How To Make a Family Tree on Paper

Getting Started

When starting out, it is very easy to be seduced by the ease of technology or the flashiness of corporate marketing.  You may be convinced you have to create your family tree in a software application or in an online tree, but that's not your only option or even the best option for starting out.  The reality is that these tools can sometimes be overwhelming to the beginner genealogist, so why not learn how to make a family tree on paper first.

We're going to start out really high tech here, so brace yourself.  Take out a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil (preferably a pencil so you can erase if needed).  Regular paper, graph paper, construction paper, whatever you have is fine.  You even have permission to rip a piece of paper out of a spiral notebook, full of fringes and all.

Wakefield Family Tree by Shelly is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). 
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.

At the bottom center portion of that paper, write your name and birthdate and place you were born (if you don't know all of these, that's okay - just write down what you know).  Then, work your way back in time moving up the page.  List your parents and their birthdate and place of birth if known, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. until you written down all the ancestors you know of.

Ok, good.  Now, I want you to crumple up that piece of paper and throw it away.

Gotcha!  Wait - Don't do it.  You don't have to throw it away.  But keep in mind that feeling you just had - that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when something you worked hard at ends up in the trash.

Taking a Second Look

Take a look at the information you just created again starting with your own name at the bottom.  Now think of a question about your information.  Something like, how do I know that is my name?  Was I really born in 1971? - yup, I'm dating myself here.  Am I sure I was born in the city where I live now?  Genealogy is all about answering questions, so it's always good to start with one.

Let's start with your name.  What proof do you have of your name?  Do you have a driver's license that shows your name, your social security card, a birth certificate, your Mom's testimony.  These are what we call sources and they help us confirm that the information we put in our tree is correct.  It is important to locate and scrutinize sources as we do our research to make sure we place the correct people in our tree.

Beyond Repair by aehdeschaine is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0) 
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.

Remember that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Well, imagine how much worse it would be if you traced your family back ten generations only to find out that one of the people you thought was an ancestor back in generation four is not really your ancestor.  All of that hard work would basically be trash and nobody wants that.

Where To Go From Here

Genealogy is the process of answering questions about our lineage one by one and documenting the sources we find that prove our claims.  Stayed tuned for our next post on the research cycle for more information on how to do genealogy.  And later on, we'll show you how to make a family tree on paper using a variety of templates - something without all those paper fringes on the side.  Until then, keep asking and answering those questions.