Introduction

Step 1
What You Know

Step 2
Interview and Gather

Step 3
Examine Documents

Step 4
Create an Organizational Plan

Step 5
Arm Yourself

Step 6
Ready to Reach Out

Step 7
The Journey Begins

Step 8
Genealogy Sources

Step 10
Your Ancestors Await You

Step 7 - The Journey Begins

This step will take you beyond the Ancestor Chart created in step 1 and introduce you to Family Group Sheets. A Family Group Sheet lists all the children of a husband and wife on your Ancestor Chart.

Print a Family Group Sheet and write your father's name in the "husband" space at the top.

A Family Group Sheet is a form that contains genealogical information about one family unit on an Ancestor Chart (a husband, a wife, and their children). A Family Group Sheet usually includes birth dates and places, death dates and places, and marriage dates and places.

Continue transferring information from your Ancestor Chart to complete the top half of the form.

The bottom half of the Family Group Sheet is where you will list all of their children (you and your siblings).

As with the Ancestor Chart in Step 1, fill in all information you can from memory. You can then review other notes and documents gathered in Step 2 to fill out more information on the form.

Continue creating family group sheets for every couple on your ancestor chart.

Where the Ancestor Chart gives you a birds eye view of your direct ancestral line, the Family Group Sheet provides more details about the family of each husband and wife on that Ancestor Chart.

Collateral Lines

Why is researching the whole family important? And just what is a collateral line?

Collateral Lines include those persons who have the same ancestors, but do not descend from one another. Examples of collaterals, your extended family of ancestors, are: Aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, nephews, and nieces.

Your genealogical journey will progress more smoothly if you get in the habit from the beginning of gathering names of all children for each couple on your Ancestor Chart. Researching the siblings of your ancestors will help you to continue moving back in time. Think about it: Your grandmother and your grandmother's brother shared the same set of parents. You might reach a dead end when researching your grandmother but there might be a plethora of records if you trace her brother's lineage. Remember—their lineage is identical as long as they shared the same parents.

Continue with Step 8 - Genealogy Sources