Six Tips for Creating a Reliable Family Tree | Valeriani Blog

If you have wondered about your family history, you are not alone.? As more time passes and families grow, tracing the lines of your heritage can become more and more challenging.? Also, as travel has become easier and safer, families are decentralizing and spreading across the country or even around the globe, making it difficult to keep in touch.? In the past, multiple generations of a family may have been born, lived, and died in the same town ? even the same house ? but today, that is seldom the case.

One of the best and most methodical ways to research your heritage is through the development of a family tree.? Creating a family tree is a great way to learn about your family?s history and connect with the past.? While there are many ways to trace your family history, today?s genealogists have a lot of resources at their fingertips through the Internet and the many other records available to the public.? To help you find your roots, here are tips on how to research and document your family tree:

1. Get organized

The best place to begin your search for your family?s heritage is at home.? Gather any documents, photos, or other family mementos that might help provide a foundation for your family tree.? Consider creating a file or dedicating a notebook to track your progress and make notes.? Keeping everything together in one place will allow you to stay more organized and more easily make sense of the document trail you will eventually accumulate.? As you gather additional documents over the course of your search, you should evaluate your organizational system and determine if it would make sense to divide the materials you have collected into categories based on family name or type of document.? You will gain the most from your research if you are able to compare documents easily and use that information to make accurate, verified additions to your family tree.

2. Start with your immediate family

After you organize any materials you already have, begin consulting with your family members.? Take notes on any information you can glean from these resources.? You should ask questions that include basics such as names, hometowns, family structure, and trades or occupations.? You should also ask open-ended questions that help reveal stories about your family?s history.? This can help you to not only answer questions that might come up as you are following the trail of your ancestry, but it will provide additional insight into your family?s personal story.? Try to gather information about military involvement or how a period in history may have contributed to your family?s lifestyle or story.? You might also gain interesting leads by following up on research another family member has conducted ? be sure to inquire about any existing family trees.? You can use information that has already been researched to help verify your own findings or guide you in your efforts.

3. Examine birth, marriage, and death certificates

There are many resources available online and in government offices that you can access. Reviewing birth certificates and other personal documentation can help you learn about family members and where they were located during their lifetimes.? The best resources are first-hand as they tend to be more reliable than databases where information was copied from original documentation.? Make photocopies of the original documents whenever possible so that you can add this information to your overall file of ancestral information.? If you are unable to obtain a copy of a specific certificate, carefully record all information from the original document.? Accuracy is key, so be sure the information you write down is carefully and completely transcribed.? This will help you avoid following up on a false lead due to incorrect details.

4. Consult military records

When building a record of your lineage through a family tree, many genealogists do not simply stop at the names of their ancestors.? A large part of genealogy is learning about the lifestyle of your ancestors and what events in history were a part of their lives.? In some cases, a family?s connection to a war can help reveal a great deal about the family?s past.? Consulting military records is a great way to learn about how your family members were involved in important wars or military action.? Not only can it provide you with insight into the political and social belief systems of your ancestors, but it can also help you create a personal tie to a historical event.

5. Visit graveyards and cemeteries

At one time, tombstones contained a wealth of information reaching far beyond a name and dates of birth and death.? Sometimes older tombstones contain information about children, cause of death, and other information about the family member?s occupation or involvement in important historical events.? Bring a digital camera or paper and chalk with which to make a rubbing of your family?s tombstones.? Sometimes a rubbing will be the best way to record the information.? As time passes, the wording on a tombstone can become eroded by the elements.? Making a rubbing offers the best chance to read and record of the useful information on a tombstone.

6. Use an online genealogy website

Online genealogy sites can be a great way to stay organized and make sense of the information you have gathered.? By proceeding in a methodical way, you will avoid having to do double the research.? You will also be able to lay out the information you have in a clear, understandable way.? This will allow you to make well-documented conclusions and educated guesses about your kinship based on the information you have already gathered.? Using Web-based genealogy tools can also help you verify every resource and hunch by enabling you to share your research online with family members who may live in other states or counties.

Researching your family?s history can be both fun and interesting.? With a little bit of elbow grease and a lot of detective work, you can build an accurate family tree that can be added to over generations to come.? And even if you have trouble with your search and seem to happen upon more ?dead ends? than treasure troves when it comes to useful information, remember that any insight or perspective you gain into your family?s past is more than you knew before.? Treasure the information you can find and keep it alive by sharing it with future generations.

About the Author

R.L. Fielding is a freelance writer who has written on a wide variety of topics, with special expertise in the education, pharmaceutical and healthcare, financial service and manufacturing industries.

About MyFamilyology

This article was provided by myFamily?ology?, a security conscious, Web-based provider of genealogy software to help you build and organize a precise family history and a reliable family tree that can be shared with family and friends. For more information, please visit www.Family-Genealogy.com/.

R.L. Fielding has been a freelance writer for 10 years, offering her expertise and skills to a variety of major organizations in the education, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing industries. She lives in New Jersey with her dog and two cats and enjoys rock climbing and ornamental gardening.
Article Source

Source: http://www.valeriani.com/blog/?p=453

katherine heigl blackberry playbook transgender sega nbc sports monet banksy