WAY OT - Tell me what you know about family trees

 So reason #5,609,764 that I am ready to move already…

I want to start a family tree project! Lineage project? Whatever.

I’ve been talking about this since before my mom passed. I have several cousins on my father’s side who want to do it for that side along with me but I’m sort of on my own for my mom’s side (maybe as I get into the research more family will join in).

My plan is to get together a good “tree" that my dad can do a framed piece of artwork on (I don’t talk about my dad much but he is a painter by nature/collections officer by day).

So…has anyone ever done this? I plan to join African Ancestry (cuz, as you might imagine, those of us who are descendants of the slave trade have special challenges in geneology) but other than that I have NO clue where to start. But there aren’t many elders left in my family so I think the time is NOW!

Any tips, advice, pitfall avoidance is most appreciated!

My mom has had great luck finding other branches of the family tree online. What she discovered is that lots of people are helpful and share what info they have.

The pitfall is our family's record keeping. It's harder to track folks down when they didn't use standard spelling. For example: My great great aunts' names are spelled several different ways, so it's hard to make sure we have placed them correctly.

We don't have any elders left since my grandmother's passing.  My grandfather (who has been dead for nearly 50 years) was one of 24 siblings. But as one of the youngest, many of his brothers and sisters were grown and gone long before him, so we are still trying to track them.

My advice is to tape record everyone willing to tell you anything about family history. I wish I had thought of that before my grandmother died.

 Oh that's a good suggestion!

I know I am going to hit some troubles on all sides when I get past my great-great grandparents because my American born ones would have been slaves and the ones that weren't (my maternal grandpa's side) I have no idea how to find as technically my great-grandpa was an illegal immigrant so I know he came from Cape Verde (an island off of the coast of West Africa that was colonized by the Portugese) but not exactly where. So...

This ought to be fun! I am a history buff and there are so many mysteries in my family, not the least of which being where my physical features come from as there are hints of many cultures in my skin tone and facial features but nobody in the family (not even the elders) will cop to us being anything but black.

I shall get to the bottom of this!

I love genealogy!!!


Okay, the first thing you want to do is print out family group sheets and pedigree charts.

Family Group Sheet:
http://c.mfcreative.com/pdf/trees/charts/famgrec.pdf

Pedigree Chart:
http://c.mfcreative.com/pdf/trees/charts/anchart.pdf


Start with your immediate family using a family group sheet, filling in as many dates, places (city, county, state, and country if necessary).  Make sure for all women you use their maiden names, not married names.

Then move on to the pedigree chart.  Put yourself in the #1 spot, then start putting as many names and dates/places as you can.

One place you might find as a great help are the LDS Family History Centers.  I'm not sure where you're at, but you could probably google you're area and see what comes up.  They have access to so many records and census records and it's all free.

Ancestry.com is another great site.

When my sister and I started our geneology project, we started in the cemetary getting birthdates and dates of deaths off of family headstones.  From there we went to the library in the town where they died to look up obituaries on their microfilm.  Look up dates in newspapers a few days after the date of death to find the obituary.  You can get alot of info from and obituary.  Names of parents, place of birth, sibling names, cause of death, etc.  Then when you have names of parents, grandparents, great grandparents, you can go to Ancestry.com and look up census records to see where they lived and what their occupations were.  Be prepaired to spend ALOT ot time researching...but it really is so much fun!  Good luck...I hope you find what you are looking for!

I'm so excited!

My mom was an only child so that generation is easy. My grandmother (deceased) still has a brother and sister who are living so I want to pay them a visit (this is a good opportunity to get to know them better). 

I am a research nut so this is right up my alley.

I don't know anything about researching your family tree, just a funny story. When we bought the house we are living in my girls were 10 and 12. My 10 year old was very upset that we were moving because of the family tree. Long story, short, she was talking about the tree we planted in the front yard of the old house! lol She is a hoot, and she was dead serious!

Additional places to work from are:
family bibles or ledgers
LDS is a great place
cemetaries
eldest living family members
court housees for birth/death certificates
DAR (duaghters of the american revolution) has a vast history
war/defense department pension records
land/realestate records
immigration records, even illegals could have been recorded


Good luck

About 2 years ago, while recuperating from surgery, I took advantage of Ancestry.com's free 24-day trial and spent a ridiculous amount of time during those 2 weeks doing research.  I had quite a it to start with for my mother's father's side (they are Alden's... Direct descendants of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.. came over on the Mayflower, one of the first couples married in Plymouth Colony). 

I was able to track one side of my father's family all the way back to Charlemagne(!) and to Abraham Lincoln's first wife (bet you didn't even know he HAD wife before Mary Todd, did you?), but not able to track another side of his family more than 2 generations!

It was a lot of fun, though.  So you might check to see if they still offer the free 14 day trial.

Lora

I have been doing our family tree for many, many years and there are a bunch of tools and loads of information to get you started on the internet.  I have Family Tree Maker but I got it over 20 years ago.  Ancestory.com is also a good place to start.  Since you don't have any elders, your best bet is to try and get those who are still living to give you all they know as far back as they can go.  Unless you have plenty of time to focus on this project, I would not spend money until you have at least that much.  Then you can start filling in what you know and connect everyone as far back as you can go.  If I remember correctly, you may not get too far since most of the African Ancestory record were distroy in a fire in the 1800.  I am sure just by looking at you that you and know that most of us are not pure anything anymore that you are going to find some surprising and interesting things about your ancestory.  There are also a few show on cable, if you have cable, that will spark your interest and give you some more ideas.  You seem to know all that I just told you as far as the records being distroyed and you already may have a good start on getting the other family members involved.  You just need to sit down and do it.  The maternal side is usually the easiest side but since your dad is still living, he may help out with his side a lot.  I have plenty of contact and references that I can give you on specific areas.  Once you get mor involved into your project, and you have more questions and you need more information or clues on how to get more information, feel free to contact me.  One more hint, if you have family reunions, get those relatives to help out.  Believe me just sitting and talking to them and asking the right question will bring you a wealth of information.  I wish my aunts would have never convienced me when I was younger that I did not want to know about my dad's side of the family.  They persuaded me from talking to those elders that had lots of information.  Luckily I did get to a couple of my cousins who had written a lot of it on paper.  I just had to tie to all together.  Still working on that.  One last thing...no one will be more into it then you and you will have to be a pest to get everyone to write down anything for you so be prepared to interview and ask questions to get that information and document it.  Dates are improtant when it is time to do the research.  Okay I probably said enough for now and repeated what other have told you but you have a lot ahead of you.  Good Luck!!!