Genealogy is not just about the past; it is also about preserving the present for the future. So why not keep hold of a few items that may seem inconsequential today but will help to illustrate some of the defining events of your life in the future. Just as you write down the names of the faces you learn about on old photos you find, make the same effort with your own photos so that people will be able to identify you and your loved ones. The following chapter will explore ways of storing your research and organizing your findings so that the whole family can enjoy your hard work, but remember – it’s all too easy to concentrate on the past at the expense of the present. Make sure that you are at the heart of your research, so don’t forget to leave behind an impression of what you were like. After all, you have just become the chronicler for your family, and future generations will want to know all about you!
By now you will have spent many hours writing down what you know about your family, talking to relatives and looking for physical clues and objects that have accumulated over the years. The next stage is to organize this information into a family tree, and use this to choose which path then to follow – verifying information you are uncertain of; searching for new ancestors; or pursuing an interesting relative or family story in more detail.
Creating a Family Tree
A family tree is a diagram that shows at a glance how your relatives and ancestors are related to one another. This will become the foundation of your future work, a growing document that incorporates all the biographical information you uncover as you hunt for documentation in archives, libraries and museums. The importance of building a family tree from the instant you start your research at home has already been touched upon in Chapter 1, but you will learn here just how vital it is to keep updating your tree after every discovery so that you can see at a glance what your next research step should be.
People can get quite confused about drawing up a family tree, assuming it is a more complicated process than it really is. There are many software packages on the market that promise you an all-singing, all-dancing family tree with generational reports, photo uploads and print-outs. But if this is your first attempt to put a family tree together, it’s probably best to go back to basics until you’re more familiar with the procedure, and simply use a large piece of paper and a pencil.
‘A family tree shows how your ancestors are related to one another – and to you.’
This section will show you the various methods of writing family trees and the abbreviations and genealogical terminology used. Some of this may be familiar. If you’ve watched Who Do You Think You Are? regular graphics appear on screen to show you how, for example, John Hurt is related to Walter Lord Browne. Or you may have seen pedigrees published in books or newspapers that relate to the royal family or members of the aristocracy. Even though you may not have such distinguished roots, the principle behind a family tree’s construction remains the same.
However, before attempting to build your first family tree, it’s important to have a basic grasp of some of the terminology used, since you’ll need to describe how members of your family are related to one another.
Understanding Family Relationships
In essence, this will be your family tree, so anything you produce should start with you, with your name placed right at the centre of the blank piece of paper. Everyone else is therefore described in terms of their relationship to you. On this embryonic family tree, your parents’ names will be written above you; your brothers and sisters – known as your siblings – will be either side of you, also underneath your parents; and the names of any children you have will be written below you, with their children – your grandchildren – below them. Above each of your parents will be their parents – your four grandparents – and alongside each of your parents will be their siblings, your uncles and aunts.
Every group of people on the same horizontal line represents a separate generation. Most people are familiar with these terms, but these are all close family members, and you will be working many generations back into the past when it becomes harder to keep track of distant relationships; so listed below are some of the key words used to describe relatives from the extended family, and ancestors further back in time, which are perhaps less familiar.
Blood Relations
The direct line in your family tree is made up of all the people who have been biologically crucial to your creation. Therefore they would include your parents and your grandparents, but not any of their siblings and other descendants – these people are your extended family. Each time you move one generation further back, you need to add ‘great’ as a prefix. Therefore the parents of your grandparents are known as your great-grandparents, and the parents of your great-grandparents are your great-great-grandparents, and so on. Every time you search for another generation in your direct line you will be looking for twice the number of people as the generation that came after that. This is because you have two parents, who each have two parents, so that you have four grandparents. These four grandparents have two parents each, which means you have eight great-grandparents, and then sixteen great-great-grandparents. As you work further back than this, you might find it easier to shorten this description to ‘2 x great-grandparents’.
Extended Family by Blood
These are the people that are related to you by blood, but are not biologically crucial in your existence today. Where possible, you should include them in your family tree – particularly after your first phase of research – but you might want to focus on your direct ancestors and come back to them at a later date.
Nieces and Nephews
Your nieces and nephews are the children of your siblings. Niece is used to describe a female offspring and nephew to describe a male offspring. Any subsequent children of your nieces and nephews are known as your great-nieces and great-nephews, and another ‘great’ is added to the prefix each time another generation is born.
Uncles and Aunts
Your uncles and aunts are the siblings of your parents. The siblings of any previous generations in your direct line are described by adding ‘great’ as a prefix, and each generation you go back another ‘great’ is added. Therefore the siblings of your grandparents would be your great-uncles and great-aunts, and the siblings of your great-grandparents would be your great-great-uncles and great-great-aunts. Some people use the word ‘grand’ instead of ‘great’, and might describe these relations as ‘great-grand-uncles and aunts’.
‘This is your family tree, so everyone else is described in terms of their relationship to you.’
Cousins
Your cousins are the children of your aunts and uncles. These are known as your first cousins. Any subsequent descendants of your first cousins are indicated by how many generations they are ‘removed’ from you. If your first cousin has a child, this child is your ‘first cousin once removed’. If your first cousin then has a grandchild they would be your ‘first cousin twice removed’. First, second and third cousins can only be used to describe cousins of the same generation. Therefore, if you had a child, they would be second cousins with your first cousin’s child. This means that while you refer to that relation as your first cousin once removed, your child would call them their second cousin.
To describe the cousins of any previous generations to yourself, you should