Tips to Starting a Family Tree

I've recently embarked on an enormous task. I am tracing my family tree. Yes, it did seem a lot easier to start with. But I am hoping that my experiences will help someone just starting out.

I sat down with the basics I knew of, my mother, father, and grandparents. That would be the easiest part. So as I sat down with my trusty pen and started out. As I went to my great-grandparents, I then realized that I needed more information on them. That was then I decided I needed to get organized. I knew that was the first mistake I made, I didn't have my information with me or in a neat order. I then went around the house picking up anything that had to do with my family from family records, the bible (which had some dates on the front page), and phone numbers to relatives if needed. So then I went back to sit down to start again and it was at this time I still needed more resources, meaning I needed a drawing of a family tree. So I went on line to find me one. This was a good and bad thing because I did get my family tree layout but I also spent hours reading through different ideas and what not. So I decided to start over with my family tree. Once again, I ran into a snag. I really didn't do enough research into other family members. Sure I knew some of the names, their birth dates and places and their death dates and places. So when I started back on to research , I ran into another snag. I was looking up too many people at one time. I had plenty of information but I had it scattered around.

Sure I had read through several "how-to" books but none of them really explained or led one to believe what a taunting task a family tree can really be. So I am offering up several tips to those people who would like to start a family tree. First and most important tip, get organized. Get information in an orderly fashion so it can be located as needed. The second tip, realize that a family tree will take a great deal of dedication and time. It wont be something done overnight or over the weekend. It will take one a good deal of time of not only getting information but also putting the information together. Another tip is to start small. Start with one branch and work one's way back. It is much easier and much easier to understand when started with one branch of the family, say one's mother's side and then her mother's side and so forth.. Not doing one branch at a time can lead to be boggled down with information with no place to put it. Also, it would lead to less confusion latter on when doing another branch.

These are just a few helpful hints to doing a family tree. I hope these will lead to less confusion for anyone wanting to do a family tree.