What's a good way to organize a family tree?

Question:I want to fill in a family tree somehow, but I'm not sure of the most organized, simple to follow way. What is good?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I want to fill in a family tree somehow, but I'm not sure of the most organized, simple to follow way. What is good?

The long time standard for information in a family tree, is the family group sheet (to have info on one basic husband/wife/children). The pedigree chart is designed to visually show the direct ancestors only.. parents/ grandparents, so on.
There are numerous genealogy programs out there.. my preference is Personal ancestral file, which you can download free from www.familysearch.org. It (like the others) is a database, for you to input the facts and relationships, and can print both of the above, as well as other things, ie a descendant outline. In my opinion, if you are just starting research, it is not necessary to buy a program. You can later transfer your information to a more comprehensive program, if you find that you need or want more.
IF you are working on something visual, such as a wall chart that shows all branches... that can get more complex, because of the variations in any family. That kind of chart is more for "show" than a serious place to store research.

go to staples or office max and get
family tree maker
by Ancestry.com
They will give you up to one year of their service depending on the maker you buy.
i have been doing this for 40 years and found it to be one of the best.
If you are really interested spend the money and do it right the first time.

There are many programs available, some free or nearly so.
I would up using a word processing document, for several reasons: programs take up a lot of space; when trying to print things out, well, even with all the RAMs and ROMs available, it just does not work.
None of the programs I have used or had reviewed go back enough generations; none can handle all the "doubles", "triples", "quadruples", etc. (Meaning people with the same ancestors, such as 2 brothers, a brother and a sister, half-brothers/-sisters, etc. And, all of those programs assume that a dad's surname is the same as the child! On my dad's side, the farthest I have gone back, early 1400s, the original of one line had no surname; his grandson had one surname, and each of his grandson's 2 sons that became my ancestors each had a different surname...Doesn't work in these genealogy programs. And you have to flip back and forth to view all the information about any particular ancestor.
I use #1 for my dad, #2 for his dad, #3 for his mom, and so on.
I type in number, full name, put (1 of 6 gens) [or whatever], date and place of birth/death; rank, occupation, etc.; names of parents for the father; for the mother, same info, plus date/place of marriage. For each I then list sources. After the sources for the mother, I type in all info for their children, including whom each child married and dates/places for them.
If I have a lot of info for an ancestor, I type it as a NOTE: before SOURCE:
Thus, it is easy to move from generation to generation; CTRL F finds names/places, et al quickly; ALL the info is readily available.
Also, there is less typing this way; easier to type it in...you don't have to remember any "hot" keys.

Draw a simple, wide tree. Put yourself at the ground level. Go up a bit, have it branch, put in your mother and father. Put your brothers and sisters on the space between you and the place it branches.

Repeat for your grandparents, great grandparents, and so forth. You can put your brothers' and sisters' spouses off to the right and left of the main trunk, and your parents' siblings' spouses to the left and right of their branches.

Sooner or later you'll run into someone who had 2, 3 or 4 spouses, one or more of whom was a widow/widower, or someone who married a cousin.

That makes it tough. Most genealogists who have been doing it very long are warm, witty, well-read, intelligent and devilishly handsome. hpyjack1, Wendy and I are. We cope. You buy a genealogy program or download PAF for free from the Mormons and plug along, cringing as your ancestors steal land from the Indians, have children by their slave women, and change the names they use to confuse the census enumerators.

You can join us, if you decide to banish "Simple" from your vocabulary.

I use Generations family tree software and Custodian 3, the Generations helps me make links and show family groups, Custodian is just for storing all the individual bits of data, I also keep all my note books, just in case.

Good luck and good hunting

It all depends on that you want.

When I started out many years ago I set up notebooks with each family line in it. I put in everything I found and for certificates I put them in protector sheets. This made it easy when I wanted to go research. I just grabbed the notebook.

Then when I was ready I bought family tree maker. You can find a trial at familytreemaker.com. Don't use this one as a permanent software. It's only a trial. just put a free people in to see if you like the software. There are a ton of genealogy software out there find the one you like.

I still add to my software and notebooks. It made it easier for me. Then one day I wanted a tree on one of my lines. I went to my software and printed one out and taped it together. It took over my wall and that was just one line.

Find what works for you. We can give you all the suggestions in the world but you need to find what works for you.

Good luck

Given that you're 13 (saw that in another of your questions), I would suspect that at this time you are really interested in a nice way to present your family information, not looking to get into hardcore genealogy work - though I certainly could be wrong about that.

There are two types of charts that might be of interest to you. One is called an "ancestor tree". This starts with a person (like you), and moves back in time, showing your parents, their parents (your grandparents), their parents (your great grandparents), etc.

You can find templates for ancestor charts all over the web. This is because they are fixed. Each person has two parents so the number of boxes at each generation is known ahead of time. Microsoft word has templates for ancestor trees, some are quite nice. But you can just google "ancestor tree template" and find a bunch.

The problem with ancestor trees is that they just show a persons direct blood line - they don't include people like aunts, uncles, cousins.

The second type is called a "descendant tree". This starts with someone in the PAST and works towards the present - showing all of their children, all of those children's children, etc. Unfortunately, there are no templates for that because unlike the ancestor tree, nobody can know ahead of time how many children someone may have had - or if (and how many times) someone may have been married.

What you might want to consider is to get yourself a free genealogy program (the PAF program available from www.familysearch.com I understand is good). But don't be overwhelmed. They are genealogy programs so they will have spaces for all sorts of information. But in reality, you don't have to enter in any information other than names. Of course if you know more information, like birth date, you can put that in too. But these programs will generate a nice descendant tree for you once you put the people in.

Also, if you find that you like this, and want to continue, having a program like that will be very useful. I wouldn't spend money on a program yet, but using a free one might just be what you are looking for, and would support you if you find you really enjoy doing this.

Good luck! And welcome aboard.