Creating a Family TreeWritten by Trevor Dumbleton
Creating a family tree is a fun and educational pastime that will allow you to delve into history of your family, your ancestors, and all those people who have branched out into large collection of people known as your extended family. These easy to read and easy to create charts of your genealogy are engaging ways to begin your studies of your own family. And, by creating a family tree, you can add your own piece to your family's historical record.When creating a family tree, easiest place to start is with person you know best: yourself. Write your name in a rectangle on a sheet of paper. Draw a vertical line from that rectangle. Then draw a horizontal line at tome of vertical line such that it forms a T-shape. Draw rectangles on right and left ends of cross of T. In left rectangle, put your father's name, and in right, your mother's. The next step in creating a family tree is to draw a horizontal line extending across base of T. Draw as many vertical lines from this horizontal line as you have siblings. At end of each vertical line, draw a rectangle. In each rectangle, write a sibling's name. The family tree for your immediate family is now complete. Now you can go further in creating a family tree. From both your father's and mother's rectangles, draw T-shape and rectangles that you drew above your own rectangle. Put names of your father's parents on your father's side and your mother's parents on your mother's side. At base of each T, put horizontal lines with vertical lines extending down for each of your father's siblings and your mother's siblings. Place required rectangles at ends of lines and fill in your aunts and uncles.
| | Tracing Family HistoriesWritten by Trevor Dumbleton
One of most fascinating, and most rewarding pastimes you can engage in is tracing family histories. By delving into past of your family and families that have joined together to form that family, you can learn about yourself, your parents, your ancestors, and many people who have been born, wedded, had children, and eventually ended up creating that unique entity known as you. As well, you can learn much about what those people did and places from which they came.Tracing family histories can often be a difficult task. However, best place to start is by tracing genealogy. Without names to go on, any family history is almost impossible to create. Thus, a full family tree should be formed and formatted in order to figure out just who these people were, when they lived, and where they lived. Once you have figured out names, real digging begins. You need to find as much information about these people as possible. Anything in public record is usually best place to start. Legal papers can be a wealth of information about people from whom you are descended. Such items as deeds, real estate papers, and loan papers can tell you a great deal about names on your family tree. If they bought land, they must have worked it. If they applied for loans, they usually gave a purpose for loan. These are meat of any family history. With a few little details, you can start filling in a whole lot of blanks. As well, old letters are very useful for tracing family histories. Though letter writing is something of a lost art today, people would often keep letters they received, especially love letters. These can provide fascinating glimpses into people who have gone on before you, as they will often not only speak of their love, but they can also provide interesting asides about where they were and what they were doing. The addresses will tell you where those letters went. Return addresses will tell you where they came from. They often told each other where they were and what they were doing at time. These are not just pieces of paper, they are windows into souls of your ancestors.
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