Genealogists do a vast amount of research. It is important to keep your research organized so that you don’t end up accidentally searching for something that you already found, but forgot about. One way to do that is to use forms or charts that are designed to hold information that is important to genealogists. There are a lot of free ones that can be found online.
Are you currently gathering information from the United States Census? No matter what year you happen to be working with, there is a form that can help you organize the information that you find. These kinds of forms are handy because there is a box or line to fill in for all relevant information. Genealogists who follow these forms cannot possibly forget to write down something that they might need later on.
Ancestry.com has a bunch of census forms that you can print out for free. You do not have to be a member of their website in order to use these handy forms. They have a form designed to correspond with the census from 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930.
Family Tree Magazine has a plethora of forms that genealogists can use. They are in pdf format, and can be printed out for free. Genealogists don’t have to have a subscription to Family Tree Magazine in order to access these forms.
If you don’t happen to like the census forms from Ancestry.com, you can try the ones from Family Tree magazine instead. Each of these genealogy resources have created census forms with a slightly different layout.
They also have family tree charts for “traditional” families, adoptive families, and stepfamilies to use. You can also print out some record worksheets to help you keep track of your research. These are just a few of the free forms that Family Tree Magazine has.
Another great place to find a ton of genealogy related charts is at Cyndi’s List. All of the forms that you see on this list can be printed out for free. There are a lot of census forms, (for the United States census, and the Canadian census), family tree templates, family group sheets, and more.
A quick scan reveals that there are pedigree charts, timelines, and cemetery records as well. This might be the best place for a genealogist to start looking for free, downloadable, genealogy forms. Whatever it is you need, it’s probably on that list, somewhere.
Image by Sir Adavis on Flickr