General Chat

I'm trying to decide who should be included on my tree.

I'm trying to keep it fairly clean and so was thinking (and I've gone back and forth on this a couple of times already) that I would include the ancestor; his or her partner; siblings; the partners of the siblings; and then children and partners thereof.

So in the end my tree would show all the cousins contemporary to myself and the direct lineage from them back to the ancestor common to all of us.

I realize that I would be missing a lot of what some people include in their trees. But some of the more complex ones look like so much spaghetti to me.

Thoughts?

Hello Michael ,
That sounds just like a family tree to me : )

You create your tree to your own specification. When I look at another persons tree for the first time I always find it confussing but I know my own like the back of my hand.

Good luck and happy searching.

Amanda

There is no one answer. Include who you want to, and most of all, don't be put off or influenced too much by others.

On my private tree I include anyone who has a connection. This has severeral mini 'one name' trees that I have researched over the years. The only criteria it that there is a connection somewhere, even if only by marriage.

My current GR tree, which is now over 2 years old and in need of updating, only contains direct relatives and cousins for me and my wife, as you say, contemporary to yourself.

However, I may change this next time I upload a gedcom as my research interest is now moving more towards the 'one name / place' studies.

Most of all, enjoy.....!

Michael,

I include direct ancestors, and their siblings. I've found the siblings are very useful when you hit a brick wall, such as a destroyed / unreadable record.

Occasionally I've included 'extended' family, but have stopped, as I'm not really interested in a cousin five times removed by marriage.

Really depends on what you want you want.

Michael

I usually do ancestors, ancestors siblings, their spouses, children and their spouses. I never go backwards from the spouse (except grandparents) as the spouses of siblings are not blood related and therefore nothing to do with me.

However, there are some people who follow the ancestors/siblings of non blood relations, everyone has a different way, but to me they are only of interest to me if they are bood related. The most interesting ones are the direct ancestors, I like the thought that I wouldnt be here without any one of them, but I like to try to find out about their siblings too.

Happy searching
Marilyn

On GR I like to concentrate mainly on my own direct ancestors but I often put in siblings and their spouses plus their children. Sometimes going sideways has helped me find my own line. Siblings are often mentioned in wills or other documents and that can confirm a line is the right one.

Offline I have some cousin lines down to the present day because I am in touch with people who share my earlier ancestry and I like to keep them in touch with any progress I might make.

I am also running a couple of unofficial One Name Studies and so I have mini trees on my computer which may one day link into mine, but in the meantime I can show those to anyone I find to whom they belong.

Some of my ancestors come from tight knit communities with intricate relationships. It's useful to do studies of some of these and to work out cluster genealogies for the extended families. Finding friends of ancestors as well as relations can help explain their backgrounds.

Have fun

Sue

Sometimes i have gone off on a tangent with the marriages and children of my grtx 3/4/5 grandparents siblings .If I have bought certs to verify some info then I have added them to my tree, Must admit this is more on my FTM program than genes as I cant be bothered adding all the extra info twice
The thing its your tree so add what interests you !!

Shirley