Has anybody done their family tree; has it been easy?

Question

Has anybody done their family tree; has it been easy?

Answer 1

Have looked at it off and on for the last 15 years or so.  Parts were easy, others not so much.

Online shared files can help, but still need to be proved... like the other fellow, I've got a tenuous connection to Kings and Popes going back far enough, but although the family stories are there, the paperwork isn't!

Good luck!

Answer 2

I picked up Family Tree Maker 2006 and have been at it ever since. Have over 5400 names in the tree and like they say, it never ends - it is really interesting and you find out all sorts of family trivia and if any famous people are in there. Joining ancestry.com gives you inroads into all sorts of information - some of it accurate, some not.

Start with your living relatives - get all the information you can from them about birthdates, wedding dates, death dates, locations of births, deaths, burials, weddings - get names of relatives they can remember - where people lived - then you build your tree back from there - sometimes you may be able to trace a line back into Europe back to the 1400's or earlier if you're really lucky - sometimes you can't get back very far before you hit a brickwall and have to do some real research to breach it, if at all.

On some of the genealogy websites they have a tree template to download for free to get  you started, but I like the Family Tree Maker software - gives you options for different type trees/reports, etc.

Have fun - good luck.

Answer 3

I don't think I am ever going to finish my family tree. It just keeps growing and growing, and going back and back. However, on my fathers side of the family it is very difficult as the ancestors are Scottish and I have come to a brick wall, because of there are key men missing, whom I cannot find around the time of the land clearances by the violent landlords in Scotland ejecting their tenants. There were many skirmishes, and deaths then, so I doubt if I will ever know.

Answer 4

my mom and I are very into our family genealogy. she has been working on it for about 20 years now. She has gotten all of the branches of our family "across the water" as she says; which only means that she has found the ancestor that actually moved to America from a foreign country.

I got married last July and I have been helping her with my husband's family for about two years now. Their family is very hard to trace because there was a lot of weird family politics and many of the family members have stopped talking to each other and much of the family history has been lost. Very sad really.

Answer 5

yes/no

Answer 6

My dad did - this was in the days before the Internet (gasp!) so was a full time hobby for many months.

Mixed results - some noble ancestors, others hung for p****y! Interesting, at least! (To be honest, I more pleased to be descended from Pirates than Sirs and Milords! Yarr!)

Answer 7

My father has been compiling his and has had great fun doing it to the extent that he is now holding genealogy classes! It wasn't easy, but much of his sense of achievement has come from the challenging detective work. He used to spend a lot of time in the family records centre in London, looking through paper records. Unfortunately this has now closed, and he is using online resources more and more.

There are many sites that offer help, and some that consist of very long lists of links. For starters Dad recommended http://www.familytree4us.co.uk - a relatively simple site with links to the main UK sources, sorted into general and archive sites. It's not comprehensive, but not intimidating, and should get you started in finding sources of information.

Compiling a family tree does take some work, but everyone I know who has done it has found it rewarding. Not only do you find your ancestors, but you may make new friends among fellow genealogy enthusiasts!!

Answer 8

dont know how to do it, would be nice to find out how!

Answer 9

Me personally i found it very hard past my great grandparents.  thats only because of the whole slavery thing. but that is just why its hard for me to go back far enough

Answer 10

Nobody ever finishes their family tree; it's impossible, because you would get to the world before documentation and be lost. Family research is ongoing, and the experience is different for everyone.

Parts of mine have been easy - I have such a rare surname, so even if I'm looking for a William, the chances of another William ______ born the same year and place, is slim to none. I've been able to find lineages within days, in quite a few cases. I've also found Genes Reunited members with a common ancestor at my 4th generation back, and their generosity in sharing data has taken me up to the 10th generation back, at no cost to me. I also have an aunt that's done a lot of work. She's concentrated on the personal stories and not the dates. She has details and even photos of people from the 1800s!

Other parts have been hard - I've been stuck on certain individuals for months at a time, without anything to go on because they lied about their place of birth in the census. The worst feeling is knowing that 50% of my family is European, and I have no idea how to research them.

But whether they're hard or easy, it's all been exciting, because you never know what you're gonna get. When you find out who your ancestors really were, you've hit the jackpot.

Personally, the most rewarding part has been telling my parents about their grandparents. Their parents (my grandparents) all seemed to fall out with their own parents (my great grandparents), and through the research I've been able to tell them a bit about what they did.

Answer 11

I am fairly new to genealogy compared to some of the regulars on the forum, but I have hit a brick wall at 1615 on my mums side, and I'm waiting for confirmation of something on my dads side 1633. I love genealogy and I'm studying it at the moment with the hopes of becoming a probate  genealogist. If you need any help with a search  providing the person is no longer living then I am sure someone will be able to help you.

Answer 12

Hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, have done a family tree.

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...

is a site where people who have done a tree can publish their data. It has 413,000 different data bases. A quarter to a half of those are duplicates from people who are better at genealogy than dealing with computers, so they created a new data base instead of replacing an old one, but that is still 200,000 people.

Genealogy is the most popular hobby on the Internet for people over 40.

If you live in the USA and have a basic mix of non-Hispanic white ancestral lines, and access to the census, it is relatively easy to get back to most of the men and some of the women in your lines who were alive in 1850. If you are Black, you can get back to most of the men and some of the women in your lines who were alive in 1870. If you are Hispanic, you usually get back to the immigrant ancestors in the 1900's.

My personal tree has been easy in some spots and hard to impossible in others. One of my lines dead-ends with a fellow who came over from Germany in 1855. Another goes back to Charlemagne, if you trust a woman who had a b*****d child and told people his daddy was the king.

Answer 13

parts of the family with rare names easy, common names very difficult try ancestry.com

Answer 14

I haven't finished -- 45 years isn't enough time to do all the documentation necessary.

Answer 15

i tried to do mine, but found my mum is adopted and my grandparents aren't my blood relatives like i believed. i then gave up....

Answer 16

not me, but my dad has been working on his for a few years on and off.he said it started out pretty straight forward,then he got stuck.

Answer 17

I started doing my family tree about 10 years ago, & how I wish I had asked more questions when both my parents were still alive.

I found it quite difficult & very frustrating to start with. Then found various genealogy sites

Ancestry.com is very good, Genes reunited also, & because a great deal of my family originated in the north of Scotland I was able to use Libindx and Scotsorigins, two free sites which are amazing. Also Scotlandspeople as a last resort as you have to pay.

I am addicted to finding family, & have found many all over the world, & I am always thrilled when I find out something new

Answer 18

Been working on it for 50 years, and most of the time it is not an easy task.  One must have a sense of humor (my firm belief) and be partially a Sherlock Holmes to boot. Many branches I've not solved...put on the back burner...but it's amazing when, in helping someone else...I run into one of mine, who hitherto was hiding under a brick wall. I find it very rewarding...most of the time!