The Benefits of a Family Tree

One of the benefits of a family tree is that the whole family can be seen in a beautiful setting and in an orderly manner.

In a descending tree, the patriarch will be at the top with his spouse or spouses, and children and succeeding generations cascading down from them.

Rifling through pages of a written genealogy is time-consuming and confusing. If all the family is in an organized chart, it is easy to pinpoint a certain family member in a hurry. It is easy to see who married whom and the children they had.

Memories fool people and a well constructed family tree will settle doubtful issues. There is an area on the family page in software to add more than one spouse. Most men remarried after losing the first wife in order to help raise the family. In the old days, men and women had a lot of children to help with farming or other chores. Divorce, though not as common as today, was practiced, also.

Pictures and stories may be inserted in the family tree and a full book written using genealogical data and the certificates and documents collected. If you are creative, making a family tree is a joy. I am not and right now all my genealogy is in loose-leaf notebooks, one for each family and all the certificates are in acid-free, archival quality folders along with the pictures.

Photos may be inserted in the tree and they add so much. It is a thrill to see what your grandparents, for instance, looked like. Genetic diseases can be identified by making a tree. If your grandparents had diabetes, you just might get it, too. There have been great strides in DNA research that may prove more people are members of your tree.

It is interesting to see how family names pass down through the times. Certain countries have naming patterns such as naming the first son after the paternal grandfather, the second son after the maternal grandmother, the third son after the father, and other sons after uncles of the male child.

Females, too, followed a pattern of first daughter named after the maternal grandmother, the second after the paternal grandmother, the third daughter after the mother and other daughters after the aunts of the girl.

You may construct the tree of your choice, whether hand-written or by the use of software. The product you end up with should be a source of pride for you and all the family.

Read More About:

Related Articles: