Six Tips for Creating
a Reliable Family Tree
By R.L. Fielding
If you have wondered about your family history, you are
not alone. As more time passes and families grow, tracing
the lines of your heritage can become more and more
challenging.
If you
have wondered about your family history, you are not
alone. As more time passes and families grow, tracing the
lines of your heritage can become more and more
challenging. Also, as travel has become easier and safer,
families are decentralizing and spreading across the
country or even
around the globe, making it difficult to
keep in touch. In the past, multiple generations of a
family may have been born, lived, and died in the same
town – even the same house – but today, that is seldom the
case. One of the best and most methodical ways to
research your heritage is through the development of a
family tree. Creating a family tree is a great way to
learn about your family’s history and connect with the
past. While there are many ways to trace your family
history, today’s genealogists have a lot of resources at
their fingertips through the Internet and the many other
records available to the public. To help you find your
roots, here are tips on how to research and document your
family tree:
1. Get organized
The best place
to begin your search for your family’s heritage is at
home. Gather any documents, photos, or other family
mementos that might help provide a foundation for your
family tree. Consider creating a file or dedicating a
notebook to track your progress and make notes. Keeping
everything together in one place will allow you to stay
more organized and more easily make sense of the document
trail you will eventually accumulate. As you gather
additional documents over the course of your search, you
should evaluate your organizational system and determine
if it would make sense to divide the materials you have
collected into categories based on family name or type of
document. You will gain the most from your research if
you are able to compare documents easily and use that
information to make accurate, verified additions to your
family tree.
2. Start with your immediate family
After you organize any materials you already have,
begin consulting with your family members. Take notes on
any information you can glean from these resources. You
should ask questions that include basics such as names,
hometowns, family structure, and trades or occupations.
You should also ask open-ended questions that help reveal
stories about your family’s history. This can help you to
not only answer questions that might come up as you are
following the trail of your ancestry, but it will provide
additional insight into your family’s personal story. Try
to gather information about military involvement or how a
period in history may have contributed to your family’s
lifestyle or story. You might also gain interesting leads
by following up on research another family member has
conducted – be sure to inquire about any existing family
trees. You can use information that has already been
researched to help verify your own findings or guide you
in your efforts.
3. Examine birth, marriage, and
death certificates
There are many resources
available online and in government offices that you can
access. Reviewing birth certificates and other personal
documentation can help you learn about family members and
where they were located during their lifetimes. The best
resources are first-hand as they tend to be more reliable
than databases where information was copied from original
documentation. Make photocopies of the original documents
whenever possible so that you can add this information to
your overall file of ancestral information. If you are
unable to obtain a copy of a specific certificate,
carefully record all information from the original
document. Accuracy is key, so be sure the information you
write down is carefully and completely transcribed. This
will help you avoid following up on a false lead due to
incorrect details.
4. Consult military records
When building a record of your lineage through a
family tree, many genealogists do not simply stop at the
names of their ancestors. A large part of genealogy is
learning about the lifestyle of your ancestors and what
events in history were a part of their lives. In some
cases, a family’s connection to a war can help reveal a
great deal about the family’s past. Consulting military
records is a great way to learn about how your family
members were involved in important wars or military
action. Not only can it provide you with insight into the
political and social belief systems of your ancestors, but
it can also help you create a personal tie to a historical
event.
5. Visit graveyards and cemeteries
At
one time, tombstones contained a wealth of information
reaching far beyond a name and dates of birth and death.
Sometimes older tombstones contain information about
children, cause of death, and other information about the
family member’s occupation or involvement in important
historical events. Bring a digital camera or paper and
chalk with which to make a rubbing of your family’s
tombstones. Sometimes a rubbing will be the best way to
record the information. As time passes, the wording on a
tombstone can become eroded by the elements. Making a
rubbing offers the best chance to read and record of the
useful information on a tombstone.
6. Use an online
genealogy website
Online genealogy sites can be a
great way to stay organized and make sense of the
information you have gathered. By proceeding in a
methodical way, you will avoid having to do double the
research. You will also be able to lay out the
information you have in a clear, understandable way. This
will allow you to make well-documented conclusions and
educated guesses about your kinship based on the
information you have already gathered. Using Web-based
genealogy tools can also help you verify every resource
and hunch by enabling you to share your research online
with family members who may live in other states or
counties.
Researching your family’s history can be
both fun and interesting. With a little bit of elbow
grease and a lot of detective work, you can build an
accurate family tree that can be added to over generations
to come. And even if you have trouble with your search
and seem to happen upon more “dead ends” than treasure
troves when it comes to useful information, remember that
any insight or perspective you gain into your family’s
past is more than you knew before. Treasure the
information you can find and keep it alive by sharing it
with future generations.
About the Author
R.L. Fielding is a freelance writer who has written on a
wide variety of topics, with special expertise in the
education, pharmaceutical and healthcare, financial
service and manufacturing industries.
About
MyFamilyology
This article was provided by
myFamily•ology®, a security conscious, Web-based provider
of genealogy software to help you build and organize a
precise family history and a reliable family tree that can
be shared with family and friends. For more information,
please visit www.Family-Genealogy.com/.