How do you make a geneology chart (family tree)?

Question

I am really interested in finding out my family history! I am not sure where to look, however, and I cannot pay to use a geneology website. I would appreciate any suggestions!

=)

Sorry - I spelled Genealogy wrong!

I need to look for distant family members because I do not know them past my grandparents. Thanks for your answers though! =)

Oh, another thing: I live FAR AWAY from most of my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins). I don't know if this would change anything or not...

Answer 1

As to drawing a pretty picture, I haven't a clue. This is all about researching for free, which is diffeent:

This is a text file I paste to questions like yours. People ask similar questions 3 - 14 times a day here. You get a long, detailed answer, I don't get finger cramps. It is long because there are over 400,000 free genealogy sites.

It is also long because researching your family tree is as hard as writing a term paper in a History class. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but you won't do it with five clicks. I could tell you everything I know in 30 minutes, but not 3.

If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are not, please edit your question to add a country. Genealogists from the UK answer posts here too. They are more experienced and more intelligent than I am. I'm better looking and my jokes are better.

The really good stuff is in your parents' and grandparents' memories. No web site is going to tell you how your great grandparents decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments cut from tin foil during the depression, how Great Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or how Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960's by smuggling herbs. Talk to your living relatives before it is too late.

You won't find living people on genealogy sites. Don't look for yourself or your parents.

So much for the warnings. Here are some links. These are large and free. Many of them have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

If you try the links and don't find anyone, go to
http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html
It repeats each link, but it has a whole paragraph of tips and instructions for each one.


http://www.cyndislist.com
Cyndi lists over 250,000 free sites.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
The Mormon's mega-site.

http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi
RootsWeb World Connect. The links at the top are advertisements. They mislead beginners. Ignore them and scroll down.

http://www.rootsweb.com/
RootsWeb Home. This is the biggest free (genealogy) site in the world.

http://www.ancestry.com
Ancestry has some free data and some you have to pay for.

http://www.usgenweb.net
US Gen Web. Click on a state. Find a link that says "County".

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx?
Surname meanings and origins, one of Ancestry's free pages.

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
Social Security Death Index. Click on "Advanced". Women are under their married names. They are under their maiden names in most other sites.

http://find.person.superpages.com/
USA Phone book, for looking up distant cousins.

http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi
California Death Index, 1940 - 1997.

http://www.genforum.com
GenForum has surname, state and county boards.

http://boards.ancestry.com/
Ancestry has surname, state and county boards too. They are free.

Please read
http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html
before you post on either one. You may want to read the paragraphs about query boards on
http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html
before you search them.

http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
Roots Web Mailing List Archives.

You may want to read
http://www.tedpack.org/maillist.html
if genealogy mailing lists are new to you.

Off the Internet, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it.

Answer 2

There are two kinds: a pedigree chart, which traces your ancestors back from you, and the kind sometimes called a stemma, wich traces the descendants of one person or couple.

The pedigree chart looks like the right half of a tournament chart. Your name goes on the winner's line, with your parents as finalists, your grandparents as semifinalists, etc., and on back. Usually you put the husband's name above the wife's, so that the top line traces the male line (last name and Y-chromosome, usually) back as far as you can go, but you could get feministly creative and do it the other way around.
Here's an example (set up in the conventional way): http://www.ida.net/users/elaine/pedigre2.HTM

A stemma has the name of the earliest ancestor at the top, with his or her (or their) children listed in a horizontal line (in order of birth if you know it) under them. Then do the same for the children of each of those people, etc. Very soon you'll have more names than the page can hold, but you can also use family group sheets, one for each couple and their children. Example: http://www.jelleyjar.com/ancestor/famform.html
And, thanks to word programs, you can also do a tree like an outline, with the original couple at the top, their children listed by Roman numerals, the children of those people listed by captial letters under them, etc.

If what you're really asking is how to find the information, yes, start by asking your oldes t relatives. Once you've gleaned all you can from them, try local histories, historical societies, courthouse records, and census records. From 1850 on, the US census lists every member of a household by name and age, and after a couple more decades, it states the relationship of each of those people to the head of the household. Many local history books include information on the early families in the region, and historical societies have all sorts of old records in addition to books. County courthouses usually have birth, marriage, and death records, as well as wills, and someone there can probably show you how to look up information.

Finally, we come to Ancestry.com. To look up much, you'll probably need to subscribe, and not all the information posted there is accurate, but it's still definitely worth looking at.

Answer 3

To begin with, some sites have free things. You can try genealogy.com or ancestry.com. I printed some family tree charts for free from one of those.
In creating the tree, begin with you and work backward. Women are hard because sometimes you can't find their maiden names.
On ancestry.com, the 1880 census is free to look at. You might try there. A word of caution, sometimes, its very hard to find people, but stick with it. The message boards are all free, and I actually connected with a distant cousin who GAVE me things. Good Luck!!

Answer 4

Try www.familysearch.org or find your local family history center.

They are usually owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (check your local phone book) but are used by people of all faiths to find lost family information. There are "search experts" available onsite to help.

Answer 5

thats easy they call it family tree cuz it branches out.
first you write down your name, then your parents names, then for each of your parents, you put down their parents names and it keeps going like that. also you can go to www. ancestry.com and see an example.

Answer 6

Ask several of your oldest relatives.