Someone was once quoted as saying “It’s OK that you can’t
choose your relatives, because they probably wouldn’t have
chosen you either.”
Sure, every family reunion has its share of spats now and then,
but think of how well you can smooth things over by showing
everyone the progress you’re making on the family tree.
By now you should have downloaded the newest version of Personal
Ancestral File see first article "Begin
ner's Guide."
The first step to doing your own research for finding lost
relatives and ancestors is to create a four-generation pedigree
chart. A great pedigree chart to use can be found at
http://www.marblevalley.org/Scholarship/Pedigree.pdf
Here are a few important things to remember when filling out
your pedigree chart:
Start with your name in line No.1.
Fill in all of the males on even numbers and all of the females
on odd numbers.
When adding females, always use maiden names.
When writing dates, use the form 05 JAN 1945, not 1/05/45 or
05/1/45. The reason for this is because different cultures code
dates in different ways. For example, in the United States, they
use the form mm/dd/yyyy, but in Canada, the UK, and other parts
of Europe, they use the form dd/mm/yyyy. Using the standard
genealogy form will allow your dates to be understood by all.
Complete places with as much information as possible, even if it
seems redundant or as a given. For example, when writing a
place, use township, county or province, country or state. For
example: “Gwennap, Cornwall, England”. An example of a place
inside the United States would be “Cambridge, Middlesex,
Massachusetts”, or in Canada “Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada”.
If you don’t know the county or town, leave the commas with
blank information. For example if a birth county is known, but
not the town, it would be written “ , Middelsex, Massachusetts.”
Remember: No information is better than Wrong information! When
submitting or sharing your information, you don’t want to lead
someone on a search in the wrong place, or have them assume
information and add the wrong line to their tree.
By following these standard guidelines, you’ll be able to better
understand some of the work that’s already been done and
compiled in sites like familysearch.org and ancestry.com.
Before getting to that stage, it’s important to have at least
your four-generation pedigree chart completed because it will
serve as the launching pad for finding your lost ancestors.
Relatives may need to be contacted in order to get all of the
information necessary to fill in your sheet. So go get started!
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