Creating Your Family Tree
Contents
Beginning your research
Before you can start constructing your tree, you need to find the branches and twigs to populate it. This page will give you advice on how to go about it and where to find the information, together with hints and tips on deciding whether they are "yours", using The Wiki pages and external links.
Step One ~ Talk To Your Relatives
The first thing to do when you’re starting out is to write down everything you know about your family – names, dates and places of birth, marriages & deaths etc. Ask your relatives for help, especially the older generation, they’re usually a mine of information and stories. Perhaps take a tape recorder along with you to record what they say. Collect together as many old photos, certificates and other family documents you can find. Try to find out the identities of the people in these photos.
Once you’ve collected all of this information and drawn up a simple tree linking them all together, you’re now ready to trace your family back further.
Step Two ~ Going Back Before 1900
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Finding Those Names
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How do you know they "belong" in your tree?
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To be 99% sure that you are researching the correct people, you are going to have to get Birth, Marriage and/or Death Certificates. These pages will help you find out All About Certificates and how to go about obtaining them.
Sorting out those relationships ...
Who is your 5th cousin twice removed? Can first cousins marry? Can a man marry his wife's sister? Is a man allowed to marry his great-grandmother in Scotland?
Find the answers here: Degrees of Kinship
Quick Hints and Tips
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