Uncover your past with these family tree ideas

A family tree helps you discover your roots and pass down stories to the future generations. Once you've done the research, try organizing the info with one of these methods.

• Start with notes of all the names and dates of birth, marriage and death for all the relatives you can identify.
• Ask everyone in the family what they remember.
• Take a large sheet of paper and make a rough draft.
• o begin with, you might find it helps to write the names on pieces of card, and move them around until you have everyone in place.

• In its most basic form, a family tree is called a "pedigree chart" or "birth brief."
• Start with yourself and goes backwards to include only direct ancestors — two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so on.
• For simplicity's sake, leave out aunts, uncles, cousins or siblings.
• It might be arranged horizontally or vertically.

• After you have the basics, you can extend out to include cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews and other relations.
• For this, you'll want the "drop-line" format. This method puts the most distant relatives at the top. Lines of descent drop down the chart from one generation to the next.
• This method lets you include more generations and people, and makes all that information easier to read.

• List women by their maiden names and use double lines to join spouses.
• List second spouses to the partner's other side and number them one and two.
• Use a vertical line to link parents to children, and a horizontal line to link siblings, listing them chronologically from left to right.

A family tree is like looking into the past. The research can be a lot of fun but, depending on how far you want to go back, be sure to keep the info well-organized. Use one of these techniques and keep meticulous notes. The results could be very surprising.