{"id":218,"date":"2010-11-07T16:26:43","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T23:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enchantedfamily.com"},"modified":"2019-03-02T03:22:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T03:22:12","slug":"family-tree-tips","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ladykathleen.com\/family\/family-tree-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Tree Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Family Tree Tips Area.<\/strong>
\nWhat we have here is great articles that will help you in building your Family Tree.  They are articles from well known experts in the field of Genealogy and their source is listed at the bottom of each article if you want to read more from them.
\nIf you are looking to start a family tree or even organize something you already started I would recommend  “The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding<\/a>”  <\/em><\/strong>TNG.   I love the program and have for years.   Yes the website is a wordpress blog, but that was only added later.  I have also been working on merging the two programs to make it special.
\nHere are five points to consider before you start building your online family tree or before you post your tree to a public site.
\n1. PRIVACY: Be very sensitive to privacy concerns of other family members. Mother\u2019s maiden name is a common identification key for banks and other institutions \u2013 think carefully before you post such important details. Your fellow family members are likely to be unimpressed if they discover, when they visit visit www.partypoker.com or attempt to make a new purchase on amazon.com, that someone else has been able to use their account. Often posting such details isn’t a problem, but it is usually a good idea to check. There are a number of alternatives if you decide not to post such information publicly.
\n2. SOURCES: Have you listed the documents for all your tree details? Start immediately to add Sources to your master sources list: e.g., birth registration, graduation certificate, photo of grave stone, 1910 Census. If the data are actually stories from Aunt Ethel or Uncle Hal, say so.
\nPrimary Sources are those written around the time of the event: birth registration, a dated ship passenger list, burial record. Secondary sources are those details provided after the event, e.g., birth dates listed on a census, or details where original documents were not produced to verify, e.g., a birth date listed on a death registration by a doctor. Such details are only as good as other\u2019s recollections.
\n3. ASSUMPTIONS: Make no assumptions about online ancestors, unless the details are documented in enough detail for you to confirm them as your ancestor. There could well be several individuals with the same name, same approximate age, in the same village in 1871! It\u2019s possible they could be cousins or, no relation at all!
\n4. CONTROL: Make certain that you control your online tree details;do not allow Edit status to another person! Instead, invite others in your family to read the tree and let you know of possible errors.
\n5. DETAILS: When using information from online family tree database companies,always look at the source for details. If the source is another individual\u2019s online tree, it is lower quality data \u2013 that is, unless their details include information from Primary Sources. Sometimes you will find the same details in 20 different people\u2019s online trees \u2013 but, 19 of them may have all copied one person\u2019s tree, without verifying any of the details!
\nIt is very exciting to be able to use the internet for your genealogy, but you need to consider the above 5 points as you begin to build your family tree online.The satisfaction in finding the right detail, the right document, and sharing your information with your other family members: priceless!
\nIf you are a relative newcomer to genealogy beginning to build your family tree, then you are probably deep in digging on the Internet and in various libraries for your ancestors\u2019 details. It is a very exciting hobby, and these days with more and more documents and records digitized and available with a click of your mouse, you are able to find wills, censuses, obituaries, and more.
\nBefore too long, you may have several hundred ancestors listed in your family tree. Unfortunately, some amateur genealogists do a great job of research, but a terrible job of recording their information! After awhile, there are likely to be many dates, names, places, but not a speck of proof or any details which can support this particular ancestor in this particular place at this time.
\nThere are several places online which can provide you with ways to cite your research sources correctly; search on Cyndi\u2019s List (cyndislist.com) for \u201ccitation\u201d. Plus, your local library likely has the #1 source textbook written by Elizabeth Shown Mills,<\/em> which you can also look through on how to cite internet sources, or articles in family tree magazines, or your family Bible, etc.
\nSome family tree software programs will help you cite your sources for major life events, and this can be very helpful. Eventually you will be able to print out pages or booklets or even a book of your ancestors family trees; all of these publishing options are available in most family tree software programs. Check them out carefully before you decide which one to actually purchase \u2013 most provide you with 7-14 days free trials.
\nBut another important detail about keeping records relates to your very own family history. I have noticed that people have fascinating information on their great-grandparents or great-greatgrandparents, but very little on their cousins or aunts\/uncles, parents, grandparents. For some reason, we tend to overlook our closest relatives because we are so focused on ancestors further back!
\nSince your family tree is your very own \u201ctrue story\u201d, wouldn\u2019t it be exciting to make sure your own great-grandchildren have some interesting details of YOUR lives? As well as your parents\u2019 and grandparents\u2019 lives? Take some time over the next month or two and make a focus on gathering more information on your closer relatives. Call up your aunts or grandparents \u2013 they likely know much more than you think! Particularly if you tickle their memories with some photographs you have found with no names or dates on the back, but which appear to be about 30-50 years old or thereabouts! Photographs are very useful at helping older relatives remember events, details, occupations, additional relatives, immigration dates, military service, and more. You might want to actually record a relative, and interview them for your records. Make sure you transcribe that record you make as soon as possible, so that anyone else in your family can access it afterwards.
\nLet your relatives know that you are very interested in researching and recording your recent family history, and share with them some of the interesting details you have found so far. I was able to send a 2nd cousin a copy of the passenger list of her grandfather on a specific ship from England to Canada, at the turn of the previous century. From that \u201cgift\u201d, I was able to find out more about her grandfather, including a possible Irish County that our respective grandparents came from in the 1870s. Another 3rd cousin was able to share a copy of a photograph of her great-grandmother \u2013 the sister of my great-grandfather. Wonderful details pop up when you begin to share what you are doing, and ask if anyone has anything that might help in the search. Photograph albums, memorabilia, letters, and more.
\nCheck in with your family members and start recording your own history. For example, do your family members have traditions of how they celebrate certain holidays? birthdays? important family events? historical events? Does your grandmother or your aunt have some fantastic unusual recipes that you still haven\u2019t learned to make? Does your uncle still do wood carving \u2013 which he learned to do in a 1940s prisoner of war camp? There are so many questions you can ask your relatives once you get started. Take photographs as well, and date\/name everyone in the photos, for posterity. Write down those recipes from your grandmother or great-aunt, with comments on when the family usually eats them, or what is special about a particular recipe. Type out those stories that most everyone knows \u2013 about that incredible train trip your grandparents made in 1909, or about the wedding dress made out of lace tablecloths, or about the three little children who died in a polio epidemic in the 1880s, or about how your great-grandfather dressed his own turkeys because he used to be a butcher, or\u2026 I\u2019m sure you can see what I\u2019m talking about! Your family stories.
\nStart right now to make sure that you will be able to leave a true record of your history, in a way that your great-grandchildren will be able to access that history, see the photographs, read the stories, cook the recipes, look at the documents of birth\/marriage\/death\/naturalization and more. In this way, you will be helping your family descendants see themselves in a larger context of history, a personal history, which you have recorded \u2013 this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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