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How do you lay out your family tree?

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  • How do you lay out your family tree?

    So.....I've got lots of info, just need some advice on managing it.

    I'm currently using a website called My Heritage to map it all out but to be honest (as an ex librarian) I'm getting a bit frustrated with it. I have nearly 200 people on it now.

    I'm very into IT but I'd actually like to put it down on paper now. What is the correct way to list each person eg name, dates, etc. Are there recognised abbreviations I can use to save space?

    I also have several lines going off in different directions and I'd like to manage it all much better.

    I'm currently focusing on one line - my maternal Grandfather, and his male line.

    Any advice appreciated.

    Sharon ;)

  • #2
    I use a program - Family Tree Maker (FTM) which offers options for charts either like organisation charts with boxes into which it will put whatever data you choose from your data set. The charts can be ancestors, descendants or everyone whatever you want. I have Charting Companion to FTM which produces pdf files for printing and the various generations are different coloured boxes so it is easy to see who you have and where they fit.
    Other charts can be like a fan with the main person at the bottom in the middle with all their ancestors going out from them.
    With all of these charts you can choose who is shown on them and how so it's all very flexible.
    Margaret

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    • #3
      If you can't print charts from My Heritage then maybe try putting your data into Person Ancestry File (PAF) which is a free program from http://http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp and then have a look at the Wiki on here to see how you create charts from this program. There's also a section in the Wiki on creating and printing charts in FTM but that's a bought program which you may not wish to purchase.
      Personally I would want to have my tree on my own hard drive too for security etc. so if the only copy you have is on the website then I'd make a copy as a gedcom and download it to view in say PAF
      Margaret
      PS it looks like My Heritage has a download program so maybe you are using that, if so I'd look for their chart options.

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      • #4
        Although I do have a computer tree, because I am an old fogey, I'm happiest with paper.

        I use a simple flow chart system. Each individual has one sheet of paper, topped by their parents, and as they marry, I add their wives and children. their children have brief details and the instruction "Go to page XX" in flow chart system.

        This works very well for me as it is simple, lol! Where I have a lot of detailed info about one individual, then the one sheet of paper may actually be seven, if you see what I mean.

        OC

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        • #5
          Yes OC - I also have the paper trail using the templates from GR that have a family group sheet, pedigree view and fan chart view. It all helps to fix people in your mind as to where they are in relation to you - at least that's what I find LOL!
          Margaret

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          • #6
            Thanks Margaret, I agree, I do not like my only copy being on My Heritage. I'm also about to exceed the free limit of data so need another option.

            OC - like you, and I'm quite a young fogey, I like paper too. I'd actually like to get a huge sheet and start laying it out properly so be able to display in my home. Has anyone else done this - did you get a huge sheet from an art shop or maybe I need a roll of paper! Maybe I could use a calligraphy pen?

            Sharon

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            • #7
              I think people often use rolls of paper as it can be rather limiting using one sheet and then you get into the ball game of sticking together, which is truth is what you have to do with the computer produced charts. You might like to print one from your tree to use as a guide though to make sure you've got it all straight and that everything is on your database.
              The calligraphy pen sounds good and it will mean you have something that will be the finished article and maybe frame it for display.
              Have a look at some of the examples from the programs I've mentioned to see how you might approach the layout.
              Margaret

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              • #8
                Yes, the roll of wallpaper has served me well. Unfortunately my tree does not lend itself to display as I have endless inter-family marriages which do not show easily on one chart.

                One thing I have found very handy is an Ahnentafel chart which I have stuck on the wall here by my pooter. The chart is free to download from LostCousins site. Although it only shows direct ancestors it is an excellent prompt and shows back to 3 x GGPs on one A4 sheet of paper.

                OC

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                • #9
                  I use a software programme (couldn't live without it for entering and quick recall of data and instant family connections!)
                  BUT I also have presentation files for each extended family - most of them are "sectioned" iinto generations, and then into sibling groups within each section. I've had to add section headers like "my 2xgt gdparents John Smith & Mary Bloggs" and also sub-section sheets like "other children of Jim Smith & Ann Jones". Each person has a potted biog (generated by the software programme & then edited) a record of their census appearances, copies of any docs/certs about them, photos, pictures of the church where they were bp, mar or buried, gen info about their job, places they lived etc.

                  I felt I needed to be sectioned after completing the first very thick file, but it is nice to be able to share it with anyone interested.

                  Jay
                  Janet in Yorkshire



                  Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                  • #10
                    I'm an ex-librarian too!

                    I have my family tree on PAF but also paper files (just as well as laptop has died).

                    I have HUGE ring binders for each section of family. Within these I have individual sheets and family sheets (photocopied from original forms in a Family History Starter Pack I bought years ago. I have bmd certs and photos in acid-free poly pockets. This all sounds organised but I also have in the files scraps of paper with illegible scrawls and other odds and ends that really need sorting out.

                    It comes of getting carried away and doing all branches of my and my ex's trees including marriages of siblings of in-laws and tracing neighbours etc. Once these people become real I don't have the heart to throw them out!
                    ~ with love from Little Nell~
                    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                    • #11
                      Me too Nell! I also have a box of un-filed stuff which really must be sorted before I go any further otherwise I will get completely lost LOL
                      Margaret

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                      • #12
                        I really couldn't do without my Family Historian program on my computer. You do also need paper stuff, but if you need to find someone and a relationship quickly you can't beat a proper genealogy program. I can print out whatever diagrams and reports I need from it, so it helps me to make some paper copies of close family groups.

                        I also help to run a One Name society. We have about about 9,000 names and I keep them all on the same FH program. I can quickly find the family I am interested in and work out if they are realated to another family in the same area. Just as an illustration of how MUCH paper you need ...... I printed out a tree for the descendants of one couple who married in Lincolnshire in 1792. I squeezed it up as much as I could but it still covered many, many pieces of A4 paper and when laid out was over 7metres long!

                        Anne

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                        • #13
                          I have to say that as an ex librarian as well I am very fond of my paper files but although I started with huge ringbinders I actually found they got so heavy as I crammed more and more stuff into them and then some broke under the strain, so I now use smaller ringbinders which are much more manageable and don't break as easily! But I really could not be without my Family Historian Programme on my computer. On this you set a root person and I use myself. Each name I input tells me the exact relationship so when I go sideways I might end up with second cousin twice removed which is done for me on this particular programme, otherwise I would have to continually be working out which relationship was which. With this programme you can write up all your notes, have photos attached to each person, as well as attaching all certificates, census etc, so you end up with a media file attached to your tree. From this I can then produce any chart I want for as many generations I want and send as a gedcom file to others. The beautiful charts are done for you once you tell the programme what you want. I have never had the room to produce a huge paper wall chart, too many generations!

                          I have a number of projects on the go so I find it handy to have clear plastic A3 size envelopes for copies of letters taken from newspapers I have found on one individual, copies from TNA of Army/Navy, an Irish Project containing many USA census and so on. These I clearly label with names and being see through, are easily recognisable.

                          Whatever you decide, you will no doubt find it will be all change again in a couple of years as you try to keep a lid on everything, so you can find it! I have had so many changes in direction over the last 30 years but this is the one I am currently working to with different files for different names, though even these have to be further broken down at times! Must be the librarian within me that makes me keep changing, though I did not retire as a librarian!

                          Janet
                          Last edited by Janet; 30-05-10, 18:23.

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                          • #14
                            Gosh I never realised how many ex librarians are on this site! I would love to be one too but sadly retirement is at least 8 years away, unless of course I win millions on the lottery. So I'm still stamping books and the thousand and one other things that librarians do. I use FTM 2006 and have looked at some of the layouts on my laptop but have never actually printed anything out. Partly because I still have so much still to do and partly because I am a bit of a woos LOL

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by GallowayLass View Post
                              Gosh I never realised how many ex librarians are on this site! I would love to be one too but sadly retirement is at least 8 years away, unless of course I win millions on the lottery. So I'm still stamping books and the thousand and one other things that librarians do. I use FTM 2006 and have looked at some of the layouts on my laptop but have never actually printed anything out. Partly because I still have so much still to do and partly because I am a bit of a woos LOL
                              I print charts out to help me focus my research - I can see clearly what data is missing and what people are missing. I loved FTM 2006 but have made myself change to FTM 2010 as I belong to a group who continually have new members that need help and they are increasingly using FTM 2010 so I've needed to learn how that works to enable me to help! LOL
                              Margaret

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                              • #16
                                Thanks everyone - really great posts, I think I'll start off a file and start branching off family groups. Just when it starts to become clearer in your head, it seems to get more complicated! I get the impression lots of people go off in all directions but I'm still trying to focus on one line - my mothers, fathers line.....and the male line beyond him. I am not a multi-tasker so find it scrambles my brain to go off in all directions. One line at a time for me!

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                                • #17
                                  I use Family Historian and find it very good. Also keep hard copies of all certs. etc. in individual plastic folders.

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                                  • #18
                                    I too am a young fogey. I started with cards then the computer but when I printed it off it became very messy. I bought one of those moleskin books and numbered each page as I completed it and then one a particular line would say go to page 10 and on page 10 it would continue with the line. I also added various photo's using double sided tape so everything is in the one book for easy reference.

                                    As a back up I have a pc tree and my cards and a huge ring binder with copies of all the birth, death, censuses etc

                                    It does all mount up but it works for me

                                    Regards

                                    Steven

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