Starting your Family Tree

Making a Start

If you are beginning to build your family tree for the first time but find the information confusing then I trust this website will clarify things for you. Genealogy is undoubtedly a massive subject but as soon as you get going you will see that it’s not that difficult.

What is a Family Tree

A family tree is simply a graphical representation of your family’s lineage. It allows you to visualise your heritage and ancestry.  Indeed, it is an organisational chart of your family history.  Look at my Starter Grid below and you should get the idea.

What information should I Collect?

The essential details to record are as follows:

• Full Name
• Date and place of birth
• Name of parents.
• Date and place of marriage/s.
• Name and previous name/s of spouse.
• Date of death
• Date and place of burial.

Try to record as many of these as possible. I would suggest recording these in a looseleaf notebook. It is best to keep one page per ancestor and reference each person’s position on the family tree.

Start with the basics and start with the family you know. Begin with your parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. They may already have information about your family which you are unaware of. Some might even have been researching their family tree.

Where can I find this information?

You may be fortunate, like I was, to inherit a family tree, although this can have mixed blessings. Early records may be a blend of gossip, misunderstandings and wishful thinking!  For this reason, always try to get corroborating evidence of each fact from a reliable source. I can certainly speak from experience here.

Reliable sources of information can be found on the main Family Tree Building websites :

How should I record it?

If you want to record only a few generations then a simple paper chart like the Family Tree Starter Grid I have produced here may be sufficient. Download Grid.

Using the Family Tree Grid you write the name and basic details of your starting person in space #1. Then, expand the tree by placing their parents in spaces 2 and 3, and go on.  You don’t have to fill in all the details straight away. You can expand on the chart when you find any additional information.

If you find out more details of a person that won’t fit on the grid, record the information in a notebook using the reference number on the grid to link the two together.

Alternatively, you can set up an account on one of the many family tree makers’ websites. 

To summarise. Start small, keep records easy to read and try to corroborate your source of information.