Hello my dear readers! Surely each of you has thought about your ancestry at least once. It is so interesting to know who your ancestors were, what they did, who they worked for, how they spent their free time. Some even look into archives to find out about their great-grandfathers. And today I want to tell you how to compile your pedigree and arrange it into a family tree with your own hands.
It is very good if a family has a decorated family tree at home. How interesting it is for children to learn that dad’s grandfather was a military man, and his great-grandmother had her own barnyard. If everyone knew everything about their relatives, there would be fewer losses in the family, fewer tears, and there would be no need to search for relatives for years.
What is a family or genealogical tree? This is a kind of diagram representing the relationship between generations of relatives. It’s not for nothing that it is designed in the form of a tree. After all, it symbolizes life and procreation.
As a rule, I use 2 Ways to Represent Relationships.
- The first is when the ancestor of the clan is at the head, from whom the history of the family name began.
- The second is when you lead a branch of relatives from yourself.
They can be composed both from top to bottom and from bottom to top. It all depends on which design option you prefer.
How to make a family tree?
Firstly, the most important step in this matter should be the collection of information. It must be reliable and accurate. To compile family tree It is not necessary to know the entire biography of your ancestors, it is enough to know the full last name, first name and patronymic, date of birth, find a photograph, and it does not have to be in color or in adulthood, the main thing is that it is. Be sure to accurately determine the relationship of all family members.
Another question is where to get information. Well, this, of course, is conversations with close and distant relatives - uncles, aunts, cousins and brothers. I think they always have a story to tell. Even every little thing can become useful. Old letters, diaries, family photographs, archives and even medical records can also be an excellent source of information.
How more people will participate in drawing up the family tree, so it will turn out more beautiful, more original and better. Involve your parents, don’t be afraid to call distant relatives with whom you don’t communicate. This is a great reason to reconnect and find support in their faces.
I would like to say a few words about services that “help” establish the connection and gender of a surname. Firstly, I myself somehow fell for this bait, and it turned out that this was just a scam for the purpose of profit. Secondly, in the Russian Federation there is a law on personal data, according to which no one has the right to transmit similar and truthful information to everyone, even for money. Therefore, if you come across a site with supposedly a database, then these are most likely scammers with false and speculative information.
Family tree in the interior
There are a huge number of options for designing a family tree. You can make it as an interior item that will be a great decoration for your home. Guests and friends will always appreciate this kind of ingenuity. Here are some ideas.
If space allows, good option there will be a tree of this type. This will be the highlight and distinctive feature of a black room. Moreover, it is not necessary to be able to draw beautifully. Now they sell special vinyl wall stickers that make it easy to decorate photos beautifully and neatly.
Desktop family trees have been very popular at all times. The only problem that may arise is that the photos will have to be reduced in size or even cropped. Overview images will be of no use here; it is better to take faces. They sell a lot of blanks, for every taste and color: metal, wood, plastic.
The design of a family tree in a frame is popular. You can hang it like a painting and even give it as a gift.
A budget-friendly, but no less beautiful way is to compile a pedigree in special programs and print it out in the form of a large photo card. There are many templates of any subject. Don't forget to scan your photo in advance.
For creative people who like to do everything themselves and use their own hands creative ideas. This kind of tree can be made together with children in kindergarten or as a gift to grandma, for example.
DIY family tree
The branch can be varnished or painted acrylic paint or simply leave it unchanged, just go over it in places with coarse sandpaper. By the way, here you can experiment with color. It seems to me that a golden, silver or simply black branch would look unusual (but that’s just my opinion).
Next, take the pot. Plastic, glass or ceramic, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that it is opaque. Our task is to secure the tree so that it stands level. To do this, take polystyrene foam the size of the pot and simply insert a branch. The cracks along the edges can be filled with paper or other material of your choice. Another option to keep the branch in the pot is to use gypsum. Then the product will be a little weighty. 
To cover the contents of the pot, place moss, artificial greenery or beads on top.
Next is the most interesting part – we design the photos. Cut out photos of relatives in the shape of a circle. Here you need to take into account that they must be the same in size. Cut it out? Great! Then we make the base. From felt, cut out flowers with a diameter slightly larger than the photographs. Instead of flowers, hearts, leaves or stars are perfect. And felt can be replaced with colored cardboard.
You can attach photos to branches in order of family hierarchy. It also doesn’t hurt to decorate the tree with ribbons or beads. It all depends on your imagination. Finally, cut out the label with the name of the fake and glue it to the pot. That's all! Our family tree is complete. Designing photographs with your own hands is a very exciting activity, believe me!
Imagine how nice it will be to receive such a fake or piece of furniture as a gift to an elderly person, where the entire previous and future family will be displayed on a small piece of paper or plywood.
You can also draw a family tree with your own hands. This is the most easy way document your pedigree.
To do this, you need a thick sheet of paper, such as whatman paper or a landscape sheet. The size of the base will depend on the size of your drawing. Consider the presence of photographs and their parameters. However, in any photo editor you can either enlarge or reduce the image, adjusting it to the desired format without losing quality.
So, draw a template for the future drawing with a simple pencil. It can be a branched tree or with a crown. Look at the photo below and estimate the approximate format of your fake. Then think about what you will be comfortable working with: colored pencils, markers or paints. Plan the location of portraits of relatives in advance, using the diagram at the beginning of the article.
Then all you have to do is color everything and glue the photos. A great way to decorate it would be a frame. Thus, it can be hung on the wall or placed on the table.
As you can see, making a family tree with your own hands is not at all difficult. The main thing in this matter is to find and collect reliable information. There can be no guesswork here, because what is at stake is memory, which will be passed on by inheritance. I hope you liked this idea. Good luck to all! Bye bye!
The history of a family is the history of every person; it is full of interesting events and unexpected discoveries, which are not easy to learn about and which are very important to preserve. Natatnik tells how to figure out how to compile a pedigree.
Where to start collecting information?
Ask your parents about your ancestors. It’s worth asking a variety of questions – family history is made up of little things. The most important thing to learn and write down is:
- Full name of grandparents;
- Year and date of their birth;
- Religion (useful for searching for records in parish registers);
- Place of birth and place of burial (if your relatives are no longer alive);
- Names of godparents and their dates of birth (50-70 years ago, relatives were often taken as godparents);
- All children, grandchildren, their full names.
If possible, go straight to your grandparents, preferably for a personal meeting. Take a voice recorder with you or install the appropriate application on your phone, and grab a camera.
Questions to ask second-degree relatives:
- Siblings, their full names, places of birth and burial;
- Place of residence of siblings;
- Full name of parents (i.e. for you, great-grandparents - third-degree relatives), date, year and place of birth and burial;
- Parents' religion;
Just need accurate data?
Write everything down - in any case, this will simplify the search in the next stages. To gain insight into family history, also ask:
- Where did the grandparents live, in what house;
- What did their parents do?
- What they owned (land, houses, chickens, cows);
- Did you live rich or poor?
- What were your favorite dishes?
- Who were your friends in the village, how did you spend your leisure time?
- Which family values did they have?
The questions can be very different, and they will help you get at least an approximate picture of your family’s life. Thus, older people cannot always figure out what their grandchildren want to hear from them. And the questions will help them immerse themselves in memories and tell, for example, how grain was sown, what kind of bread was in the family, what were the traditions in its baking, how children were raised, how their clothes were sewn. Perhaps it will turn out that my grandmother knew how to sew on a machine. And the sewing machine is even stored in the attic of an old village house.
There are no second-degree relatives alive. What to do?
Contact other relatives. What if grandfather's brother is alive? Or his great-nephew lives in the building next door to you. Take courage and go visit your relatives with your list of questions. Generally, people like to share what they know. Ask what your grandfather (grandmother) was like. Ask to see a family photo album and take a copy or photograph of the pictures. If you suddenly ask to take photo cards home to scan them, be sure to return them to the owner. Old people are very worried about the loss of memorable photographs.
I don't know anyone! How to find?
Contact younger relatives. Yes, sometimes they are not easy to find. Go on a search in Odnoklassniki. You will find many namesakes there. It may turn out that, for example, 23 Viktor Viktorovich Virko lives in Belarus. Write to them all! A short message could be like this:
"Hello. My name is... I am compiling a pedigree and looking for information about my 3rd generation ancestors. My great-grandmother's name was Valentina Viktorovna Virko (maiden name). She had a brother, Valery Viktorovich Virko. Tell me, have there been such names in your family? Thank you".
If a short message seems dry to you, you can write a letter. Great example of a letter.
The answers you receive from relatives will significantly expand your family tree.
Where else can I look for information?
At all stages, it is important to ask your loved ones as much as possible about where your common relatives and ancestors are buried. Now is the time to pick up a phone with a good camera or a camera and go to the cemetery. You will need to spend a lot of time here. Sometimes it can take an hour, sometimes two.
Advice: take photographs of monuments with plaques of all your namesakes. Yes, many photos will not be necessary for you. But don't rush to delete them. Create a folder on your computer where you will put all the pictures. Perhaps after some time you will return to it.
Can you search on the Internet?
Certainly. Armed with knowledge about the first, second, third and maybe even fourth generation, go online. Searching online will help you expand your existing knowledge and discover something new. List of sites that can help:
Myheritage.com – here you can create your family tree. The site has the ability to search for namesakes.
lists.memo.ru – victims of political terror in the USSR. Alphabetical search. Just go to the letter you need and carefully study the names of all namesakes. Maybe, cousin your grandmother was repressed. Write down his name in a notepad. This data may be useful to you.
svrt.ru and 1914.svrt.ru – the sites contain information about participants in the First World War. Carefully enter the names and surnames of your ancestors. Please note that the names may have been misspelled, please make up your own different variants their writing. For example, instead of Kolyadich, try searching for Kalyadich, Kalyadzich, Koledich, etc.
pamyat-naroda.ru – information about participants in World War II. Here you will find out what awards your grandfather received, and also find relatives who died in the war. Often, the death certificate for a soldier contains information about the year of birth, place of death, as well as who was left waiting for him at home.
nekropole.info – encyclopedia of people, places and events. This is a public database where everyone can not only search for records about their relatives, but also enter information about their ancestors, loved ones, make family and social connections, connect them with places on the map and events in order to preserve the memory of them.
libertyellisfoundation.org is a database of people who sailed to the United States in the early 20th century. If your relatives went to work in America, it is very likely that you will find information about this on the site. Press the “Passanger search” button and go on a search. Write the surnames of your ancestors differently, because it is completely unknown how the Slavic surname was transferred to the Latin alphabet 100 years ago. Write in English and Polish, replace letters.
familysearch.org is an extensive network for finding a relative. Its advantage is that for some villages in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, scans of metric books are freely available. You can find them through a search: enter the name of the village in which the church stood or stands, and follow the active link. Some users do not recommend creating a family tree on the site, since after that it cannot be deleted.
www.vgd.ru is the most popular forum in the post-Soviet space for compiling a pedigree.
Is it necessary to contact the archive?
Preferably, it is in the archives that the registers of parishes are stored. These are church books in which information about the marriage, birth and death of church parishioners was recorded. Knowing the location of the parish books (pick up a parish book), go to the archive. The website of each archive contains information about work and rules for working in the archive.
What do you need to work in the archive?
- Passport - you will be asked to write a statement requesting work with books;
- Pen;
- Notebook;
- Laptop.
It is strictly forbidden to take photographs or talk loudly in the archive. If you have requested documents and cannot read what is written, you may be able to make a photocopy. However, photocopying is not a quick procedure. Archive workers will tell you how to get through it. Feel free, but in a whisper, ask for help in analyzing the handwriting from other readers of the archive.
As a rule, documents for work in the archive reading room are issued the next day after submitting an application. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to work for several days, since the metric books are large and cover several years at once.
I'm in the archives. What to do?
Write down all the known birth years of your ancestors. Once in the archive, order a metric book, which will contain data for the year you are interested in. For example, for 1910. After receiving the book, open the data for 1910 and look for the name of your ancestor. Having found the name, in the next column you will see the full names of your ancestor’s parents and the names of his successors.
Finding out the marriage date of your ancestor's parents is much more difficult. You will have to order metric books covering a large period of time. Find the section “About those getting married” and look through all the entries, looking for a familiar name. Often successors (godparents) are relatives of your ancestor’s parents. Look carefully at the patronymic name, and if it matches the patronymic name of your ancestor’s parents, write down the surname of the successor under a question mark. Perhaps this surname will turn out to be a new surname for your family.
Having found the desired line about marriage, pay attention to the age of the bride and groom. Subtract the age of the newlyweds from the year of marriage.
The next step is to search for birth records in the books. Unfortunately, not all registry books are available in the archives. It also happens that the baby’s baptism took place in another parish, unknown to us.
How to systematize and store data?
Be sure to draw your family tree from the very beginning. It's best to keep it online. This way you can access it at any time. There are also free programs to create your family tree. MyHeritage Family Tree Builder is one of them.
Make backups of your family trees. Data tends to get lost, but using a backup copy you can always restore your work.
Print out your tree and go to your relatives with a printout. You can take two copies in case a relative is also interested in the pedigree.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
The issue of compiling a family tree has always been considered relevant. However, few people try to solve it on their own. They are afraid of not knowing their genealogy, which is a big mistake. Without understanding anything about this issue, you can try to solve it. Ask why this is necessary?
Firstly, to know the history of your kind. Secondly, this is a way to find out about all your relatives. Perhaps one of your ancestors was a great scientist, a famous politician, or just a popular personality. And why not: to satisfy your curiosity. Let us consider below the solution to the question: how to correctly draw up a family tree.
How to make a family tree
In the era of technological development, making a family tree is not difficult. You need to go online, select the required program and install it on your computer. Good feedback received the “Tree of Life” program, which reveals in detail all the technology on how to correctly draw up a family tree.
Tree of Life program
So, what step should you take first? Start with yourself. Open the downloaded program for creating a family tree, enter data about yourself, then about your immediate environment. Supplement the information provided with photographs. It happens that there is too little known data. Then you should go to a personal meeting. If you have a voice recorder, take it with you.
- The meeting should be individual, you should not gather everyone together, this can lead to polemics and a long discussion. Unnecessary conversations and noisy arguments will only take up time, frustrate your nerves, and make it difficult, rather than helpful, to find the answer to the question: how to correctly draw up a family tree.
- Start your survey with the older generation. They have a lot of knowledge. Old people will plunge deeply into the past. To use time wisely and avoid overtiring them, make a list of questions ahead of time. An example of a questionnaire could be the following:
- place, date of birth;
- when, where did you study;
- where and when they worked;
- with whom they were in a marital relationship;
- how many children, their names, dates of birth;
- where, when he died, if someone is no longer alive;
- and so on in the same way.
If someone has Skype, communication can be built using this program. This will save time. And it’s not always possible to go to everyone. By communicating along a chain, moving from one to another, you can find all relatives. If any data is missing, there is always the Internet. You just need to know who to look for information about.
The interviewees themselves can provide good assistance in finding all their relatives. The story about the family tree should interest them; I think everyone is interested in learning how to correctly create a family tree.
There are cases when many relatives have died, then archive employees will provide assistance. You can make a request there via the Internet or go and rummage through the papers on the spot.
All information received must be carefully checked to avoid errors, since there are many namesakes.
So, the material necessary for the work has been collected, you can begin to build a diagram of the family tree. When using a downloaded program, follow the prompts provided. When you decide to do without the help of the program, to do everything yourself, think about your work plan, the principle that you will follow.
There are several options for constructing a family tree diagram:
- on the father's side;
Pattern on father's side
- on the mother's side;
- tree descending;
- ascending tree.
Bottom-up scheme
You can build a family tree in the form of a tree or a table.
When you’ve thought about everything, take whatman paper and get to work. Place the person for whom the diagram is being drawn up in the center. Divide the sheet into two parts, leave the left one for relatives on the father's side, the right for relatives on the mother's side. Under each name, glue a pocket or envelope into which you can put notes about this person and additional photographs.
Family tree option
When you have taken up the diagram in an ascending line, and its appearance has been chosen in the form of a tree, then the main person will be symbolized by the trunk. Branches extend from it in different directions. The larger ones are the parents, the smaller ones house the grandparents. On each leaf you can put a specific person. Fantasy when creating a tree has no limits. The main thing is to maintain the accuracy of the data and not distort it.
Before starting work, you need to think carefully about everything and study this issue from all sides. Then such work can easily turn into a hobby.
A pedigree is the history of one family or clan. The genealogies themselves and the science that studies family relationships between people are called genealogy (from the Greek “genea” - family and “logos” - word, knowledge). Why are genealogies needed? Every person should know the history of his family well. Just like a tree that cannot grow without roots, a person who does not know the roots of his family, is not proud of his ancestors, and grows up spiritually weak and flawed.
Usually people create a pedigree to preserve information about their relatives for posterity. Knowing a family tree helps a person feel like an important link in the history of his family. It is the images of ancestors that can become the first moral examples for children. Knowing your genealogy will help you feel like heirs to the glorious deeds of your ancestors. You will understand that you are responsible to your ancestors for their good name, left to you as an inheritance, and are responsible for preserving the foundations they laid down. family traditions, which you have to multiply and pass on to future generations. After all, the memory of a person, his good and bad deeds, having outlived the person himself, influence his descendants for a long time.
However, it is not enough just to know about your ancestors and relatives; it is important to maintain good, friendly relations with your relatives. After all, family and relatives are a person’s first support in life. It is to them that people turn in both sorrow and joy. The family will be united and strong if the younger ones respect the elders, and the elders take care of the younger ones, help and protect them, and pass on these traditions to the next generations.
When did the first genealogies appear?
Genealogies are found among all peoples of the Earth. The history of their compilation dates back to ancient times. For some peoples, genealogy arose long before the advent of literacy. For example, among the tribes living on the Pacific Islands, there are people who know their ancestry by heart for up to 80-90 generations. The need to compile genealogies was caused by practical needs. Knowledge of pedigrees helped people avoid consanguineous marriages. Genealogies of kings, rulers, and mythical heroes existed in ancient times. They were often legendary in nature and served to substantiate their claims to power.
Genealogy acquired particular importance in the Middle Ages, when antiquity and nobility of origin determined a person’s position in society and gave him privileges. The share of inheritance a person received depended on the degree of kinship. To obtain various court positions, it was important to prove that your ancestors belonged to the noble class and had faithfully served their rulers for centuries.
For Muslims, knowledge of seven generations of their ancestors is one of their religious precepts. Their genealogy usually consisted only of listing fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers. It was extremely rare that the names of their wives and other brief information were added to the names of fathers.
The Importance of Compiling Genealogies
Historians often turn to the study of the genealogies of historical figures in order to more accurately determine at what time historical events took place, whether this person could have participated in them, and whether he could really be the author of the document that is attributed to him. Genealogy has not lost its significance today. It is important to know and study not only the genealogy of rulers or prominent personalities, but also family ties and pedigrees ordinary people. By studying the history of your family, clan, you can become more familiar with history and geography native land, the country as a whole. You will learn that history is not just a string of dates and facts, it is woven from the lives of many people. You will see that your ancestors also contributed to the development of the history of our country. After all, the history of our people, our country, consists of the common history of the lives of many generations of people - our ancestors.
Methods for compiling pedigrees
One of the names for a pedigree is a “family tree.” It is no coincidence that many people compose their genealogy in the form of a tree.
Typically, the name of the founder of the clan is indicated at the bottom (at the roots of your family tree), and subsequent generations are at the top (where the branches and leaves are). There is another form of compiling a pedigree: the pedigree line is drawn from top to bottom, and the year and place of birth are indicated next to the names. This form seems more successful, since it shows what historical events this person witnessed.
Example of drawing up a pedigree
The sample we provide is the simplest form for compiling a genealogy. Generations are numbered here. Since this is your pedigree, your name is written under number 1, and your blood brothers and sisters are written next to it (if any). You are one generation.
The closest and dearest people to you are your parents. Therefore, parents are written under number 2. In every family, the most respected people are grandparents. They are the third generation.
Next, your great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers are written sequentially. If their children are known, they are written next to each other (where the branches of your family tree are drawn). It is important that all people's names are written down carefully and correctly, and do not forget to note the dates of their birth and death, if you know them.
When working on a pedigree, you need to find out not only names and dates, but also where they lived, what professions members of your family were from, what memories, family
have the older generation preserved legends about them? Have your family preserved ancient documents, letters, photographs? In this way, you will gradually begin to learn the history of your family.
Study, save it and pass it on to next generations!
Previously, pedigrees were traditionally compiled only on the paternal side, but now many people compile pedigrees on the maternal side as well. This makes it possible to compare the life and fate of different representatives of the same generation. Drawing up a pedigree maternal line- this is also a sign of your respect for your mother.
Try to collect as much as possible more information about representatives of different generations of your family. If your family has preserved ancient objects (tools, jewelry, elements national costume) and memorabilia associated with one of your ancestors, let your parents tell you who this or that item belonged to, how it was used, why this thing is important to your family, why it is passed down from generation to generation.
Carefully write down all the stories you hear so that they can be preserved for many years to come. Each family has its own “family nest”, the place where the family history originates, where all members of your family and clan gather. When studying the history of your family, it would be appropriate to pay attention to the history of your village, city, native land, to memorable places with which the history of your family is connected. Native land, native home, native country. These concepts are the most dear to every person. You must live your life in such a way that your Motherland and your family are proud of you. This is what they teach us
Often questions about relatives and ancestors arise in the family circle when grandparents begin to remember their childhood, parents and other relatives. How to make a family tree quickly and easily, without knowledge of genealogy?
Why do you need to create a family tree?
This is one of the most important stages - motivation. He simply will not allow you to abandon compiling the tree after a couple of weeks, but to bring it to the end. There are several reasons that encourage people to think about drawing up a family tree:
- the desire to satisfy the inexplicable sentimentality that appears with age;
- make your children feel respect for their roots, relatives, family history and its customs;
- clearly show your children how large the number of relatives is on whom you can rely in difficult times;
- realize how big your family tree is, feel like part of a large community that has its own destiny and purpose;
- satisfy your curiosity about distant relationships with celebrities, find something interesting and mysterious in your roots and branches.
There is a possibility that you have other motives. Those who are involved in building a family tree professionally recommend not to start investigating their tree for belonging to noble families or classifying themselves as descendants of famous historical figures. Usually this does not lead to anything good, since these searches will cost a lot of money, the evidence will be inconclusive, and the case itself will quickly get boring and is unlikely to end successfully.
How to create a family tree
Paper structures, grouping of relatives, folders with papers are already becoming a thing of the past. Although there is sometimes a need to make some notes, it is best to use specialized programs that help conveniently arrange the found data about relatives and display them in a convenient and pleasant form. There are also various online services that can help you collect data about your relatives.
There are sites where trees are possible. With their help, deciding how to create a family tree becomes as simple as possible. Typically, free registration is required, information is entered for each relative, his family connections and photographs, and the service itself produces a graphical construction of the family tree. There are professional services like myheritage, with a large number of settings, which will not only show you how to create a family tree correctly, but will also analyze the surname, search through archives, etc. Online services are convenient for those who do not take the issue very seriously , or to build a simple tree and design it. According to statistics, websites on average “live” up to 5 years and various reasons may disappear from the information space along with your data.
For more in-depth work on your ancestry, it is best to use special programs, information from which can be saved, archived, duplicated and processed on any device and at the same time be independent of the Internet. Free programs, for the most part, are very simple, have little functionality and are convenient for simple tree building. More professional programs are usually paid, but with them the question of how to create a family tree is even very big family, is solved efficiently and conveniently. For example, the free version of the program has minor limitations, but allows you to get acquainted with its work. IN full version costs about 400 rubles. The amount is not very large, but it allows you to think about how serious you are about your work.
We begin the formation of the tree with ourselves
Once a tree-building tool has been chosen, questions arise: how to create a family tree and where to start creating it? The easiest way is to start with yourself. In the program or service, enter information about yourself, then about your immediate circle - about everyone you know personally and about whom you have information. You insert photos of these people from your hard drive or, if they are not there, scan or re-photograph paper portraits from albums. Attach photos, make connections, enter comments (for example, a short biography) until your personal knowledge runs out.
We continue to form the tree
The next step is meeting with relatives. We arrange a meeting with relatives from the necessary “branches” of the tree, take a cake and a laptop (or better yet, a voice recorder). During the conversation, you can get a lot of information that fills in the gaps in the family tree. At the same time, you can make a big mistake by not visiting relatives, but by collecting a large number of them in one place to interview them. This usually leads to the fact that old people correct each other, cannot find agreement on different dates, argue about events and generally introduce significant chaos into the orderly scheme of your work. Therefore, for those thinking about how to quickly create a family tree, it is better not to take risks, but to talk with each relative separately.
Visit your oldest relatives first. They can tell you most about distant relatives, time periods, and if they are in a good position, they will allow you to use their rare photographs in albums.
It will be more convenient to conduct a conversation if, before starting it, you draw up a mini-questionnaire of 10-15 questions: first and last names, important dates life (birth, wedding, life events, death), children and parents.
We continue to collect information
After we have collected data from everyone who was nearby, the next step is to communicate with those who live far away, in other cities and countries. The easiest way to communicate with them is by phone, Skype or via social media. After talking to them, you can ask them questions and briefly tell them how to create a family tree. They can build their own branch and send it to you to add to your big tree. This is very convenient, since it is quite difficult to do such work alone. Therefore, by getting your relatives interested in this process, you can make your work much easier. You can promise them a free copy of the tree when it is completed or the maximum possible has been collected
Working with archives and databases
The last step of collecting information is working with archives. After collecting all possible information from “living” sources and their memories, the next step is to work with paper and electronic archives. This work is especially useful in cases where the branch broke at some stage and it is unknown, for example, who the great-great-grandfather married, or on what front and when the great-grandfather died in the Finnish War, what awards the grandfather received during the war. Such information can be obtained from various archives or databases. Be sure to double-check the information, as there are often namesakes, even full namesakes of people, otherwise your search may go into other people’s “trees.”
Schemes for building a family tree
Once the information is collected, the question arises of how to create a family tree. The layout and placement may vary. The difference in the schemes is the person placed as the basis. You can build from a famous representative of the genus to the modern generation. This option more clearly shows the presence of children from this ancestor and their division into different family branches.
There are still options for how to create a family tree. An example of a standard scheme, the most common, is shown in the figure. The tree is usually built like this: you are at the bottom, your parents are above, then your grandparents, etc. The branches expand from bottom to top. Below are the children. You designate yourself as the basis.
