There are many different orientations that a family tree can take on, the Genealogist can be named at the bottom as is the traditional method, they can also be listed at the top of the family tree and have their children listed above them, and their ancestors listed below them, so that the ancestors represent the roots of the family; and there is always the side orientation where the Genealogist is listed on either the left or right side of the family tree; the method of orientation all comes down the preference of the Genealogist.
Finding the Information for Your Family Tree
Finding the information to put into your family tree can be as simple as asking your Grandma or as difficult as searching through tons of pages with barely legible writing. As mentioned above, your family lineage and family history is much like a quest, the answers to some of the questions you have about your family are right in front of you, but for the most part the answers are hidden deep within old books, old records, or locked away as family secrets. Uncovering those pieces of information that fill in those blank spots on your family tree can be hard to track down, if you don’t know where to begin looking.
The introduction of the internet to the public has opened a wide world of resources to find the answers to your family questions. Before you might have been limited to having to travel to the places your family was from, which is not always a cost effective; or asking various family members what they knew about your families history which depending on who you ask can get very confusing. So what is a person to do when trying to find out the information?
You have a couple of options, you can hire a Professional Genealogist or you can do the research yourself. If you decide to hire a Professional Genealogist you will most likely have your information in no time, they have direct access to a number of hard to find sources, as well as access to records that may be off limts to the general public. While a Professional Genealogist will be able to get you the information you are after quickly and presented in a professional manor, getting your family tree done this way does not allow you the enjoyment of uncovering the information yourself.
Deciding to uncover the information yourself can be an adventure, using the internet you can find websites that give you access to important documents such as birth records, census records, death records, marriage records, military records, passenger lists from international ships, and immigration records. While most sites offer their services for a fee there are still many sites out there that offer free search tools for all of these important records and lists. You just have to find the time to learn how to use them for your benefit.
You may be asking what’s so important finding those records and lists; are they really such a big deal when it comes to my family history? Well, the answers are simple, yes they are a big deal when it comes to your family history, all those records hold clues to who you are and where you family comes from. Early census records not only give you the names of the people you may be looking for, they also give you that person’s country of origin, when they immigrated, their date of birth, and sometimes they even listed their parents names and countries. For years you may have heard that your family descended from Bavarian nobility, but when you actually start searching out your past, you discover that your ancestors were traveling actors from Bavaria. Without those records you may have always believed the story that you descended from Bavarian nobility.
As you uncover more information, make sure to keep a journal or log of what information you have found and where you found it as you fill it into your family tree. Keeping a record like this will help you from duplicating the information you already have, it will also make your job easier if anyone in your family asks you to recreate your research for others; you will also know exactly where you got the information so it will make your job gathering all the information a lot easier the second time around.
As discussed earlier, the Internet is a major resource in finding information for your family tree; there are a number of sites that deal specifically with Genealogy and family trees, some of the sites are free, but only a handful, most of the sites are subscription based, however they will offer you a free trial for a certain number of days, and usually all require membership. If you can get in under one of their free trials you can gather as much information as you possible can to form your family tree, as most of the sites under the free trial give you full access to all of their resources, including census records, pictures, immigration records, and much more. The free sites tend to have a lot of information as well, but most of it is limited to what others members have contributed to the sites database.
If you’ve searched all the records that you can find and are still missing pieces of your family puzzle, don’t worry there are many more resources you can tap into to find the information you may be looking for. We all know that the internet has tons on information, but it’s not the only place you can go to search for the information. Remember that building with all the books, the Library, yes, it seems archaic to go to a Library and look for information, but now days Libraries have been updated to coincide with the change in technology, no longer do you need to search through those out dated card catalog, everything is computerized. Another benefit of going to a Library to look for your family information is if the Library you go to doesn’t have the information, there is a chance that another Library will. What does that exactly mean? It means that through a community Library sharing program it may be possible for you to get a copy of the information you are looking for sent to your “home” from another library.
Another source you have for finding the information you need for your family tree are your elderly relatives, they after all for all these years have carried different bits and pieces of the family story that you may need. It may seem tedious, but if you are serious about finding out who your family was and where they came from, don’t discount your older family members. Talking about your family with your family can be a great source of information, before you go knocking on their doors though make sure you have a list of questions that you want to ask them and that you have something to record their answers down in, whether it be a notebook or a tape recorder. Most elderly relatives will be more than happy to share what they know, so don’t be afraid to ask.
We’ve covered what you should do when putting information into your family tree like using the Internet, the library, and family members as resources to find the information you are looking for; but what are the things you shouldn’t do? First, just because you share a last name with a celebrity either past or present, don’t automatically think that you are related to them. Celebrities often change their stage names in order to make themselves more appealing to an audience, so while your last name might be the same as the hottest new actor or actress, his or her real name may not really be the same as yours after all.
Many times you will begin a family tree project only to get half way through it and find out that someone else in your family had already completed a family tree; but when you look at it the information in your family tree and the one that was done before don’t match. So what should you do? Don’t believe everything that has been recorded before, other than official records; a lot of times people will start a project and get wrong information or will be frustrated with the project and get careless with what information they put into their family tree. As long as you have done your research and remembered to keep a log of all your resources and gotten the information from official records, then more than likely, your version of the family tree will be more authentic.
Don’t get caught up with trying to find out how far back you can trace your family, Genealogy is not about who can dig the farthest back in time to find their ancestors, it’s about getting to know your past. The more you focus on the details about each family member the more information you will have to fill into your family tree. Don’t just settle for “Grandpa Ivan Leif, Born: April 29th, 1412 Died: June 5th, 1457” go for the gusto, get all the information that you can possibly find “Grandpa Ivan Leif, Born: April 29th, 1412 in Norway, Traveled to Iceland May 25th, 1427, Married: Grandma Katrin August 16th, 1430 Died: June 5th 1457 in Iceland”. The more information you add to your family tree the more interesting your family will be to others.
Don’t go with what you’ve been told for years about your family; just because a story of your family has been passed down for generations, doesn’t necessarily make it truth. Don’t get confused and discount the information you get from your elderly relatives, but don’t take it at face value, what ever you are told about your family, make sure you verify it before making it a permanent part of your family tree. The grand story of your family once having a castle in Austria but due to star-crossed lovers that ran away together thus losing the heir to the castle may or may not be true, you’ll never know until you go in search of the information, it’s up to you to find out the truth.
Lastly, don’t get caught up trying to research your entire family at once. Before you begin your research pick one side of your family to research first and stick with it. You will encounter plenty of different names in your quest to uncover your family so don’t complicate things by trying to cover them all at once. By focusing on just one side you ensure that you don’t miss important dates, people, or places that may be the key to digging further into who your family was. Keeping information for just one side of your family at a time will also help to keep the information you have gathered organized, if you are focusing on just one side of your family you don’t have to worry about whether that last census record was for your father’s or mother’s side
Genealogy can be a wonderful exploration of your family, remember to keep your information organized, don’t limit yourself to what you find on the internet, keep in touch with your older family members, check out your local library, participate in the free trials on the paid subscription sites just remember to cancel before you get charged, get as much information as you can about each family member it’s not about how far back you can go it’s about how much information you can get on each family member. Remember that as time has passed place names may have changed or borders may have moved, so don’t forget to take this into account when getting all your information together. Also, don’t forget about the date change in 1752, while it only affects mainly English and American dates, there are a couple other countries that may have been affected, so make sure to check that the country your family came from was not one of the ones that changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
If you keep all these tips in mind and have an open mind about discovering who your family was and where they came from, your adventure of discovering your family should be a fun and exciting one.
