Family Tree Plan | Family Tree Planner | How To Make A Family Tree Guide

Family Tree Making Guide

Step #1. Make Your Family Tree Plan

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How To Make Family Tree Plan

Where to Get Started
Keep it simple at the start
Document each family member
What info to collect on a family member?
Plan how to find genealogy information

Family Tree Mission Statment
Paragraph to guide your family tree planning

Material Needed
List of materials needed to make your family tree plan a success.

Information To Track
What should we collect about the family members we plan to research.

Family Tree Craft Ideas

Family Tree Cookbook

3D Family Tree

Family Tree Guide - Step #1. Plan My Family Tree

How to Make A Family Tree Guide

How To Make An Effective Family Tree Plan : When making an efficient plan for your family history project, you must first determine a clear focus or direction for your family tree research activities. You should answer various planning questions like : How far back in history do you want to trace your family line? Do you just want to note names and birth dates or do you want to write full biographies of family tree members? A family tree plan will help answer these questions and more, so you focus on collecting data that is important to your family tree research goals.

Start Family Tree Plan - Set Goals and Focus Genealogy Research

Do you want help with planning a family tree or how to start your family tree? Before you start any family tree research project, use this family tree guide to help you set some reachable goals that will help you focus your time and energy on a desired outcome. With that in mind, you can collect your resources, determine a focus, and execute a family tree plan that will help you successfully achieve your genealogical goals. Keep in mind if, even if you start out just wanting to write an essay on one family ancestor with this family tree guide, you can always expand on your research and produce a family tree on a much larger scale later.

Here are some ideas for focusing your genealogy research into a finished family tree report, essay, book, or website :

1.	Biography on one major ancestor - Develop a narrative around the life story of one main ancestor. This effort makes note of the chronological history and the history of friends, family and other associates taking part in this ancestor''s life.
2.	Multigenerational family history - This body of work would offer narratives, photographs, recipes, etc related to each person in the family tree.
3.	Documentation of family clusters - This would be a broader collection of family clusters. Each family unit would hold a separate narrative that may give more focus to a patriarch or matriarch of the family unit.
4.	Compilation of family documents, letters, recipes, and photographs - This record book using photo genealogy and would be more of a book of pictures than a narrative.
5.	Genetic Family Tree - The use of genetic genealogy is used to trace family histories across many generations and even continents.

A Family Tree Plan Begins With A Mission Statement

Here are some tips for writing a mission state for your family tree plan :

1.	Which type of reporting method will I use? - If you plan to create a collection of photographs and recipes, you know to specifically search and ask for those items. Also, you may want to record family interviews with a video camera and make a video family tree. Knowing this will help you gather the tools you need to gather and store your research artifacts.
2.	What family lines will I include? - You can expand into so many directions if you track every family line related to you. We advise focusing on one, such as your matriarchal grandmother's family. You may also be the child of divorced grandparents, so you may want to start multiple family trees.
3.	How far back do you want to go? - If you wish it, it will happen -- if you want to track back to the Mayflower, decide this in the beginining. You may want to start with a progression, such as from now until the civil war time period.

Materials Needed To Make A Family Tree

You are going to uncover an abundance of information about many different subjects when using this family tree guide. Purchase supplies at the local paper products store. We suggest purchasing the following materials that will help you carefully organize your research data:

1.	Download Printable Family Tree Forms - Find free printable pedigree charts, family tree fan charts, and family record chart on our Organize Your Family Tree page.
2.	Index Cards - Buy a pack of 100+ because you will need to track each family member with its own index card.
3.	Index Card Box - This item will help to organize the cards and allow you to easily travel to your research destinations with your cards.
4.	Writing Tablets - Great for quickly jotting down information that can be organized on index cards later.
5.	Audio Recording Device - Necessary for recording conversations with relatives and other human sources.
6.	Digital Camera - This is great for taking pictures of family members, important places or even important documents and artifacts that you may not be able to remove from it storage area. You may also want to use a digital camera to record video of family interviews.
7.	Binders and Manilla Folders - You will want to organize your family tree documents into a separate binder for each surname. Within each binder should be a set of attached folders for each person grouped by family unit.
8.	Photo Albums - You will need a safe place to store pictures of family members. We suggest starting with an album for each surname that has removable pages with acid free picture protectors.

Information To Track When Researching Family

Before doing research, always know what information for which you are searching. Here is a list of key facts you will want to find on each subject :

1.	Full Name - [Title, First, Middle, Last, Maiden]
2.	Spouses - [Full Names \| Birth Dates \|Wedding Dates \| Divorce Dates \| Parents]
3.	Children - [Birth Dates/Locations \| Death Dates \| Birth Order]
4.	Home Addresses - You will want to define the addresses for each stage in a person's life (childhood, first adult home,etc), so that you know where to search for items that relate to a specific life stage. Search for the towns on maps, but remember that towns and map boundaries change over time, so you may have to search for older maps to find obscure towns. Understanding the correct town of birth, will help you pinpoint the location of facilities that store large of amounts of information of wich you will be searching.
5.	Occupations - [Locations \| Company Names \| Dates of Employment]
6.	Affiliations - [Churches \| Lodges \| Local Government \| Volunteer Groups\| Baptismal records]
7.	Military Records - [Discharge certificates \| Death records \| Training records \| Records of Training]

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