Learn how to chart your own family's history and genealogy and find out who all you are actually related to!
So, how do you find out who your relatives are? If someone in your family hasn't already compiled one, the first step is to build your genealogy chart or your family tree. There are several software programs on the market today that you can use with your computer to do this. However, you can easily begin your chart by using a large piece of paper and a pencil. How large the paper needs to be depends on how far back you want your family tree to extend.
Next to your name will be your spouse' s name, birth date, birth place. Draw a straight line from you to your spouse to show the relationship. Below you and your spouse, draw more lines downward and mark down your children are and their information.
If any of your children are married, continue your genealogy chart on down to include your son in laws, daughter in laws, and grandchildren. If your family includes great grandchildren, and maybe even more generations, just keep going on down the piece of paper.
Now comes the harder part: now that you have charted your family from you and your spouse to the end thus far, it's time to go back to your name and chart your family backwards. Draw a line from your name up and mark down your father's name, birth date, and place of birth. Do the same with your mother's name, and be sure to provide her maiden name. If you're making a family tree of your father's side of the family, for example, you'll need to mark down his parents, then his brothers and sisters, if there are any. Draw another line to show your great grandparents, their names, birth places, and the date they married. If you don't have this information, you'll need to question family members who might know. They might have family Bibles, Wills, land deeds, personal letters, pictures, and other items from the far past that will help you find out more information you need.
Otherwise, you'll need to visit your local public library or the court house. These two places are chock full of records, newspapers, legal documents, and archives from the past. Also, the Internet offers free information about families. You may also choose to pay a genealogy site where you can get even more valuable information.
How far back do you go in your family genealogy chart? This answer is, as far as you dare! You may choose to grow your family tree branches so they show five, eight, ten, or more generations of your blood family!
You can even research to find out the origin of your sir name and add that information to your chart!
