about ourselves, our family and why we are who we are today.
It is so much more than numbers, names and dates on a chart.
Gossip, fantasy and facts When you begin talking to your relatives record everything they tell you.
No matter how trivial the comments might seem, they could tie in to something later on.
Like any good investigator, you never know when the records will become vital.
Use a tape recorder or mp3 recorder so that you don't miss anything.
Itwill save time and ensure you take dictation from the tape at your leisure.
Forget scribbling.
Use technology.
You want to record: 1.
Dates - Any dates given by family members are good, no matter what the event.
Weddings, christenings, engagements, births and deaths.
They may be only approximations or downright wrong, but they are a good starting point.
2.
Locations - Where did your family come from, where did people get married, hospitals they were born in, where did they live.
Some of these may be pretty vague, but they may be useful later.
3.
Names - Names are important, middle names, nicknames, last names with spelling changes - all of these are important.
Ask older relatives and find out if they were they named after someone special (aunt, uncles, grandparents).
This takes you further back into time and often names are passed down generations.
Did people have family names, such as Jack in place of John, that aren't their real name but were their handle or nickname.
4.
Occupations - What jobs did people do, where did they work, did they fight in the war, where did they serve? 5.
Stories - Are there any interesting stories? Stories are at the root based in fact.
Even if it sounds wild, it probably still have started somewhere.
Was there gossip about certain family members, did they have children out of wedlock? Stories are a way of passing down vital information.
6.
Documents - Any, and I mean any documents you can find need to be treated almost religiously.
The documents can be anything, soldiers pension; birth, marriage and death certificates; record of service books; christening invites ; you will be surprised at what wealth of information can be gathered from many seemingly minor documents.
Remember you are a investigator of history and any clues you collect now, will save you time later! If you want to know how to make a family tree successfully then the key is tenacity and good research.
And, whatever you do, don't forget to have fun with it.
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