My grandmother kept our family tree on the inside cover of a hymnal, in pencil, with arrows running into the margins. It wasn’t tidy, but she understood every line of it, and that is the point. Drawing a tree by hand forces you to see how the generations connect. Here is how to do it well enough that someone else can read it after you.
Two forms do most of the work
Genealogists have used the same two forms for generations, and they still work.
The pedigree chart follows your direct line only: you, your parents, your four grandparents, your eight great-grandparents and so on. Each generation doubles. A standard chart fits four or five generations on one page.
The family group sheet covers one couple and all of their children, with dates and places for each. You fill out one sheet per couple. Where the pedigree chart is a ladder, the group sheet is a single rung seen up close.
Start with the pedigree chart. Add group sheets as you learn about brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles.
Number the people the traditional way
On a pedigree chart, give yourself number 1. Your father is 2 and your mother is 3. From there, a father’s number is always double his child’s, and a mother’s is double plus one. Your father’s father is 4, his mother is 5, your mother’s father is 6, and so on. It sounds fussy, but it means anyone can find a person’s parents without tracing lines across the page.
Follow the conventions
A few habits make a tree readable by others:
- Write women under their maiden names, the names they were born with.
- Write dates as day, month, year, with the month spelled or abbreviated: 12 Oct 1890. That avoids confusion between American and European order.
- Write places from small to large: town, county, state.
- Use pencil for anything not yet proven, and ink only once you have a record to back it.
- Leave blanks blank. A question mark is honest; a guess written in ink becomes a family legend.
Note where each fact came from
On the back of the sheet, or in the margin, write the source for each fact: the census year, the Bible page, the death certificate. It feels slow. It is the single habit that separates a family tree you can trust from one you cannot.
Drawing the full tree
Once your charts are filled in, you may want a single drawing for the wall or a reunion. Use a large sheet, start yourself at the bottom center, and branch upward so the oldest generations spread across the top. Keep spouses side by side on one line and drop children below them. Draw lightly first. Every family has one generation that refuses to fit, and you’ll want to erase.
Keep a master copy
Whatever you draw, keep one clean master set of charts in a folder, updated as you go, and photograph or scan it once a year. Paper lasts a long time, but only if it is not the only copy.