Ever thought of throwing a Genealogy Family Reunion?

We talk about how to organize and initiate such a reunion in The Step-by-Step Genealogy Guide. It isn’t that hard when you have a few basic tips:

First of all, plan the “reunion” around a pre-arranged family gathering (weddings are great). This way, you’ll have folks in town anyway. Ask the relative getting married if they’d mind if you had an informal gathering the afternoon after the wedding (maybe at a meeting room in the hotel). I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.

Second, don’t do it all yourself. Get a committee organized to do the work, (we have a suggested agenda for the committee in The Guide).

Third, plan out fun activities that will get people talking and organized around genealogy. For example, ask them to bring old pictures, photo albums, or copies of the three key documents we talked about yesterday.

Family reunions are a great opportunity to complete some solid research. Go with some key questions in mind and you’re bound to make progress.

We’ll spread the ideas out over several posts so you can digest things in small chunks (at least my mind works that way).

That said, I’m going to assume …

• You have a family tree template and understand how to fill out a family tree.

• I’m going to assume you’ve got the passion to create a family tree that will make you and your family proud.

• I’m going to assume you’re having a little trouble researching your family history.

• Your biggest challenge…?  I’m going to assume you simply don’t know where to start.

The first step is to organize your paperwork.  Some people like to get a special notebook or pen for notes.  Something to make it special.

With this in place, you need to write down everything you know about your family.  But focus just on you, your parents, and their parents.  This “family brainstorming” will be critical to help guide your initial research.  (More on this later.)

The initial research starts with your living parents and grand-parents.  Getting information from them and, more importantly, getting permission to rummage around their attics.  These will be your first (and best) research resource.

Here is what you’re looking for… the full name, birth date, marriage date, and date of their death.

Check future posts on where to go from here.

The Six Generation Family Tree Template you downloaded has three key areas that you need to understand in order to complete your
family tree:

1. Entry Numbers (representing people)
2. Chart Number (used to sync 7+ generations)
3. Birth, Married, and Death citations (represents your research)

Some folks are writing to say they’re having a hard time with these three areas.  If this is the case for you than go ahead and use the comments area below to ask any specific questions.

Also note that I’ve written a short yet detailed guide that you can use to complete your family tree chart.

It has four main sections:

• Mastering the Six-Generation Family Tree Chart

• Step-by-Step: Generations One Through Three

• Step-by-Step: Generations Four Through Six

• Seven Generations and Beyond

I’m calling it, “How to Complete a Family Tree Chart” and you’ll find it a great resource for getting things done.

It is extremely inexpensive and packed with photos and step-by-step instructions.  I discuss every inch of the 6-generation family tree and promise it’ll answer every question you have about how to complete the chart.

(If there is a question or comment below that you have a good answer for, please don’t hesitate to chime in.)

The idea was to make sure the website was a resource that would help people overcome these initial barriers.

This is what people said was their hassle:

• Trying to figure out how to complete a formal family tree chart (like the one you downloaded)

• There was confusion on whether or not cousins should be on your tree

• Some folks had a terrible time understanding how to obtain birth, marriage, and death certificates (and when or why they were important).

• And surnames (especially when immigrating relatives changed the spelling) were a problem.

We actually received 182 different responses but there were some of the more popular ones.  We built this site around the results of that survey and developed the tools you’ll find on this site around solving these problems.

How are things going with you?  Are you finding that any of these relate to what you’re experiencing?  Use the comments area below to post your biggest genealogy challenge.

I’ll answer what I can.  Others, please feel free to comment as well if you know an answer or resource that might help.

Even today people believe that their origin and history determines to a large extent who they are. This can be achieved through a family tree.

By restricting your knowledge to your immediate family, you are depriving your children of knowledge of family history that is rightfully theirs. Many people don’t seek to find out about their ancestors in spite of wanting to. They may think this task is fraught with difficulty.

Find out  Genealogy Trees 

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Record the information of every person along with their full name, place and date of birth and death, names of their parents, wives or husbands and children and any other miscellaneous detail. 

You might need more help having crossed your grandparents’ generation, and might need to use other resources and records for gathering further information. 

Find out  Genealogy Trees 

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You should record the following data for each person: name, date and place of birth, date and place of death, spouse, children and parents. If there is any other interesting fact, you can add that as well.
For relatives beyond grandparents you will need to consult secondary documents for data compilation.

Find out  how to make a family tree 

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Start with a rough draft of your family tree. You should begin with yourself and work your path outwards towards your parents and their immediate families. Don’t worry if you have data missing about certain relatives. There are ways of finding out.

Next go to a family tree making website and using all your collected information, just follow their instructions.

Find out  how to make a family tree 

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There are plenty of family tree building software solutions readily available on the internet. They are very user-friendly and guide you step-by-step. The software will take all your data such as photographs, family heirlooms, documents and organize them. 

Also there are online databases of family histories. In case you have gaps in your information you can search through them to find a particular family connection. This is a hassle free way of tracking down all your relatives.

Find out  how to make a family tree 

For affiliate info, visit: make a family tree

A family tree is an account of your forefathers. Usually it is depicted by a genealogy map that shows family connections. Such a record usually contains vital information such as names of ancestors, their dates of birth, place of origin and occupation. Each person is connected to other people via different lines that designate different relationships.

For the data required to build a family tree, you may seek assistance from relatives or even from the internet. Grow your research as you grow your tree!

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