The Family Tree

I've decided to trace back our family trees. Dad and Shannon have always been into the genealogy of our family but I don't actually have it recorded for my own. I got online just to see if I could find some good tips and examples of different layouts, like combination trees (starting with me and Josh in the middle and showing both of our families), single family trees, and I also wondered about things like how many generations back I should go. That is pretty subjective but I still thought I could get some good ideas from samples online. Comment if you have any thoughts!

I found ancestry.com and thought I'd give it a try. I want to get it in a scrapbook, but for now I can document it all there online. My dad has so much information on my grandma's side that I know that side of the family is covered. And there has been a ton of research on my mom's dad's side (even published in a book called A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas). The blank spots are my mom's mom, dad's dad, and Josh's side. That will be my project for the next couple of weeks - or months - which ever Joseph decides the case may be!

I'm very excited! Tracing ancestry is just so neat and will be great to have for our babies. I've found the website to be a little confusing but so far I've got around 109 people entered in! There is a feature that can track someone's historical records (birth records, census, etc.) and also can search the database of public family trees that other people have made on the website, and match it to mine to help fill in any blanks I have. It's awesome!

Once I'm done I (and anyone) can purchase posters or a family history book which I think I'd like to do. Well see how comprehensive it all is. I'm going on a picture hunt also and I can't wait to get some pictures scanned in.

So that's my weekend! I am addicted. As you can tell with my 100 people...that's a lot! Wish me luck!