Are You Interested in Creating Your Family Tree?
The most popular method for graphically tracing one’s ancestry is a family tree. The majority of family tree diagrams have a box for each person, and the boxes are connected to one another to show relationships.
Depending on the level of complexity needed for the family tree diagram, each box may also contain additional information in addition to the person’s name, such as dates, places of birth, and so forth.
As generations are typically grouped into single levels, it is simple to discern which ancestors came before this generation because they are situated above it on the tree.
Marriage is shown by a horizontal line connecting two boxes. The offspring from that marriage are indicated by a bracket connecting a pair to a lower set of boxes. Family trees typically develop vertically, but they can also be depicted laterally.
You can make a great selection of family tree templates from Record Click that are editable trees and can be modified by using an editing software called Canva (available free).
The following are a few tips to create your family tree.
Write surnames only in capital letters.
The all-caps method makes it easy for you to tell middle and first names apart from last names, as well as for anyone reading your family charts.
At first, this may seem pointless, but when you see a few names like the ones below, you will realize why we insist on writing in capital letters:
- GAUTIER de LACHENAYE
- Sebastiano DI CARLO.
If the middle names are known then spell them out
Naturally, this makes it easier for you to tell apart the names of the 2 grandpas:
- William Randolph Reynolds
- William Robert Reynolds.
Also, keep in mind that some people used their middle names. For instance, a man by the name of Charles George Michael Hauck was always referred to by his friends as Michael, and that is also how he appears in the majority of US records.
Always record nicknames, and put them in quotation marks
Again, you should provide your ancestors’ entire identities so that you may link their family history to the appropriate ancestor. This is particularly helpful for family members whose nicknames have nothing to do with their given names, such as the person whose name is Everett “Butch” Smith.
List women’s maiden names and not their married names
It is unnecessary to list the married names of your female relatives because you are attempting to list them next to their husbands. Use a question mark or omit the surname if you are unsure of a woman’s maiden name.
Dates must be formatted as day, month, full year
In order to maintain uniformity, genealogists write dates using the European system rather than the American custom of the month, day, and year. They also utilize the month’s abbreviation rather than a numerical one to prevent any possible misunderstandings.
You know 12/8/1836 means 12 AUG 1836, but sometimes it is unclear whether it implies Dec. 8 or Aug. 12. If you don’t know the specific date, you can use qualifiers like use only year 1836, and put it before 1911, or after the date May 20, 1893.