aI have been doing my family genealogy since 1999 and with the advancments in technology it is so much easier to find the records that you need. Anyone today can just hop online and start their family tree, find their ancestors and with just a click of the button keep growing that tree. There is only one true problem which is the exact same problem of anyone can do it.
When just anyone hops on and begins their journey they don't always take the time nor have the knowledge to understand that just because Jane Doe born 0000 and this record says Jane Doe born 0000 doesn't mean it is the same person. That same knowledge is required when looking at other peoples family trees where it shows that you have this said person in common but they have parents listed and you don't so you just take their word for it....STOP no you don't unless they have records that you don't which proves those parents are the parents.
So let's work this from the beginning. YOU start YOUR family tree. What this means is when you get online (regardless of what program you use) you begin with what personal knowledge YOU have about your family. Do not add people unless you have personal (not one of the little leafs) knowledge of their existence. This means something that is extremely difficult for us as humans to do in this day and age. Yup sorry to tell you but you are going to have to ACTUALLY TALK to family members. First you talk to your parents, then your grandparents, and then aunts and uncles. If you are adopted or like me and have half of your line unwilling to tell you about the histories then it becomes a little more difficult (you are the advanced group of beginners so keep an eye out for that blog). Now you don't just get to sit down and have a nice chat it is more like attending school because you have to take notes, but your also the teacher and have to ask the questions. You want to know their parents full names, date of birth, place of birth, date of death, place of death and the exact same information for all siblings, grandparents, and children. Once you have this information then you input it and only the actual data that you collected. With that information you are going to start getting notifications of documents that could relate to that person. By looking through them and really studing the document you learn a few things about the people you already thought you knew. The main thing to take away from all of these documents is how to correctly put in a date of birth, or location. With the family members that you learned about that have passed double check the information in the records with those that are living to make sure it is actually about your ancestor.
There you have begun on the correct foot. I highly recommend that from here you begin your genealogy notebook. I have one notebook for each of my great grandparents. In these notebooks is where you are going to begin coding your family. What in the world is coding?
Coding is the word I used for the numbering system used to present your pedigree/ancestry. Here is an example:
you are the first born child of John Keith and Jane Apple so you are KA1. Your father would be K1 and your mother would be A1. The basic reason for coding is because as you journey through your tree you are going to find many ancestors with the exact same name. This can cause a lot of confusion! If you find a relative with the exact same name as another you can go in an edit their name to show your coding for them either under Suffix or in (paranthesis) with their first name. I used my great grandparents to begin coding my pedigree. I then have another folder specifically for my family view which is the downlines from my great grandparents to me. This is what one type of numbering system looks like (lots of examples online just look up numbering system for genealogy...but breate regularly while figuring it out):
a Progenitor
b1 Child
c1 Grandchild
d1 Great-grandchild
d2 Great-grandchild
c2 Grandchild
c3 Grandchild
b2 Child
c1 Grandchild
d1 Great-grandchild
so on and so fourth. Now if you think this is confusing well just wait until you start adding children to your G-G-G-Grandpa because you have to have them in order to enusure that you have connected to your 5th cousin twice removed. So I created my own coding system that works for ME! You will need to do the same. For my pedigree I use the first initial of my great grandparents name and just start numbering them off as i go through the ancestry. If your like me and have two great grandparents whose names start with G then you can use the first two initials of the name or use one capitalized and one lower case. Play around with it in your notebook starting with the family that you know, and figure out what works for you. Online programs do not create these for you so in order to keep it all straight later down the road start this now. This is where I screwed up when I started and now I am back tracking and trying to sort it all out. Learn from my mistake.
Happy digging!
When just anyone hops on and begins their journey they don't always take the time nor have the knowledge to understand that just because Jane Doe born 0000 and this record says Jane Doe born 0000 doesn't mean it is the same person. That same knowledge is required when looking at other peoples family trees where it shows that you have this said person in common but they have parents listed and you don't so you just take their word for it....STOP no you don't unless they have records that you don't which proves those parents are the parents.
So let's work this from the beginning. YOU start YOUR family tree. What this means is when you get online (regardless of what program you use) you begin with what personal knowledge YOU have about your family. Do not add people unless you have personal (not one of the little leafs) knowledge of their existence. This means something that is extremely difficult for us as humans to do in this day and age. Yup sorry to tell you but you are going to have to ACTUALLY TALK to family members. First you talk to your parents, then your grandparents, and then aunts and uncles. If you are adopted or like me and have half of your line unwilling to tell you about the histories then it becomes a little more difficult (you are the advanced group of beginners so keep an eye out for that blog). Now you don't just get to sit down and have a nice chat it is more like attending school because you have to take notes, but your also the teacher and have to ask the questions. You want to know their parents full names, date of birth, place of birth, date of death, place of death and the exact same information for all siblings, grandparents, and children. Once you have this information then you input it and only the actual data that you collected. With that information you are going to start getting notifications of documents that could relate to that person. By looking through them and really studing the document you learn a few things about the people you already thought you knew. The main thing to take away from all of these documents is how to correctly put in a date of birth, or location. With the family members that you learned about that have passed double check the information in the records with those that are living to make sure it is actually about your ancestor.
There you have begun on the correct foot. I highly recommend that from here you begin your genealogy notebook. I have one notebook for each of my great grandparents. In these notebooks is where you are going to begin coding your family. What in the world is coding?
Coding is the word I used for the numbering system used to present your pedigree/ancestry. Here is an example:
you are the first born child of John Keith and Jane Apple so you are KA1. Your father would be K1 and your mother would be A1. The basic reason for coding is because as you journey through your tree you are going to find many ancestors with the exact same name. This can cause a lot of confusion! If you find a relative with the exact same name as another you can go in an edit their name to show your coding for them either under Suffix or in (paranthesis) with their first name. I used my great grandparents to begin coding my pedigree. I then have another folder specifically for my family view which is the downlines from my great grandparents to me. This is what one type of numbering system looks like (lots of examples online just look up numbering system for genealogy...but breate regularly while figuring it out):
a Progenitor
b1 Child
c1 Grandchild
d1 Great-grandchild
d2 Great-grandchild
c2 Grandchild
c3 Grandchild
b2 Child
c1 Grandchild
d1 Great-grandchild
so on and so fourth. Now if you think this is confusing well just wait until you start adding children to your G-G-G-Grandpa because you have to have them in order to enusure that you have connected to your 5th cousin twice removed. So I created my own coding system that works for ME! You will need to do the same. For my pedigree I use the first initial of my great grandparents name and just start numbering them off as i go through the ancestry. If your like me and have two great grandparents whose names start with G then you can use the first two initials of the name or use one capitalized and one lower case. Play around with it in your notebook starting with the family that you know, and figure out what works for you. Online programs do not create these for you so in order to keep it all straight later down the road start this now. This is where I screwed up when I started and now I am back tracking and trying to sort it all out. Learn from my mistake.
Happy digging!