Today I learned that genealogy is one of the world’s most popular hobbies. According to Kimberly Powell, the instructor of the free genealogy course that I am taking, hundreds of millions of people around the world are actively engaged in some form of family research. That interesting tidbit of information was just the beginning of my first lesson in genealogy.
As I read the rest of the lesson, I found an answer to a question that formed in my mind a few days ago. I had been wondering whether it will take me a very long time to make a family tree for my son. I am one of two children and my husband is one of three, but my father is one of six children and my husband’s mother is one of seven. That adds up to a whole lot of relatives, which makes for great family gatherings, but could take a long time to research as part of a family history. Fortunately, I learned that a family tree or pedigree chart does not include all of those relatives. It only includes my son’s ancestors, people that either my husband or I are directly descended from and the people that they were directly descended from and so on.
That is not to say that our brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and others are not an important part of our family history. Even though their names do not appear on the finished product (the family tree or pedigree chart), I will be recording some information about them on family group sheets. A family group sheet is the basic worksheet for genealogical research. It is a tool for gathering and organizing the information that I need to fill out the branches of my son’s family tree. Each family group sheet deals with one family unit, a set of parents and their children.
As part of today’s genealogy lesson, I also learned how to write names and dates in the proper form for genealogical records. I also downloaded a family group sheet template and family tree template so that I can use them when I start researching.
I’m excited that I have begun to assemble the tools that I will use for conducting my genealogical research. While I’m tempted to start researching right away, I realize that genealogical research is a process and a pastime that can provide a lifetime of enjoyment. It’s not an activity that I can cram into a few days, or even a few weeks so I’m going to enjoy it a little at a time.