Genealogy Family Tree Question?

Question

When doing genealogy and your family tree. How far on the branches do you go? I have an ancestor in my tree she married a more important name in my family. But I added the rest of her family to my branches to. But their not showing up in my kinship report as any relation to me? Do I keep them there or remove them? Right now I have over 350 names that are in my kinship report. Is there a reson to keep the names that are not in this report?

Answer 1

It is purely a matter of personal choice, whether to add all lines, blood relations or not. I personally find it interesting to add  what I can and it's often a useful distraction when a "brick wall" is encountered on a more direct line. After all a family tree has many branches, it is not a straight pole !!

Answer 2

Has this person contributed to the bloodline or is it merely a marriage with out blood decendants. If it only a name and not blood related to any one in your tree leave it out.

Answer 3

I normally 'prune' those twigs.  However, it never fails that somewhere down the lines, I note a  marriage back into my lines...so...torn between what to do and not do, I usually have notes on some of them...just in case!

Answer 4

So many dead ancestors, so little time . . .

You do have to set limits. If you have a subscription to census images, the people involved are in the USA 1850 - 1930 and you are doing it right, you'll look them all up in the census, in the BMD indexes for the state, if they exist, in Find-a-Grave and on the US Gen Web county site, just for a start. That takes upwards of an hour per person, and you have other things to do.

I personally try for the direct ancestors, all the children of the DAs and all the spouses involved. So, if my 4th great grandfather and grandmother had 12 children and I found everyone I was looking for, I'd have those 12, their 12 spouses, but just  the children of my 3rd GGPs in that line.

There are exceptions, of course. No one is going to pass up the opportunity to link into a president or a celebrity, even if he is as distant as half first cousin 7 times removed.

If two or more people in one family marry two or more in another, I'll try to get the parents of that second family to show that yes,  those "Martin" women who married "Pack" men were sisters.

Spouses are the easiest way to distinguish between people, very often. That's why I try to get them, even for people that are not in my direct line.

Answer 5

It is all your preference.  Genealogy is technically your relatives/ ancestors.  I have my 'direct' line in one family, and it seems to branch out into everyone in the county.  If info falls into my lap, I keep it.. to the point where I AM interested in most of that county.  More than once, it has paid off.  You might find that someone unrelated has a diary or other info that mentions your line.

Answer 6

I like to personlly leave them in because they were married to an ancestor and historicaly, you can see the paths these people took. You could leave out her parents, but I think her children would be distant cousins.