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A great way to start researching your family history is by starting with a four generation pedigree chart.
Honestly, I wish I could say I started there, but I didn’t. I fell into the instant gratification of Ancestry’s family tree hints and quickly found myself in a sea of misinformation. Once I started taking my research seriously, I knew I needed a research strategy to help me unlock the unknown branches of my family tree.
I quickly learned the benefits of developing research questions in order to prove the “facts” on my family tree. There was just one problem: I had no idea how to decide what to focus my research on first.
That’s where the pedigree chart came in. The pedigree chart serves up your first collection of research questions on a silver platter, and provides you with some semblance of order when you’re not sure where to go next.
I put together the following guide to help beginners who aren’t sure where to start with genealogy.
What is a Four Generation Pedigree Chart?
A pedigree chart, or ancestor chart, is kind of a fancy term for a family tree chart that focuses on a person’s direct ancestor line.
A direct ancestor is someone who is blood related to you. This would be represented as your biological parents, grandparents, and great grandparents in a four generation pedigree chart.
A four generation pedigree chart is perfect for beginners because it helps you focus on the bare minimum when trying to “prove” your ancestry:
- Full Names
- Birth date and location
- Marriage date and location
- Death date and location
Download a Pedigree Chart for Free
I designed a four generation pedigree chart so you can get started right away. It’s also a fillable PDF, so you can type your information directly into the PDF, then save it to your computer or print it if you want a physical copy.
How to fill out a Pedigree Chart
Before you fill in the chart, lets talk about some standard formatting for dates and places. Now is a great time to get into the practice of writing your dates as follows: day month year. You’ll want a number for the day, the abbreviated version of the month, and the full year. So January 1, 1900 would be written as: 1 Jan 1900.
For places, you want to be specific because things get messy, fast, with repeat names of townships, cities, and counties. For example, there is a Springfield Township in NINE counties in Pennsylvania. In order to be accurate with your documentation, it’s wise to get in the habit of including the county.
Often, it looks like the following: Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
- Add yourself to the pedigree chart
The first person you want to add to your pedigree chart is yourself. If you’re a married woman, you’ll want to use your maiden name. You should do the same for all of your female direct ancestors. - Add your parents to the pedigree chart
If you don’t know all (or any!) of the information, don’t worry. We’ll cover what to do next in a little bit. - Add grandparents and great grandparents
Fill in every blank you can. If you only know partial names, or you have no idea when your grandparents got married, that’s what the next section is for. 🙂
What to do about the blanks on your chart
If you are completely new to genealogy, you will most likely have some blank spots on your chart – this is actually a good thing because now you have something to research!
Talk to family
The first thing you’ll want to do is talk to family. Ask parents or other relatives if they have any of the information you are missing.
Look at what’s left
Whether your family was helpful, or not, you will most likely STILL have blanks. Look at the missing information that’s closest to present day. The first “blank” on your pedigree chart will be your first research project!
Even if your family provided all the missing information, chances are, they may not have provided you with all the evidence of these facts. So even if you are fortunate enough to have all your blanks filled in, look at the first “fact” on your chart that doesn’t have a source. Your first research project will be locating a source to back up the claim.
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