HI moms. I've been avidly working on my family history for quite some time and am ready to put it in print! It's going to be a Christmas gift for my family this year. I've completed 4 generations--my grandparents and great aunts and uncles, my parents and aunts and uncles, my cousins, and our children. I've collected full names, when and where they were born, when and where they were married, their siblings and their siblings full names, and a few other things. My question is, how should I organize it all? Right now it's saved in my computer by age (newest family member first) and then goes back through the oldest family member. Should I make a page for each family? Are there any websites that you've used to organize your history? Any input is greatly appreciated. I've spent so many hours working on this and can't wait to share it with the rest of my family! Thanks in advance moms!
What a wonderful gift!
there is free software here that you can organize and print out all sorts of neat things for the history:
http://www.ldsgenealogy.com/
here is a places you can see that have family trees and sheets you can use. You can print them out and make a really pretty little book out of the pages.
http://www.cyndislist.com/organize.htm
We have a very detailed family history... everything from 8 generations back. :) It's in a binder that is actually pretty confusing to figure out because of how much there is in it, but once you know "how" to look at it it's easier... but it's sorted into "chapters" according to generation...
Chapter 1 would be grandparents and greats.
Chapter 2 would be parents and their siblings.
Chapter 3 would be your generation
Chapter 4 would be your children & generation.
Each "family" has their own page... So the first "chapter" would only be one page, basically a listing of your grandparents and greats... in our book there is a page # listing where the next generation down would be.... The second "chapter" would have one page that has your parents and their siblings, along with marriages, and one page for the offspring of each of your greats. (each marriage would have a page # telling where THEIR children are located...) and so on and so forth...
EX:
CHAPTER 1
Page 1
Grandma+Grandpa (2)
~Birth dates, marriage date, any other info you want to share.
Great aunt 1+Husband (3)
~info info info....
Great aunt 2+husband (4)
Blah Blah Blah
--------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 2
Page 2
Your parents (5)
~blah blah blah
Aunt+Husband (6)
blah blah blah
------------------------------------------------------
Page 3
Great aunt 1's children.... we will say pages 7,8,9...
------------------------------------------------------
Page 4
Great aunt 2's children... page 10, 11
---------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 3
Page 5
You and your sibling's info... page #s
--------------------------------------------------
Page 6
Your aunt's children.... and page #s
-------------------------------------------------
Page 7
Great aunt 1's first child's info...and page #s...
--------------------------------------------------
Page 8
Great aunt 1's second child's info... and page #s....
-------------------------------------------------
Page 9
Great aunt 1's third child's info... page #s....
~~~ And so on and so forth...
You can use nice paper, stencil the names and info in nice calligraphy (or print nice...) to really make it special... Our history is well over 300 pages...
...ok... looking back at it I got a little lost... It's a LOT easier when you are dealing with pages of actual information instead of trying to type it out... lol.
G., I am so happy about this. I wish more people would take the time to do this.
The entry by the other lady was great.
I have traced by family back to not just the civil war but... the American Revolution. I have tons of info. What I have found to be helpful is family tree maker or similar. Progrmas like this will allow you to add all the information including sources. Such as birth certificates death certs marriage cert land and deed records . I do not consider some one telling me a date or a place totaly valide, until, I obtain a certificate. You can add scans of these certificates and pictures in this program. When you are ready, you can print feom this program a book. Theere are so many options of printing from a family history, to family page to a tree showing the branches. I highly recommend at least looking at the description of family tree maker to see what it offers. I would only recommend getting this IF you plan on continuing your search for family.
If you do, please feel free to email me and I would love to get you started on your research getting past your grandparents.
The first step is obtaining either a birth or death record on them. From there, most all local libraries have heritage quest on their computers. If you have a library card and you have asked for an access code for computer use, you can access heritage quest from home. On this site, you can access most census records for free! If you make it as far back as the American Rev. You might be able to access the pension file to that grand parent. (Do look for women in the revolution too). Also, you can access ancestry.com from the libray for free. Not from your home. I have a ton of free sites I access first. I refuse to use a paid sight unless I am really stuck. Then I go to the library. With all that said: if it looks like your family came from another country in the 1800's, don't dismiss that the family was here further back. Some movedd here and went back.
There are some heritages that could be harder to research, if that is the case... I would still like the challenge.
Sorry for the typos, I'm on my moble and didn't want to wait till I was near my computer.
Good luck. Great job on what you have so far!!!
my husband and i got all our info off of ancestry.com but then we put it on geni.com (which is completely free) and they put it all together like what you would imagine a "tree" to look like. then you can print it.
Hi,
I have been doing family history (genealogy) for about 10 years.There are lots of websites with information to help with family tree researching such as www.cyndislist.com, www.ellisisland.org, and www.familysearch.org. There are lots of programs that you can buy to make your life easier if it is something you are planning to continue doing (such as Family Tree Maker). There are also some free forms (pdf) here:
http://helpdesk.rootsweb.ancestry.com/get_started/charts_...
The ancestral chart and family group sheets might be what you are looking for.
Good luck!
L.
Here are some beautiful ideas to get your going:
http://projectcenter.creativememories.com/photos/digital_...
These are "heritage" type pages....they use the Creative Memories Storybook Creator software....
Good luck and how wonderful you have taken the TIME to do this for your family!
Ancestry.com has a free site you can set up your tree on, apply pictures to the names and print on paper or order a canvas. they also have a website you can make for your family i don't know what the charge would be though... they do a 14day free trial.. and when you cancel it your information will remain stored so that you can access your tree later. hope this helps
