Getting Started – Family Tree 101

So now that you have a reasonable expectation of what expect as you embark on your journey, let’s discuss the tools that you will need to actually construct a family and the information and components that make a family tree. I strongly suggest that you invest in family tree software that can create a GEDCOM file. Everyone is going to have an opinion on what you should use. Ultimately driving factors such as cost, functionality and ease of use will be your primary determining factors in selecting software.

1.  Constructing a pedigree.  The key to building a family tree is to start with what you do know and work backwards.  Start with your parents and grandparents and go back as far as you can.  You can fill in the blanks of the things you don't have later.  Include the following information for each person on your tree:

1. Full name (First, Middle and Surname).  Use maiden names for women.
2. Date of birth - If you don't have the exact month, day and year, you may use an estimate year of birth if possible
3. Date of death - if you know, list it. 
4. Marriage, Divorce, Baptismal, etc.
5. Locations - City or town, County and State in which the person was born should be included
6. Additional locations should be used if a person moved frequently to show migration patterns
7. Source all information (see below #3)
8. Once you have the information of your ancestral grandparents (great grandparent, 2nd great grandparent, 3rd great grandparent, etc.) start adding your siblings, followed by your aunts and uncles along with spouses & your cousins using steps 1-7
9. You will continue this step adding the children & spouses of each generation previous to the one before. 

2.  Switch & Concentrate on a particular family line at a time.  Your tree will grow amazingly fast, however I would suggest after adding your 2nd or 3rd great grandparents from both your maternal & paternal lines, that you concentrate on a particular branch of your tree for a few weeks.  For instance, my mother's maternal line (actually it was my maternal grandmother's paternal line to be exact) was pretty much done for me as there was a hard copy of the family tree available.  I spent roughly a month adding information to my electronic tree and then I switched over to my paternal line and decided to work on my father's maternal line (my paternal grandmother's maternal line) for several weeks, before switching back to my maternal line, working on my mother's paternal line.  I would switch back and forth between the various lines and branches to evenly grow both sides of my tree as much as I could.  I also did this to give me variety in my research as most of my findings came from 4 states during my beginning stages.  I used the switch & concentrate method because I would become frustrated with the numerous brick walls that I had encountered.  To get me out of a state of paralysis, I would simple work on another family line or another branch of the same line to keep going and would revisit brick walls when I had become more proficient and knowledgeable in my research.

3.  Sourcing.  It is imperative that you source your information.  What is sourcing?  Sourcing is a means of identifying people and creating a link or trail of the person.  Sourcing is extremely important in identifying people with identical or similar names and CORRECTLY identifying those people.  You'd be surprised how many Nancy Martins there are in a specific town and county at  any given time.   It will be important to link the correct documents to the correct people.  This makes it easier for you and others to review a person's chronology with supporting documentation.

So what documents should you use when sourcing?  The short answer is government records in addition to other sources to include but not limited to:

• Census records (federal & state)
• Tribal Rolls/census
• Military records 
• Birth Certificates (index & records)
• Death Certificates (index & records)
• Marriage Certificates (index & records)
• Divorce (index & records)
• Cemetery records
• Obituaries
• County history books (some included family histories submitted by relatives)
• Chancery records 
• Deeds 
• Bill of Sale
• Courthouse Records (county law books (wills, lawsuits, estate, deeds, trusts))
• Prison records
• Newspaper articles
• Church/Parish records
• City Directories 

4.  Add documents to your tree.  Add the actual documents to your tree by creating media files and PDF's of the documents.  If your sourcing document comes from microfilm or a book, scan the document on to thumb drive and attach the documents to the appropriate person.  If your sourcing documents come from the web, you can create screenshots or if the files are downloadable files, then simply save it to your computer or thumb drive. 

5.  Make lot's of notes.  Sometimes there may not be supporting documentation for a person.  Maybe there is a family story that had been passed down that is generally thought to have been true.  Make notes regarding the event on your tree or keep a folder (hard copy or electronic) of these stories until you can confirm the stories or to reference the stories for clues at a later time.  There is usually a notes section within most genealogy/family tree software in which you can provide and write notes for each entry (person).  Until you can substantiate a claim, debunk or confirm and event, utilize the notes section.