.png)
A-B-C of Genealogy: 3 Building Blocks to Start Your Family Tree
- Devon Noel Lee
- May 14
- 5 min read
If you're a beginning genealogist, you need to start at the very beginning by asking - what do I need to know to build a family tree.
As Fraulein Maria sang in the Sound of Music, you must start at the very beginning. So, if young readers begin with A-B-C and singers begin with Do-Re-Mi, the genealogist begins with:
Names
Events
Details
But before we discuss these items, please note, to build an accurate family tree you must start with yourself and then climb your family tree generation by generation.
While it's tempting to search online trees and published genealogies to see if you're related to Charlemagne, royalty or some other distant relative, there are better strategies than that.
Unless you want to build a fictional family tree, it's best to start with yourself, confirm your relationship with your parents and siblings, then their parents and siblings, and so forth back through time.
As my colleague Eric Wells, Legacy Left Right, says, "take time to be sure that the person in the record is the same person you're researching."
Who is in your tree, and what are their names?
An experienced genealogist searches for individuals and how they relate to others in their family. To ensure a specific person links with their correct relations, you first need to know the name of the individuals involved.
Only then can you begin to find supporting evidence for the claims of relationships. However, names can be confusing and challenging.
First, record every name you know a person used in their lifetime. These names include:
Given names - first and middle names where applicable
Nicknames - Some nicknames are shortened versions of names, like John for Johnathan or Bill for William. Some aliases aren’t obvious, like Sasha for Sergei or Peggy for Margaret. Still, others have various origins: Bubba, Red, Slugger, etc.
Surnames - The familial name used at birth, adoption, marriage, or other changes.
Stage names - For instance, Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson.
Spelling variations - Avoid falling into the trap of believing every record your ancestor appears in will have the same spelling. Record all name variations.
Suffixes - Jr, Sr, III, IV, and so forth are appendages to names to differentiate individuals in a family. Esq, M.D., and other post-nominals that indicate "individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, office, military decoration, or honour, or is a member of a religious institute or fraternity. "
Titles - Not only do royalty have titles, but people acquire them in the same fashion as post-nominals.
Be open to the possibility that an ancestor changed their name. My husband's ancestor changed his surname to hide from the law. Many immigrants Anglicized their names after arriving in America. Others changed their name for religious reasons or because they disliked their original name.
Mind you, I have disliked my given name and wanted to change it to Noelle, but I could never make it take hold. However, my name could have been much worse. So, there's that.
Within your family tree program, you will likely choose one name as the 'main name' on the profile or forms. Then, use the alternate name or nickname fields to track the other name variations.
However, with spelling variations, it's rarely necessary to use the alternative name fields. Instead, list those name variations in the notes associated with an individual's name.
Genealogy educators typically recommend using the name at birth with any suffixes and prefixes acquired throughout life. However, there are times when you might want to use a reasonable exception. When you do, just note why you're using that name over the other.
For instance, I do not use my grandma's name at birth. She was adopted shortly after birth and never really went by that name. Thus, her adopted name Louise Long appears in our family tree. The "Also Known As" field records her birth name as Marie Anderson.
What happened during their life?
Genealogy is about time and location, and you discover those topics as they relate to specific individuals via the events that happened in a person's life.
No matter how short the life - including stillbirths or infants who died, you want to include what happened and where it happened.
Thus, the most obvious topics would include birth, death, and marriage when applicable. But you should also include the following:
Education
Military Service
Residence(s)
Migrations
Divorces
Adoptions
And more.
You'll find a longer list of such events in my blog post entitled, Are You Adding These Facts to Your Family Tree?
You'll conduct genealogy research in online and offline sources to find these details.
Occasionally, you can guestimate dates and locations until you find the correct data. For instance, if you have a grandmother born in 1880 who lived, married, and died in Spotsylvania, Virginia, chances are that her children were born in the same place about 20-30 years after her birth.
Remember, this is only a starting point until you confirm she had children. Then, you confirm when and where they arrived in this world.
What makes a person different than someone else?
Non-genealogists often accuse family tree builders of only focusing on names, dates, and places. However, experienced genealogists and family historians seek the details that tell the story of an individual.
Therefore, you want to know the following:
race
religion
occupation
hobbies
physical descriptions
injuries and illness
cause of death
stories and legends
and more.
Again, many details you could add to a relative's profile appear in this article: Are You Adding These Facts to Your Family Tree?
If your relatives complain that their family history is boring, you need to seek more details about an individual.
For instance, my great-grandfather is Robert Victor Zumstein.
He preferred using his middle name Victor over his first name. He grew up on a farm in a small town in Ontario, Canada. He attended a one-room schoolhouse located a few miles on the same road as his home. He walked past Clementine Comfort on the way to school. Years later, he married this girl across the street.
After graduating from the University of Toronto, he obtained his Master's Degree in Physics at the State University of Iowa (now known as The University of Iowa). He received his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Michigan. He turned traitor a few years later when he took a teaching position at Ohio State University for the remainder of his life.
That's just the start of my grandfather's story, but notice all the events and details I shared.
These three building blocks - names, events, and details- will make genealogy research more enjoyable and meaningful. In addition, you'll generate connections between the generations for yourself and your loved ones.
Comentários