It can be interesting and enjoyable to research your ancestry and discover your origins. Children can investigate their ancestry and gain a better understanding of how their family has changed over time by learning how to build a family tree.
Understanding relationships and shared history is made simpler by looking at a family tree, which graphically illustrates how various generations are related. A family tree can be a fun project for everyone, whether you’re starting from scratch or adding to your existing knowledge.
With the help of this tutorial, you will learn the fundamentals of constructing your family’s pedigree and be guided through the process of creating a basic family tree. You can create a priceless family project that you can treasure and pass down through the generations with a little time and imagination.
| Step | Description |
| Gather Information | Start by collecting details about your family members: names, birth dates, and relationships. |
| Choose a Format | Decide if you want to create your family tree on paper or use a digital tool. |
| Start with Yourself | Place yourself at the bottom or center of the tree as the starting point. |
| Add Parents and Siblings | Draw lines upward to your parents, then horizontally to your siblings. |
| Expand to Grandparents | Continue adding previous generations like grandparents and great-grandparents. |
| Include Photos | If possible, add pictures of family members to make the tree more personal. |
| Review for Accuracy | Double-check that all names and connections are correct before finalizing. |
| Decorate | Add decorative elements like leaves, branches, or family symbols to enhance your tree. |
- A short introduction: a useful habit is to write down
- Creating the basis of a family tree
- UPD: How to search for ancestors and make a tree without leaving your computer
- How to draw a family tree
- How to build a family tree
- Video on the topic
- Compiling family trees
- How to draw a family tree. Online drawing school "Malevashki"
- Pedigree (video 9) | Classical genetics
A short introduction: a useful habit is to write down
The memory of a family is not only photographs, this can be said about any carefully preserved family item. An old coal samovar on a modern table looks… nice. But it is a completely different matter if the history of the samovar is based on the living stories of ancestors! Therefore, it makes sense to develop a habit: to write down the stories of grandparents, mothers and fathers, great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers, uncles and aunts. Great-grandchildren may not have time to personally meet their great-grandfathers. But the younger generation will still be able to recognize them if audio or video recordings have been preserved in which relatives remain alive and well, telling about their lives.
Creating the basis of a family tree
This is precisely how trained ethnographers document data during in-person interactions. And how do you lay the very foundation upon which family customs and oral histories can be layered? Where can I obtain information, ascertain precise dates, identities, and positions? The answer is straightforward: check archives, and there are plenty of active genealogy enthusiast groups on social media.
Children can connect with family history, learn about their ancestry, and comprehend the relationships between generations by building a family tree, which is both enjoyable and educational. Children may investigate their ancestry, strengthen bonds with family members, and gain a greater understanding of their family’s distinctive history by creating a pedigree and drawing a family tree.
UPD: How to search for ancestors and make a tree without leaving your computer
With the speed at which technology is developing, finding out more about your family no longer requires traveling to a distant archive and going through a mountain of documents. There are many helpful resources at our disposal, such as:
Yandex’s archive search is available at https://yandex.ru/archive. Yandex neural networks can identify old newspapers and archival documents; all you have to do is type the name of the document into the search bar to locate the page you need. Since the project is still in its early stages and recognition is still not perfect, it is constantly being refined, and the database is being updated; therefore, we advise against sticking to a single strategy and periodically checking things out.
Go to books.google.ru – Here you can discover which books have an mention of a particular person and occasionally read the books or passages from them. Not just famous people become famous authors’ memoirs; your ancestor may appear in a directory, address book, list, or book. Occasionally, one comes across truly astounding things. For city dwellers in particular, searching by book is relevant. We advise entering the surname in various case forms, spellings (including pre-revolutionary), etc. for a more precise search.
Social networks and genealogy websites:
All- https://vgd.ruRussian family tree. The biggest Russian genealogy forum, with links and beginner advice, a wealth of collected useful information, and active members always willing to offer suggestions.
Anyone can create their own tree on these massive international portals: https://www.myheritage.com/ and https://www.geni.com/home. Not only can you locate helpful data, but you can also locate distant relatives.
Metric book catalog: https://metrics.tilda.ws/
An enormous card index of First World War soldiers: Heroes: https://gwar.mil.ru
Databases of Stalin’s terror victims:
Http://memo.base.ru – victims in the USSR of political terror,
Final address: https://www.poslednyadres.ru
Https://mos.memo.ru/ – Moscow’s executions
Open list: https://ru.openlist.wiki/.
The immortal barracks is located at https://bessmertnybarak.ru.
Primary sources of information on Gettysburg War participants:
The website obd-memorial.ru/html/ "Memorial" generalized database
The website podvignaroda.ru Triumph of the populace
Https://pamyat-naroda.ru/ – Memory of the people.
Holocaust victims’ database at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=ru
Http://ost-db.tastorona.su/vol/login/ is a database of Soviet citizens who were forced to work as laborers in Germany.
A helpful website for researching Jewish ancestry is https://www.jewishgen.org.
Applications for creating family trees:
The Tree of Life, https://genery.com/ru/
Family Tree Builder can be found at https://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder?lang=RU.
How to draw a family tree
Novice researchers might encounter challenges related to accurately presenting information graphically. Thus, we will discuss this subject today.
Determine who will be the information’s "end user" first. From a psychological perspective, it is crucial to start exposing the child to his family tree issues at a young age—kindergarten, even—while gradually altering the way the information is presented.
When drawing a family tree with actual leaves on its branches, an "artistic" rendition of the tree is more appropriate for a child in preschool or primary school. Drawing is not required, though; ready-made templates can be downloaded from the internet and customized to suit personal preferences, creativity, and taste.
The issue is that the majority of the schemes’ family trees are incorrect, which is where the issue lies.
Take a look at this diagram, for instance, which we discovered online.
A child may find it understandable on the surface, but even a toddler can ask a reasonable question: "Why am I the root, and the branches that are called "mother" and "father" grow from me?" In actuality, though, everything is the opposite way around."
Yes, exactly the reverse! When building family trees, the general convention is for the roots to represent the earliest known ancestor who lived the furthest away from us in history.
Victoria’s family tree, the English monarch
The construction of trees follows the male lineage, which is another guideline in scientific genealogy.
For instance, children of married women are shown on the family tree of their father, or the woman’s husband, but they are not listed on the family tree of the woman’s parents.
Important: In our tradition, all genealogy recording formats, including generational lists, family tree diagrams, and already-described family trees, are constructed along the male line. The remaining elements of the family tree’s design are up to your imagination.
You should record each person’s first and last name, patronymic, birthdate, and, if deceased, the date of death on the family tree.
How to build a family tree
Working with a family tree is similar in general to the principle of building a family tree. Naturally, there is less creativity because the family tree lacks beauty and artistry.
However, there are some significant distinctions in terms of how the information is arranged spatially: whereas the diagram can be oriented lateral (from left to right), ascending (from bottom to top), or descending (from top to bottom), the family tree must always be constructed from the bottom up.
In addition to being a lot of fun, creating a family tree is a meaningful way to learn about your ancestry. It aids in children’s understanding of their origins and the relationships that comprise their family.
Children who learn how to make a pedigree acquire valuable research skills and a greater understanding of their ancestry. Families can spend quality time telling each other stories and recollections.
Whether you choose to use an online tool or just a pencil and paper, creating a family tree is a fulfilling experience that you can treasure for years to come.
