The Family Tree

A family tree is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree-like structure. Family trees use medicine, genealogy and social work to comprise these records. These are known as genograms. Geneaology is the Greek word from "genea" meaning generation. Logos, meaning knowledge, is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives.

In many cultures, the name of a person refers to the family to which he or she belongs. This is called the family name or surname. Surname data may be found in trade directories, census returns, birth, death and marriage records. Other places where you may find information are civil registrations, church records, and baptismal records. Family Bibles are also a source for dates, but are sometimes written from memory, so exact dates may be confused. Census dates can sometimes also be unreliable because of people giving their ages as younger and others as older for military services, etc.

Tracing or following your family tree can be fun and definitely interesting. It is important to know your ancestry and heritage. Having this information helps you to have a better understanding of where you came from and what your family may have done in the past. Keeping correct records now will help generations in the future. Keep specific dates and names and try to remember to put Sr. or Jr. Sometimes records can be confused because there may be more than one person with the same name. Now, the computer even offers software for you to trace your family records. Who knows, you may have royalty in your blood.