How To Trace Your Family History

There are approximately 12 steps if you are planning to organize your family tree. But I summarized the entire guide and ended up with 9. In order to get things started you have to prepare the following materials.

File boxes with lids
Colored hanging file folders
Standard green hanging files
Manila folders
Pens
Highlighters
Labels for folders
Dot or star
Stickers
Lined paper
Additional boxes to expand your storage
A carrying case to hold all of this in
Wall size pedigree chart.

Pedigree charts can be found at most genealogy websites and local libraries.

Steps in tracing down you Family Genealogy:

1. Organize your family pedigree charts - Print a complete set of all your pedigree charts. You have to start with your name and working backwards. Choose a color among the hanging folders and label it "Pedigree Charts". Then put all the printed pedigree charts in it. Fill them out as much as you can. It is much easier if you do it with some close in the family. Maybe the older the better because the more info you can fill out now, the easier it will be later.

2. To start your family genealogy, print a colored copy of the Circled 5 Generation Pedigree Chart. You are the 5th generation and your sixteen great grandparents are the first generation. Refer to the color code provided in the chart to fill in the rest.

3. Place 16 hanging file folders in your box. You will need 16 boxes for all your great grandparent, you may need more later but let just start with 16. Separate 8 folder, then label them with the surnames of each of your 8 great grandfather. The remaining 8 folder will be labeled by the maiden names of your 8 great grandmothers. This part is quite difficult since you have to get all of the surnames and maiden names of your first generation. You need all the help you can get, do as many as you can and try to communicate with relatives who may know their names. You can also conduct a family research to track your family history.

4. Use the highlighter and highlight your 5- generation pedigree chart. Then place the highlighted copy in each of the colored folders. Print 16 more copies of your 5-generation pedigree chart with you as 1 on the chart. On one of the pedigree charts, highlight the names of all persons with the same last name using the color assigned to that last name. File the highlighted pedigree chart in its last name hanging file folder.

Repeat the process of highlighting a last name line and filing the pedigree chart in its hanging folder for each of the 16 last names of your great-great grandparents. This may seem tedious, but you will appreciate how much easier it makes things later.

5. Set up manila folders for each of the families by putting a colored labels on the file tab. Match the label color to the color of each family group record. Be sure to use sticky labels. Sticky labels are great because if you have to change something, you just place a label over the existing one. They help keep things organized.

6. Place the manila family history folders in hanging folders, matching the color of the label on the manila family folder to the color of the hanging file folder. Color coding everything makes things so much easier to find later.

7. In a family folder place the family group record of the family, documents you have already gathered for that family, and any notes you have taken on the family.

8. Set up other files containing letters, photos, emails, birth certificates, etc. Anything that you can think of that may fit into its own category, make a file for it. It makes it much easier to locate later.

9. When one of your files gets too big to fit into your box, simply move it to another box. Take as many boxes as you need to get all the information you need. Having multiple organized boxes is much better than having it all in one box unorganized and a jumbled mess.

Again, there are many websites that offers extensive family research which can give you accurate results if you have troubles in filling the names in your family tree. You can always ask for their services in case you are desperately in need of the missing name.