Use A Family Tree Worksheet To Trace Your Ancestry

Have you ever wondered if you're related to someone famous?

Are you curious about your family tree but don't know where to start?

Welcome to Genealogy, the study of family history and lineage.

Find out how to get started, what resources are available, and how to use a family tree worksheet to trace your ancestry.

These are the first steps towards creating your own family tree:

• Gather together everything you already know about your family: photos, documents, birth, marriage and death certificates, newspaper clippings, anything that will might give you clues to your past.
• Talk to your relatives starting with Mom and Dad. Collect names, dates, and even stories that might help you piece together family relationships. This is really important and something you should do before it's too late.
• Select one specific person or surname to start with so that you can stay focused.
• Explore on-line to find information about your relatives. Look for databases containing their name, or places where they lived. Don't forget to look for alternate spellings of their surname.
• Visit their home towns and talk to people who might have known them. Search old newspapers, church records and cemeteries. Look for land deeds, immigration records and anything else that might help you to piece together your past.
• Write everything down and use a Family Tree Worksheet to help you record and document all of the relationships. These worksheets let you see your family tree at a single glance, shows your progress and the gaps, and will be an invaluable resource.

A Family Tree Worksheet, or Family Tree template as it is also known, is an indispensable tool for your research. Not only do they help you to keep track of your progress, and provide a snap-shot of your family tree, but they look good and can be framed for display.

Here are two websites where you can download a free family tree worksheet, and there's lots of other information and resources here too:

• http://www.familytreetemplates.net/
• http://www.genealogysearch.org/free/forms.html

There are a lot of great websites online to help you get started.

Rather than start from scratch, here are two blogs that identify and review the top free and paid online genealogy websites:

• Review of the Top 40+ FREE Online Genealogy Websites Where You Can Start Your Ancestry Search
• Review of The 6 Top Paid Subscription Online Genealogy Websites

I hope this article on how to Use a Family Tree Worksheet to Trace Your Ancestry has inspired you to research your family history.

If you want to get started today, a good place to start is to check out this Free Dictionary of Surname Meanings and Origins. Before you know it, you'll be hooked on your research, meet lots of new relatives that you didn't even know about, and you may even get a few surprises!

Happy hunting!

Geoff