Building a family tree is a wonderful way to reconnect with all your relatives and to create a precious record of your family history. Think about the potential it has to start conversations and kopi moments with loved ones, both near and far.

Tree Building Tools

Nowadays, there are many interesting tools which can allow you to build a family tree. As a first step, you might want to take a look at this helpful free family tree builder. It allows you to create a family tree, and then take things one step further by looking for other family trees which might match/overlap with yours. Of course, it also creates awesome charts for sharing and ways to record your family’s oral histories through photos, documents and videos.

Interview Your Family

Start by interviewing your family members - parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. As you learn more about their stories, your network of connections will grow and grow. Don’t forget to research the key historical events which were happening at that time and see where your family’s stories fit in with those times.

Create an Interview Guide

To help build a complete family tree, start by creating an interview guide which you can use for each family member. Click here for an example of a family tree questionnaire that could help you begin this process.

Make Recordings

Nothing makes the past come to life more than a visual or audio recording! In this day and age, it’s easy to bring along a recorder and get your elderly relatives to record their experiences. Ask to see their photo scrapbooks. What a learning experience this could prove to be for you and your kids to be taken back in time to places and discover things you’ve never seen or heard before.

Gather Together

Throw informal gatherings for relatives and friends to see what you’ve uncovered as you go along. As you meet and share, you are likely to enrich your family tree and make new discoveries.

To learn more about the value of family trees, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/families-for-life/the-value-of-family-trees/1015223508013325