Questions to Ask and Answer Before you Begin your Family Tree
How much time will it take?
That's an easy question because as with any hobby, you can spend as much or as little time as you want. You can spend a lifetime and still find new information, or you can make it a hobby that you "dabble' in on occasion.
There will always be new information to add to your tree when people are born, marry or die. If you just want a record of names, birth dates, marriages and deaths, your job will be easy and probably boring. Those deceased ancestors will wait for you to discover their stories. As someone once said to me, "Those dead folks aren't going anywhere."
Exploring their stories will keep you interested and excited to look for more. At a minimum and a starting point, gather as much of the "boring" vital statistics for your direct ancestors and record that information. This should include full name, any nicknames, date and location of birth, date and location of marriages, any divorces, date and location of death and burial. To extend this base, you might add siblings and children or not. I thought it was silly for Mom to record siblings until I later realized that their information often provided new information for my direct ancestors.
What should I do with the information after I gather it?
Before the advent of the computer, people had various ways to record and file their information, but it always involved paper. Handwritten notes, notebooks full of information or charts of family lineages.
My mother began the hunt for ancestors many years ago and kept it all in spiral notebooks. There are now many offline computer software programs where you can manually record your data. Many years later, I am still reviewing and recording my mother's information into my computer program.
What Computer program is best
Computer programs can be purchased, but there are several free ones available also. Some programs will interface with online sites and some will not. Most programs allow you to create GEDcoms. This is a way to share your data online or via Email with others.
I would recommend looking at several programs to see what you think will work best for you. Many online sites allow you to enter information online and then download a GEDcom to open in your offline program. However, if you only store your data online, that company can increase their cost to be a member or close down entirely. That has happened to me. So don't neglect storing your records offline - a reminder to myself.
Can I share my information easily and should I?
Once personal computers and the digital world became available, we experienced whole new options of saving, storing or sharing family trees. But people are still trying to answer the question of how and where to store their information to make it usable and/or availabe to others. Ancestry, Family Search, WeRelate, WikiTree, MyHeritage and many other online sites are available to share your data with others. Paid sites (such as Ancestry and MyHeritage) allow you to better control your information than sites that allow others to work on your tree such as Family Search, WeRelate and WikiTree. Be very cautious what you share online because once you add your information to a site owned by someone else, that site "owns" your information.
What about Privacy Issues?
Think about what is in your offline tree before you share with others privately or online. Who are the people who will be using it, and is there private information that should not be shared?
My desire is to share my information freely to help others who share my ancestors. There is always the hope that by sharing I will find another descendant who can also help complete my puzzles.
There is always the concern about how people will use or transmit your information. For example, I often add dates, explanations and identification when I post a photo. Ancestry, for example, has a way for another user to simply click save and the photo along with any notes are saved to that user's tree. Yet countless times people have downloaded my photos to their computers without the identification information, and then reloaded only the photo to their trees. I'm not sure why they do this? I posted one photo with an explanation of why I was uncertain that it was the correct person. Then I saw it on another person's tree without the explanation. I asked him about the photo. He said it was on his computer; his computer crashed so that was why. I wasn't sure if that explanation made sense? Also, because the person manually posted the photo, it showed up in my "hints" as if it were a new photo.
One more issue. A GEDcom may include your notes or other information that you might not put on a public family tree. I shared a GEDcom with a cousin years ago. He opted to upload it to his online public family tree, notes and all. He died suddenly. As the owner of that tree, he was the only one who could make changes or delete the tree. This was over 20 years ago, but I think that tree is still floating around the Internet. I'm glad he took the credit and not me.
Should I write a book?
Some decide to publish their family history. But when and how?
The when is difficult if you are not sure you have all the information correct and also if you feel you need to gather more information to complete your family history.
The how is another issue. Do you pay to print a hard copy, or do you create in digital format? Do you make it public online for others to view and copy, or share privately?
Several years ago, I decided to create and publish a hard copy for my parents, siblings, children and grandchildren. Determining how to present the information was the biggest challenge. I wanted to offer the family stories but also show how and where descendants fit into the family story. I finally opted to put the lineage trees in as an appendix and use the main chapters to tell stories I had discovered about our ancestors. I started with a chapter on "Faith of our Fathers" since we had a long history of ancestors who were ministers. Then I used a timeline, starting with our first ancestors coming to America and continuing through history.
As you get to "know" your ancestors, you are bound to find interesting events in their lives that you will want to share - with whom and how will be your choice.
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