Creating a Family Tree

Author : Dakota Caudilla
My mother is your grandmother and my sister is your aunt….is this how you teach your kids about your family? How each of us relates to each other and who is a mother to whom? Why not use a family tree to elaborate on how each of us is connected to each other? A family tree is not only exceptionally useful as a teaching tool for kids, but it gives us a whole new perspective in life too. Building a family tree can also be a fun lazy-Sunday-afternoon activity with the kids.

Building a family tree can be simple, depending on the kind of family tree you want to build. An elaborate one will take a much longer time, for example, if you want to cut out pieces of colored paper and pasting them with pictures and short write-ups on the family member. Some people will just draw a family tree and color portions of it into the family tree. Kids love it and even adults will enjoy this simple and calming activity.

Innovation and advancement in technology catches up with our needs too – because there are family tree creators in the form of softwares and computer programs that can help people create their family tree easily. Using these softwares to create a family tree takes only minutes and can be colored in and pasted over too. Using softwares to create a family tree is for people who are not keen on the paper, scissor, glue and goo concept of creating family trees. Don’t be surprised, there ARE people who are not too keen on getting down there with art papers sticking to their clothes! Kids can have fun creating family tree online too or with a software program. It depends on individual preferences, really.

A family tree is nothing more than a bunch of charts that links one person to another in a family. You can start from whichever ancestor you want. For those who are interested in genealogy, you can go as far back as you want. Creating a family tree that is as in-depth as that may require some investigation, interviewing of family members, and also research. If you can’t find your family members or are not in touch with them over some period of time, it may be a little bit more difficult to fill in the blanks in your family tree. However, with tools like www.familysearch.com, www.rootsweb.com, and www.usgenweb.vom, things are much easier than before.

So, go ahead and have some fun creating your family tree now!!

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.your-family-church.info on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.