Not everyone can boast a good knowledge of family tree, but it is a part of the cultural heritage. It is necessary to take care of preserving family history – there are different ways to do this.

A family tree

Everyone periodically thinks about their roots, about what constitutes a genealogical tree. Thanks to family stories and legends, there is a sense of unity with their relatives. And also intra-family ties are built. People analyze the deeds of their great-grandfathers, begin to take pride in the country.

A genealogical tree is also called a family tree – a scheme that describes all the connections within one family or clan. Usually it has a tree configuration, with the ancestor of the dynasty shown at the bottom. The branches are the family lines.

The tree is the oldest symbol of Life. Its image symbolizes the connection between generations – past, present and future.

The roots most often represent ancestors, and the trunk is a symbol of the present – the people who are alive now.

The branches, crown and leaves represent the future of the family.

In most cases, the depth of branching of such a tree covers several generations simultaneously. The information shown on the chart may vary.

When all direct descendants of one particular person are indicated on the tree, it will branch strongly. On the outer levels in such cases there are numerous relatives.

The chart shows only the known ancestors of the person who was involved in its compilation. Side branches are more often cut off in order to present the information in a more compact way.

You can also come across trees covering only family members with a particular surname, for example, all the men of the same family. Married descendants in the female line are excluded from such a scheme.

There are several kinds of genealogical trees; they can be horizontal or vertical.

The first type is often found in the family archives of the inhabitants of European countries. The ancestors on such a tree are depicted on the left side, and the branches go in a horizontal direction. In addition to direct ancestors with descendants, other blood relatives can be included in the scheme. This is the so-called mixed variant.

The vertical genealogical tree is also called an ascending tree. The child is made the head of a tree from him in the parties go branches – parents. From each of the parents extend two more branches – the grandparents of the child. In this format, direct ancestors of one particular person are identified.

Sometimes you can come across circular schemes resembling a bird. The mother’s ancestors are placed on the right side and the father’s on the left. In the center is the child.

Keeping family photos and documents

It’s important to save family photos with documents and to videotape daily life. Even small fragments that were recorded on the camera and on the phone are reviewed with great pleasure. But it is important to take care of their systematization.

You need to find time to restore old family photos and digitize video tapes, which recorded important events.

Many people videotape family holidays, and rightly so. Not only adults but also children can be cameramen in this case. Mini-interviews are welcome, as are giving copies of videos to everyone who was at the party.

On camera, it is recommended to record the stories of older relatives, they usually love to share details from their lives.

A good idea is to print digital photos, create albums and photo books. Start a scrapbook with pictures of family members, so children know their relatives from an early age.

On children’s drawings and photos, be sure to put the dates on the back.

You can record children’s voices at different stages of their growing up.

In a family history album, it won’t hurt to place a family tree in brief, letters from great-grandparents from the fountain, handwritten down on paper events from the lives of relatives.

Stories from older family members

It is important to take notes on the stories of older relatives. Communicate more with older people, because they often remember interesting stories.

It will not be superfluous to tell the younger generation about the origin of the family surname. You can also tell children stories from your own youth.

Find out from older relatives who they remember – this will help in compiling a family tree.Many families have a tradition of family dinners, inviting both close and distant relatives and retelling family stories.

Communication with the child needs to build so that the study of the history of his native country in school, he related it to the events in his own family, remembering grandparents and great-grandparents.

Using online resources

Online resources can help in preserving information about family history. You can create your own website and publish information there about documents found in archives, place a genealogical tree. It is easier for relatives to give a link to a resource than to be engaged in forwarding piles of papers, depicting a family tree.

Anyone who is passionate about genealogical searches should register on topical sites. There are many resources dedicated to genealogy. In the profiles on the forums it is necessary to specify what surnames are searched and in what regions.

Some sites provide the opportunity to maintain their own blog. Publication of mini-articles about the history of searching, and information about the documents one managed to obtain. Making reposts to social media won’t hurt either.

Preserve your family’s history to ensure that it is accessible to descendants, and use a variety of ways to do this, including the most up-to-date.

The post Ways to preserve information about your family history appeared first on Gen-Home.

It is easier to manage with the following services, which are available online.

Family Tree Builder comes first, followed by RootsMagic. In some cases, a particular person needs to pick up a program to suit their needs. Consider a list of the most common genealogy services.

MyHeritage

After registering with the service you can create your own online genealogical tree, create a calendar of family events and more. It is possible to order a DNA test for an additional cost.

Family Tree Builder

The Family Tree Builder program is described in detail on the official website.

Using the program you can build a family tree with photos, with the program you can set a background image for the tree. If desired, you can display the place and dates of birth and marriage, place of residence, profession and other information. Creates family trees, you can display statistics.

RootsMagic

Program with clear interface for making a family tree and saving documents from the past of your family, your relatives.

Canva

Service for creating a variety of graphic objects: design citations, group covers, media objects. The site also has original layouts for building a genealogical tree. The convenience of the service is that the created family trees can be downloaded and printed in a photo salon or print shop.

Search the site for “family tree”.

GenoPro

With GenoPro you can build a genealogical tree and a family tree. After the data on relatives is entered, a graphic representation of the family tree can be fully displayed.

Family Tree Builder: 4 types, how to build a family tree beautifully and correctly

GRAMPS

Free genealogical software, for managing genealogical databases. In the program you can create and track the life path of ancestors. Works with many formats for storing databases.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF)

A free program for Windows, a software platform for completing and creating a family and ancestral family tree.

Relatives

The program Relatives is suitable for building genealogical trees of any complexity. It has powerful tools, clear and visual graphics with a convenient search for a family tree.

Geni

Free service for creating a genealogical tree. The worldwide Geni family tree reunites over 132 million people worldwide.

GenealogyJ

A free program for making a family genealogical tree. Great for structuring information about relatives.

The post Top genealogical tree software appeared first on Gen-Home.

The scheme of the family tree includes:

• The tree is the most ancient symbol of Life. The image of the family tree reflects the connection of three generations from the past, present and future.
• Usually the roots of the tree represent the ancestors, the oldest members of the family.
• The trunk symbolizes the present, the people now living.
• The branches, crown, and leaves represent the future of the family and the continuation of the lineage.

Usually the depth of branching of such a tree covers several generations at once. In this case, the information that is indicated on the scheme or tree can be different:

If all direct descendants of one particular person are indicated on the tree, the schema will be highly branched with a large number of relatives on the outer levels.
Only the researcher’s known ancestors are entered into the schema. Side branches in such a tree are usually cut off in order to present the information in a more compact format.
There are also trees that cover only members of a family with a particular surname (for example, all men of the family). Married descendants in the female line are removed from such a scheme.

There are several varieties of schemes that are most often used to visually represent a family tree.

Horizontal family tree

This type of tree can be quite often found in European family archives. In such a tree, the ancestors are depicted on the left, and the branches go in a horizontal direction. In addition to direct ancestors and descendants, this sometimes includes other relatives by blood, in which case the scheme will be called mixed.

The vertical family tree: the top-down scheme

In this type of tree at the head of the scheme is located the ancestor of the dynasty or family, and descendants are distributed to the branches and go down to the roots. It is possible and to locate the ancestor at roots of a tree while descendants in this case will rise on branches from roots of a tree.

In this version of the scheme, there are no descendants in the female line (daughters, granddaughters, spouse’s ancestors). The tree is compiled only on the basis of data on the descendants in the male line, since a woman can get married and change her last name, which will lead to the “rupture of the family tree”.

The vertical genealogical tree: the ascending schema

The ascending scheme assumes that a child will be at the head of the tree, from which two branches will diverge – the father and the mother. From each of the parents there will be two more branches (their parents, i.e. grandparents of the child), etc. This tree format makes it possible to combine the direct ancestors of one particular person.

Circular family tree scheme

An atypical family tree scheme. It is often also compared to a bird, as its right wing includes the mother’s ancestors, and the left wing includes the father’s ancestors. The child is placed in the center of such a circle.

Usually, the circle is drawn quite large, so that the first circle can fit inside the second one. The second circle is divided in half: the mother’s name is written on one half and the father’s name on the other half. Next, a third outer circle is drawn, which is divided into four parts. Grandparents’ names are written in these parts, etc.

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As the use of social media becomes more common, more and more users are finding ways to make their accounts valuable resources for genealogy professionals – either to share information or to facilitate discussion. We’ve compiled our favorite accounts that are interesting and informative and allow you to connect with experts and other genealogy experts like you. Social media is constantly changing, but these accounts are a great starting point for turning social media into a valuable tool for your genealogical research.

Facebook

One of the major benefits of Facebook is the ability to join global forums such as DNA Detectives, national groups such as Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, and state- or region-focused groups. We could devote an entire article to Facebook genealogy groups, so instead we’ve highlighted a few of our favorites below and focused the rest of this list on just the Facebook pages we really like (pun intended).

AccessGenealogy

AccessGenealogy is an extensive directory of free records and resources on U.S. genealogy, especially Native American research. The AccessGenealogy Facebook page is a great way to keep up with the latest free resources and site news. Both the AccessGenealogy website and Facebook page are tools that every Native American researcher should keep in their pocket!

Explaining the Evidence

This page, based on Elizabeth Shawn Mill’s classic book, Explaining Evidence: Citing Historical Sources, from Artifacts to Cyberspace (Genealogical Publishing Co.), is a great resource for those who “use, cite and try to understand historical records.” The posts here mostly link to a website explaining the evidence, which hosts an impressive number of forums on citation, evidence analysis, and more. The Facebook page functions as a sort of overview of what’s going on in the forums, and is a great place to dive into the minute details of record usage and citation.

Twitter

Twitter is the “birdie” of the 21st century for the latest news and gossip. But with access to so much information, this little bird ends up looking more like a whole flock! The following accounts are our favorite tweeters whose songs cut through the noise.

@LegalGen.

Judy J. Russell (also known as “The Legal Genealogist”) is a mainstay in the genealogy community, and her Twitter feed is a great way to keep up with what’s going on on her blog. Russell tweets about genealogy news, research and more, all with her trademark focus on the legal and civil aspects of the genealogical world.

@TNArchivist.

Melissa Barker is a professional genealogy expert and the head of the Houston County, Tennessee archives. She regularly posts helpful tips and instructions about all things archival on her blog, Genealogy in the Archives. But she’s also a regular tweeter. If you’re at all interested in archiving or preserving, her account is definitely worth checking out.

YouTube

Once known for funny cat videos, YouTube has surpassed Facebook as the most widely used social media platform. Free lessons, historical film and brief history lessons are all a click away on this giant video sharing site.
Origins

Ancestry.com has a robust YouTube channel that offers instructional videos on how to use its products and services, as well as some genealogy fun. Barefoot genealogy specialist, Krista Cowan, has an entire playlist of step-by-step instructions and tutorials. You can also watch small snippets of various shows created by Ancestry.com, including “My Family Secrets Revealed,” and watch the full 2019 Sundance film “Railroad Connections.”

British Pathé.

British Pathé, originally known as Pathé News, was a leading producer of newsreels, documentaries and other films in 20th-century Britain. It has since evolved into an impressive archive of films with digital video files available on its Web site and on YouTube.

Users can view a library of more than 80,000 videos, including (among other historical newsreels) interviews with Titanic survivors.

The post The best social media accounts for genealogy appeared first on Gen-Home.

Health. It is not for nothing that doctors ask about certain medical conditions. With the example of grandparents and great-grandparents, it is easy to trace the main diseases that appear with age, and to prevent their development. As well as suggest the difficulties your children may have.

Destiny. Every person is a product of upbringing. The main patterns that define our lives are those we have adopted from our parents. Therefore, the stories of fathers and mothers about your and their childhood, values and relationships within the family will shed light on the reasons for the formation of many of your beliefs and help you find direction for changing yourself and your life for the better.

Community. The process of finding information about your roots brings you closer together. People who are aware of their commonalities are not alone. They always have brothers, sisters, nephews who are like them and can understand.

Understanding yourself and those around you. If most of your relatives on your father’s or mother’s side have a technical mindset, have worked and are working as engineers, programmers, technologists, you too may find yourself with similar abilities, start searching for priority areas for self-development, and prefer an unloved profession to the one you have always been drawn to.

Building self-esteem. This aspect is especially important for young children. They feel a much sharper sense of community and feel more confident when they have something to be proud of, when they can admire their relatives and cite them as an example. Stories about the worthy deeds of family members are very useful for the formation of the child’s personality.

Stories about the ancestors, their strengths and peculiarities of life help to better understand the world. The deeds of these people are evaluated differently, through the prism of unity. All the good and bad things about loved ones evoke more vivid emotions: pride, admiration or surprise, confusion, disappointment. The experience of someone who is related to you by blood ties has a much stronger impact on your worldview.

Knowing your blood ties is useful from a practical standpoint. Maintaining relationships with people from other cities, different professions can be a good reason and support for travel, a source of new experiences and acquaintances.

Therefore, even if you are not looking for distinguished ancestors and prefer to be proud of your own achievements, information about your family in its entirety will be useful to you.

The post Why you need to know about your ancestors appeared first on Gen-Home.

A separate profile is created for each relative in them, and after receiving an e-mail invitation, they can edit it, exchange messages and photos, as well as take part in joint work on the tree. Considering that each genealogical tree can potentially grow to infinity (we are all brothers and sisters), the latter feature is very useful. No matter how enthusiastic a researcher may be, he or she cannot cover all the family connections alone – so it makes sense to get relatives involved, who can fill in their line and pass the baton on.

Among the family social networks present on the Internet today there is one powerful, serious genealogical resource MyHeritage.com and several less functional and similar services – such as Geni.com, FamilySpace and others. In this review we will look at the main features of MyHeritage. This is an Israeli service that is available in 36 languages. It works in conjunction with the downloadable for Windows program Family Tree Builder. The family tree is edited in the desktop client and then it can be published on the family website. You can use the service not only to work directly with the tree, but also to create an extensive family chronicle that includes information about each relative, photo albums, and other historical evidence. MyHeritage also offers many opportunities for entertainment and research activities.

You can download the installation file on the service’s official website in the Downloads section. The installation of Family Tree Builder will take place over the Internet. To log into the program, you must have an account on the MyHeritage website. Working in it begins with creating a project. It has a separate folder on the local disk which includes a configuration file, a compressed GEDCOM database and added photos. Later you will be able to restore the project from this folder or from a site (import and export of a separate GEDCOM file is also included).

Completion of the tree starts with specifying the first family – husband and wife, then it is suggested to add children to this family, and further branches off from this family to all other relatives. You are supposed to indicate yourself as the first person, your other half (if you have one), and start making connections: here are my parents, children, brothers and sisters, their relatives come from them, and so on. Each person in the tree is assigned a unique ordinal ID (it cannot be changed later). Having selected a family member, the user can edit his personal data: sex, name, surname (but there is no separate graph of patronymic), date and place of birth and death. Dates are given by the Gregorian calendar, Jewish or French Revolution calendar, and not necessarily exact – approximate ones will do. In addition, one can add occupation, education, personal information, contacts, quotes, notes, biographical facts, additional information such as physical data and DNA markers, and attach photos, video/audio files and documents. It is not difficult to notice that almost any information about a person can be entered into this card. You can add an unlimited number of relatives to the person, which are divided into groups of “Parents”, “Siblings”, “Spouses”, “Children” (new persons who are not related to each other can also be added). There can be more than one parent and spouse – in this case you should specify that it is, for example, an adoptive mother or second wife.

The side column contains a list of persons, which can also be viewed as a tree. However, its structure does not provide a clear view of the relationship between relatives. Here you can see a list of families at the origin of the family: the families of children are descended from them, and so on, but the children displayed in one family are not present in the other, despite the presence of kinship links on both lines. In the main information window, the connection is displayed both by mother and by father, but you cannot see relatives outside the families of parents and children there.

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