Creating a family tree is a fantastic way to illustrate your family history. First, research your ancestry to see who should be included in your family tree, then diagram each generation to create your family tree. You can decorate your family tree to turn it into a piece of art or simply salvage your research, this way you'll always have your history at your fingertips. Review Step 1 to get started.

Steps

Part 1

Write down the people you want to include in your family tree. The lineage starts with you and expands from there. Start by writing down the names of your immediate family, then move on to your parents' generation. Make sure you don't miss anyone! Your ancestry will be an important part of your family history, so you will need to spend a lot of time creating an accurate family tree.

• Write down your name, your siblings' names, and your parents' names.
• Write down the names of your grandparents, the names of your aunts and uncles, and the names of your cousins.
• Write down the names of your great-grandparents and the names of your great-aunts and uncles.
• Many people stop at this, but you can include as many generations as you like.

1. Fill in the blanks by doing some research. The process of filling out names can become difficult when you record multiple generations. To make sure everything is included and all names are accurate, do a couple of studies to double-check yourself. This is a great opportunity to learn more about your family history.

   Decide what information you want to highlight. In addition to your family's first and last names, you can list dates of birth, dates of death (if any), dates of marriage, and so on. Having these dates on your pedigree will make it even more informative as a historical document of your family. In addition to dates, you can include your relatives' birthplaces or hometowns.

   Decide whether to include photos. If you have access to photos of your ancestors, you can add a small portrait of each person. This choice is best for pedigrees that include relatives, as photographs can fill in the blank spaces on your finished chart.

   • If you only have a few photos, you can simply add photos of immediate family members.
   • Find photographs of as many family members as possible. If you want to make them all the same size, copy them to your computer and use Photoshop or another editing program to resize them.

   Part 2

   Creating a Chart

   1. Start with your generation. This is the root of the tree and it includes you, your parents and your siblings. The form your diagram takes is your choice. If you want it to expand vertically and thicken at the top like a tree, start at the base of a large piece of paper. You can also start on the left side of the paper so that your diagram can be easily read from left to right. No matter what form your chart takes, fill out the following information to get started:

      • Write down your name.
      • Draw a line from your name to your mother's name. Draw another line from your name to your father's name. Draw a horizontal line that connects your mother's name to your father's name.
      • If you have siblings, draw a line from your mother and father to their names.
      • If your siblings have spouses, write down their names and connect them with lines.
      • If your siblings have children, write down their names and connect them with lines.

   2. Complete your parents' generation. Now it's time to fill in the second generation - your parents' generation. Connect each married couple with a horizontal line and draw lines from parents to children.

      • Write the names of your maternal grandparents above your mother's name. Write the names of your paternal grandparents above your father's name.
      • Match the names of your maternal grandparents with your mother's siblings. Match the names of your paternal grandparents with your father's siblings.
      • Add the names of your aunts and uncles' spouses.
      • Add the names of your aunts and uncles' children, your cousins.

   3. Portray your grandparents' generation. If you have a large family, your family tree may extend beyond the edges of the sheet. Some people stop at this point, with grandparents on either side crowning your diagram. If you want to continue, it's time to include the grandparents' generation. Remember to connect married couples with horizontal lines, and draw lines from parents to their children.

      • Add the names of your maternal grandmother's mother and father and your maternal grandfather's mother and father. These are your great-grandparents.
      • Add the names of your paternal grandmother's mother and your paternal grandfather's mother and father. These are also your great-grandparents.
      • Add the names of your maternal grandparents' siblings—your great aunts and uncles.
      • Add the names of your paternal grandparents' siblings—your great aunts and uncles.
      • Write down the names of your great aunts and uncles' spouses and children.

   4. Decide how far you want to go. If you enjoy the experience of researching your family history, then continue as long as you can. There's no limit to the potential size of your family tree, especially if it's digital!

A schematic representation of family ties in the form of a conventional symbolic tree is the genealogical family tree. The pedigree can be built in the form of a table or tree.

Reasons for drawing up a family tree

One of the most important stages is motivation. There are many reasons that motivate people to create family trees. Let's look at some of them:

Compilation methods

First of all, you need to choose a compilation method. Constructions with the discovery of various papers and folders with a group of relatives are a thing of the past. Now on the Internet there are many other methods and specialized programs that help to compile data about relatives and present them in a pleasant form. Using various online services, you can collect data about relatives. Then creating a family tree becomes simple. Such services have one drawback: the sites exist for approximately 5 years and there is a possibility of it disappearing from the Internet along with your data. There may be various reasons.

For more detailed work on the tree, it is more convenient to use programs, information and data from which you can archive, save, copy, process on any device and be independent of the Internet. There are paid and free programs.

One such program that has received good reviews is Tree of Life, which reveals the technology for compiling a family tree.

Although in the free version this program has small limitations, it allows you to get acquainted with its actions: create a tree, calculate the relative degree, save information, videos, photos and other information about the lives of relatives. Install this program on your computer and start composing.

Program "Family Chronicle" will also help in compiling a family tree in the shape of a tree in a colorful way. There is also the possibility of saving photos and documents.

Do you want to create a pedigree in tabular, graphical form? Then the Geno Pro program will help you.

Step-by-step compilation

You need to create a family tree from yourself. Enter information about yourself and then about your closest relatives into the downloaded program. Photographs will help supplement the information provided.

Start organizing personal meetings with relatives, taking a voice recorder with you. A lot of information can be obtained through conversation. It is advisable to talk to each relative in private to avoid confusion. Visiting the oldest relatives should be the initial step, as their verbal recollections are invaluable.

It will be very convenient if you draw up a questionnaire before starting the conversation. What questions will be included there?

1. Last name, first name.
2. Birth metric.
3. Life events (weddings, birthdays, deaths).
4. Photographs (scanned or re-photographed vintage photographs from albums).
5. Place of birth.
6. Professions.

You can also communicate with those who live in other places via Skype. This is a good option because it will save time. If you lack data, you can always turn to the Internet. The interviewees themselves can also provide good assistance.

If certain relatives are no longer alive, archival employees will help. The information received must be thoroughly checked, since there are many namesakes.

Construction schemes

Thus, the material has been collected, and a family tree can be built. When using a specialized program, do as it tells you. If you want to do it yourself, think carefully about the work plan, since there are several types of construction.

So, to build it yourself, take whatman paper and place in the center the person for whom the tree is being compiled. Divide the sheet into two parts: the left (for relatives on the paternal side) and the right (for relatives on the maternal side). Under the names, glue an envelope and insert notes and additional photographs about this person.

When choosing a diagram in the form of a tree along an ascending line, the trunk will symbolize the main person, from whom branches will extend in different directions. An important concept is that the person represented in the diagram represents a separate branch of the family. Place the parents on the larger branches, and the grandparents on the smaller ones. It is possible to place a specific person on each piece of paper. There are no limits to the imagination when creating and decorating a tree. The main thing is to maintain the accuracy of the information.

Family tree: image options

There are several types of family tree charts. This:

1. Butterfly is a convenient method for placing on the wall. The key figures are the spouses, whose parents are on the sides and the children are at the bottom.
2. Branches (ancestors). The key figure is your child, and all the ancestors you have found diverge from him. For indoors, it is the most popular scheme.
3. Roots (descendants). This pattern is a good gift for a relative. The common ancestor is the key figure. In this diagram, all the brothers and sisters of the ancestor are clearly visible.
4. The hourglass will be a great gift for grandpa or grandma. The key figure is the grandmother or grandfather. You put their ancestors at the top and their descendants at the bottom.
5. The fan is a convenient compressed form that does not take much time. Important parental connections are clearly visible here.

Looking through childhood photographs or listening to the stories of your parents, you may unwittingly become interested in your ancestry. Even in ancient times, it was compiled in the form of a family tree: this is a convenient way to present information. Drawing up a family tree is even assigned to schoolchildren, so you need to know how to make a family tree with your own hands.

What is a family tree

The very concept of a “family tree” is a list of people who are related to each other. The listing occurs in a hierarchy based on the years of life of people and how they relate to each other. The tree trunk indicates the married couple at the head of the clan. Then their children, grandchildren and cousins ​​are placed. The generations are at the same level. This option is classic, when the construction goes from ancestors to descendants.

In addition to the main option on how to draw a family tree, there are several more:

1. Personally from myself. Parents, grandparents, and other relatives act as branches. This is convenient because the entire family is indicated along the line of only one person. It will be difficult to supplement such a tree.
2. Family tree. In this case, relatives on the paternal or maternal side can be indicated separately, because the surnames of the spouses were different before marriage.

How to draw a tree using a template

There are many websites on the Internet where you can find special family tree templates. After downloading and printing them, you just need to fill in the empty spaces with photographs of relatives according to the specified location. It will look more neat if you use Photoshop. To do this, you need to open the template in this program and insert photos there. The recommended layout format is png. This is an extension for pictures, which are very convenient to work with in Photoshop.

How to make a family tree

How to draw a family tree? To do this, it is better to divide the work into several stages. The first step is to find out about all relatives. This is the most critical stage, because the amount of information determines how complete the finished database will be. If you suddenly miss someone, the meaning of the tree will be partially lost. If the collection of information was successful, then all that remains is to choose the option of constructing a diagram - personally, from the founder of the clan, or several surnames at once.

How to make a family tree

Before drawing up your family tree, it is worth making a preliminary diagram of all relatives, distributing them by degree of relationship. The main thing is to decide how many generations back you plan to go. For those with a large family, it is better to limit yourself to immediate relatives and not include great-uncles and grandmothers, otherwise you can expand the family tree and make side branches in it. They will serve to record more distant relatives - cousins, grandparents, and grandparents.

There are a lot of concepts of kinship: in addition to blood, they reflect marriage or spiritual connections. In the first case, people have a common ancestor, in the second, they are married, and the third includes such forms of kinship as nepotism and twinning. The main one is blood – it has several degrees of relationship. One of them represents a generation, the chain of which already forms a line.

Such a chain includes as many degrees as there were births in the family, i.e. son or daughter – first degree, grandson or granddaughter – second, etc. Each of them must follow each other in order. It turns out that the construction proceeds across generations - from the oldest to the youngest, or vice versa, in the case of carrying out the scheme personally. All siblings and grandparents should be listed on the main branch, and first cousins ​​or second cousins ​​should be listed on the side branches. So the distance between relatives will reflect the distance of their relationship.

How to build a family tree

If a rough diagram with a list of relatives is ready, you need to decide how best to draw a family tree. There are several options here:

1. Classic, when the main bearer of the surname is indicated at the bottom of the trunk. In most cases, this is a married couple, such as grandparents or great-grandparents (you can go even further). Next, all their children, grandchildren and other relatives are indicated in order. It is better to place your own line on the main branch, i.e. the one by which you will come to your parents and specifically to yourself. In the lateral branches there will be cousins ​​and second cousins.
2. Personal tree. In this option, you yourself are the basis, i.e. family tree compiler. Next come the parents, grandparents on both lines, etc. This will be the main branch. On the side ones it is worth reflecting the parents’ sisters or brothers, their children, grandchildren, etc.
3. Family tree. This option is the most voluminous of all. Several names can be listed here. Of interest to the compiler himself is tracing the line of the father and mother. Before marriage they had different surnames, but in relation to their children they have the same degree of kinship. For this reason, it is interesting to compose a tree so that one half of the branches reflects the relatives of the father, and the other - the mother.

How to make a family tree on a computer

There are special programs for compiling a family tree. Some of them are free online services where you can order or create a blank sample with space for photographs. All that remains is to add pictures, download and, if necessary, print. Another option is to download a graphic editor to your computer and work in it. Among such programs are SimTree, RootsMagic, GenoPro, Family Tree Builder, GRAMPS. The Russian analogue is the “Tree of Life”.

Each program has a set of specific functions that help you draw and then print a tree. Most of them already have templates that you need to fill out. They are a table with cells or a picture. Some applications even offer to attach not only photos, but also audio or video recordings. For each family member, you are asked to fill out a questionnaire, which contains basic information about him, including a description of his appearance or interesting biographical facts.

How to draw a family tree

You need to start with how many and what generations you plan to draw. This is necessary to know in advance the number of branches of the tree. After this stage, use the instructions on how to draw a family tree:

1. Draw a thick trunk, using a soft pencil so that you can erase the excess.
2. Depending on the type of tree, make an inscription at the base of the trunk, indicating the full name of one or more people. These could be parents, grandparents, or your child or yourself.
3. Next, draw branches a little higher for the rest of the relatives. Position them correctly so that each next generation is slightly higher than the previous one.
4. Draw as many branches as you know of other relatives. Consider the size of your sheet so that all those you want to include will fit.
5. After you finish placing all your relatives, erase the extra lines and circle the ones you need thicker. At the end of the design, use colored pencils to make the drawing brighter.

Video

Often questions about relatives and ancestors arise in the family circle when grandparents begin to remember their childhood, parents and other relatives. How to make a family tree quickly and easily, without knowledge of genealogy?

Why do you need to create a family tree?

This is one of the most important stages - motivation. He simply will not allow you to abandon compiling the tree after a couple of weeks, but to bring it to the end. There are several reasons that encourage people to think about drawing up a family tree:

• the desire to satisfy the inexplicable sentimentality that appears with age;
• make your children feel respect for their roots, relatives, family history and its customs;
• clearly show your children how large the number of relatives is on whom you can rely in difficult times;
• realize how big your family tree is, feel like part of a large community that has its own destiny and purpose;
• satisfy your curiosity about distant relationships with celebrities, find something interesting and mysterious in your roots and branches.

There is a possibility that you have other motives. Those who are involved in building a family tree professionally recommend not to start investigating their tree for belonging to noble families or classifying themselves as descendants of famous historical figures. Usually this does not lead to anything good, since these searches will cost a lot of money, the evidence will be inconclusive, and the case itself will quickly get boring and is unlikely to end successfully.

How to create a family tree

Paper structures, grouping of relatives, folders with papers are already becoming a thing of the past. Although there is sometimes a need to make some notes, it is best to use specialized programs that help conveniently arrange the found data about relatives and display them in a convenient and pleasant form. There are also various online services that can help you collect data about your relatives.

There are sites where trees are possible. With their help, deciding how to create a family tree becomes as simple as possible. Typically, free registration is required, information is entered for each relative, his family connections and photographs, and the service itself produces a graphical construction of the family tree. There are professional services like myheritage, with a large number of settings, which will not only show you how to create a family tree correctly, but will also analyze the surname, search through archives, etc. Online services are convenient for those who do not take the issue very seriously , or to build a simple tree and design it. According to statistics, websites “live” on average up to 5 years and for various reasons they can disappear from the information space along with your data.

For more in-depth work on your ancestry, it is best to use special programs, information from which can be saved, archived, duplicated and processed on any device and at the same time be independent of the Internet. Free programs, for the most part, are very simple, have little functionality and are convenient for simple tree building. More professional programs are usually paid, but with them the question of how to create a family tree of a family, even a very large family, is solved efficiently and conveniently. For example, the free version of the program has minor limitations, but allows you to get acquainted with its work. The full version costs about 400 rubles. The amount is not very large, but it allows you to think about how serious you are about your work.

We begin the formation of the tree with ourselves

Once a tree-building tool has been chosen, questions arise: how to create a family tree and where to start creating it? The easiest way is to start with yourself. In the program or service, enter information about yourself, then about your immediate environment - about everyone you know personally and about whom you have information. You insert photos of these people from your hard drive or, if they are not there, scan or re-photograph paper portraits from albums. Attach photos, make connections, enter comments (for example, a short biography) until your personal knowledge runs out.

We continue to form the tree

The next step is meeting with relatives. We arrange a meeting with relatives from the necessary “branches” of the tree, take a cake and a laptop (or better yet, a voice recorder). During the conversation, you can get a lot of information that fills in the gaps in the family tree. At the same time, you can make a big mistake by not visiting relatives, but by collecting a large number of them in one place to interview them. This usually leads to the fact that old people correct each other, cannot find agreement on different dates, argue about events and generally introduce significant chaos into the orderly scheme of your work. Therefore, for those thinking about how to quickly create a family tree, it is better not to take risks, but to talk with each relative separately.

Visit your oldest relatives first. They can tell you most about distant relatives, time periods, and if they are in a good position, they will allow you to use their rare photographs in albums.

It will be more convenient to conduct a conversation if, before starting it, you draw up a mini-questionnaire of 10-15 questions: first and last names, important dates of life (birth, wedding, life events, death), children and parents.

We continue to collect information

After we have collected data from everyone who was nearby, the next step is to communicate with those who live far away, in other cities and countries. The easiest way to communicate with them is by phone, Skype or through social networks. After talking to them, you can ask them questions and briefly tell them how to create a family tree. They can build their own branch and send it to you to add to your big tree. This is very convenient, since it is quite difficult to do such work alone. Therefore, by getting your relatives interested in this process, you can make your work much easier. You can promise them a free copy of the tree when it is completed or the maximum possible has been collected

Working with archives and databases

The last step of collecting information is working with archives. After collecting all possible information from “living” sources and their memories, the next step is to work with paper and electronic archives. This work is especially useful in cases where the branch broke at some stage and it is unknown, for example, who the great-great-grandfather married, or on what front and when the great-grandfather died in the Finnish War, what awards the grandfather received during the war. Such information can be obtained from various archives or databases. Be sure to double-check the information, as there are often namesakes, even full namesakes of people, otherwise your search may go into other people’s “trees.”

Schemes for building a family tree

Once the information is collected, the question arises of how to create a family tree. The layout and placement may vary. The difference in the schemes is the person placed as the basis. You can build from a famous representative of the genus to the modern generation. This option more clearly shows the presence of children from this ancestor and their division into different family branches.

There are still options for how to create a family tree. An example of a standard scheme, the most common, is shown in the figure. The tree is usually built like this: you are at the bottom, your parents are above, then your grandparents, etc. The branches expand from bottom to top. Below are the children. You designate yourself as the basis.

One of the most exciting activities for the whole family is creating a family tree. This activity will not only introduce some family members to relatives, but also unite them in the process of searching for information. The resulting option can be an unforgettable gift for relatives or loved ones, but it will also simply decorate your interior.

How to make a family tree with your own hands and which option is better to choose for creating?

Preparatory stage

This stage involves collecting the necessary information about your relatives. In this case, you can use several of the most suitable options:

• survey – collecting information from relatives or close people so that you can understand what information you are missing;
• during the discussion, it is important to know not only the person’s personal data, but also the place of education, features of appearance or character;
• it is important to study family archives, if any, this is very important, since they can provide information that your relatives might have forgotten about;
• draw up a preliminary version of your family tree in the form of a diagram or table so that you know which family member you are missing information about.

After receiving all the necessary information, you can safely begin creating a family tree, having previously decided on the most suitable or favorite option, shown in the photo of the family tree.

Types of family tree

At first glance, it may seem that creating a pedigree is quite simple, but creating a family tree is nothing to say. However, this judgment is fundamentally wrong.

There are a considerable number of options for family tree trees, here are several options for original family trees:

Rising. Created from man directly to his ancestors. The creator himself will be the trunk, and the branches will be his ancestors. This type helps to establish family reunification, in which the person himself was subsequently born.

Descending. It is built on the principle from ancestors to descendants (tree branches).

Table in the shape of a circle. The center can be a descendant, and the circles represent ancestors. Such a table may look the other way around.

Very often, a family tree is made in the shape of a butterfly. In the center there is a couple, and from it all the available relatives are on one side and on the other. An equally beautiful and attractive option is in the shape of an hourglass. This option is more suitable for recording information about relatives of an elderly couple.

The simplest option is considered to be in the form of a fan. It saves execution time and saves significant space. Variants of trees can be made in any material, depending on what you would like to teach in the final result.

If you do not have time to create a family tree manually, you can use special programs that provide templates and blanks for a family tree.

If you have drawing skills, you can create a tree yourself and without improvised means or ideas. However, in this case you will need a little more imagination. How to make a family tree with your own hands?

Step-by-step instructions for a family tree for beginners

Take a material such as felt as a basis. On it you need to draw the outlines of the future tree with all its elements. After this, you need to cut the workpiece.

The next stage involves creating a similar blank, only from wallpaper and thick cardboard, after which the parts should be connected to each other.

On the branches of your tree you can make frames for each small family member. All you have to do is fill out the frames with photos and the necessary information.

People often wonder how exactly to fill out family tree information. The answer is quite simple. It is advisable to take at least three generations.

Creating such a model of your family does not require much effort, but a considerable amount of time can be spent on collecting. However, it's worth it. Only in this way can you find out everything about your family and relatives.

Or perhaps your surname belongs to some noble family? If you wish, you can refer to the video, which presents a master class for a family tree.

Family tree photo