One day, as I lay on my bed reading a magazine, I overheard my youngest brother asking our mother for the name of our grandfather. His innocent question sparked realization-the names, and stories of our ancestors were at risk of being forgotten. This was a wake-up call, a reminder of the importance of our family history.
Our family history is a treasure trove of stories and memories that connect us to our past. Recognizing this, I closed my magazine and started a new journey to share this treasure with my siblings. I scoured the internet for family tree apps and discovered the Lifetimes app, a powerful tool that has been instrumental in preserving our ancestor’s details.
Steps To Make a Digital Family Tree
If you, like me, want to build your family tree digitally, do not worry. You just need to follow the given steps. But before starting, make a plan and ask yourself.
- How far back do you want to go back?
- Is the information that you are gathering is valid and authentic?
- Does somebody in your family have this information to provide you with a background?
- What specifics do you want to capture on each leaf: births, marriage, or deaths?
- Do you want to put pictures of ancestors on each of the leaves?
- Where are all these pictures available?
When you find the answer to these questions, think in which direction you will draw the tree. Trees naturally grow from one point to another, from the ground to the sky; family trees can be prepared from the bottom up, the top down or horizontally on any selected computer screen.
After deciding on the pattern, you are completely ready. It is time to move towards the steps now,
Step 1: Collect Data About Your Family
Before you start drawing your family tree chart, do some research. List down what you know, interview family members to augment your information, and look for pictures and documents. Visit libraries and popular genealogical websites to find censuses, articles, deeds, and other documents that will support your heritage.
You can only go back to a certain extent when records are available. You may have encountered some people claiming to know their ancestry. In practice, however, obtaining documents older than several hundred years is almost impossible, as they are often lost due to fires, floods, acts of war, or sheer carelessness.
Some regions preserved records better than others, determining how far back in your family’s history can be traced. Because of this, many family tree sketches go only up to three or four generations.
Step 2: Choose Your Family Tree Maker
As you are doing everything online, you also need a family tree maker app. Once you start searching, you will see many options. Select the one that suits your desires and create an impressive genealogical chart.
Note: The details of your ancestors should be clear and easily understandable.
According to us, the Lifetimes app is an ideal choice. We also recommend using this application, which is fully equipped with advanced features.
Step 3: Develop a Framework For a Family Tree
After you gather all the information you have, follow the next step. Draw relationships from you to the ancestors or from the oldest living generation up to the current generation. In other words, start from yourself and go backward.
This family tree diagram app will present many templates. With the help of this visual workspace, you can choose an online family tree template and edit it with no more than several clicks. You can easily upload your family tree data from spreadsheets such as Excel or Google Sheets and visualize your families immediately.
Step 4: Place Information On Each Leaf
Each family member has to be represented as a shape and connected with lines to show their relation to the other family members. When identifying your relatives, a small box or rectangle is traditionally used, but you can use any shape available on the tool. All of them are, in fact, branches of a tree.
The shape you decide to use as leaves should be proper and of a size that would accommodate all the details that you intend to put in the family tree chart.
Put pictures in these shapes, significant event dates, and any other text or info you want to become a part of your leaf. As you put together this information, we would recommend a few additional guidelines;
Make it as simple as possible!
If this family tree diagram is used as a reference by other family members, we advise you to keep the layout basic so that a quick page scan is possible. Ideally, each level of the tree should contain only one generation because that makes it easier to follow the relationships of the individuals in the family tree.
Try to add fun to it!
Remember, the aim of making a family tree is to inform future generations about their ancestors. It becomes attractive when you add fun to it. Be careful and avoid adding some heart-breaking line or picture to it. Also, do not add any family issues there.
Step 4. Print Out Your Family Tree Chart
The best part is that after completing your genealogy chart or a family tree diagram, you can give your genealogy or introduce new family stories to your family members in printed form. This will allow them to rethink their genealogy. You can also use words to invite them to include more information in their answers.
Final Thoughts!
Follow these simple steps to create a free family tree chart using the Lifetimes app. Regardless of where your family members are, every person has the right to view, make comments, and contribute to open the document, type notes, and make changes or corrections where necessary.
It is proper to keep the family united, although everybody is not present physically. Our blog will help you keep your family history alive and memorize your ancestry.
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