To make a family tree, a good tool to record and display the information is a simple word processor like Windows Notepad or Wordpad. The basic element of a family tree is the traditional family unit that can be printed on a page or two. The basic information required is surnames, given names, birth dates, and death dates if and when appropriate. Birth and death locations will help to trace other information in government registries and provides evidence of migration.
To link the family pages to each other, each page is given a compound page number. Each page number begins with a generation letter, for example, E-1, E-2 etc. All brothers, sisters and first cousins would have the same generation letter. Using the same example, the "D" generation would be their parents generation and the "F" generation would be their children's generation. Both Windows Notepad and Wordpad have search or find commands that can be used to locate family pages by looking up the page number in a generation or surname index.
Parents are named side by side at the top of the page. If a parent's name has a page number after it, that is the page number where he or she can be found as a child in a previous generation family. The children are listed usually in the middle of the page below the parents. If a child's name has a page number after it, that is the page number where he or she can be found as a parent of a next generation family. Use spaces, not tabs, to position the names and dates.
In the following example, Donald is the father of the family on PAGE E-22 and he is a child in a previous generation family on PAGE D-5. Daisy and Mildred have married into the family tree, so there is no reference to the families where they were children. Huey, son of Donald and Daisy is the father of a family on PAGE F-66, and Lewey and Dewey are not married.
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PAGE E-22.
Donald Drake Duck D-5 Daisy Flower Duck
( nee Fowl )
March 22, 1936 October 12, 1938
Anaheim, California Anaheim, California
October 22, 1999
Disneyland, California
Huey Arnold Duck F-66
March 9, 1960
Disneyland, California
Lewey Baxter Duck
January 29, 1962
Disneyland, California
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PAGE F-66.
Huey Arnold Duck E-22 Mildred Mable Duck
( nee Fowl )
March 9, 1960 April 10, 1963
Disneyland, California Anaheim, California
Dewey Donald Duck
May 9, 1988
Disney World, Florida
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There is no limit on the amount and type of data that can be included. Marriage details, adoption and step children information might be added. Copies of family portraits, wedding pictures and newspaper articles can be inserted between the pages in a 3 ring binder. The page numbers can be extended without limits backwards and forwards, (page AA-1 can be added after Z-99999 and ZZZZZ-1 can be added before A-1). Any number of family trees can exist side by side when the page numbering systems are coordinated by using indexes.
The ease of getting started with a word processor that is included with the computer system means the learning process is easier and quicker than some complicated (expensive) genealogy programs. You have the freedom to include any information you want and format it any way you wish. The conversion from a text based family tree to a web page can be preformed with the same word processor by pasting the appropriate HTML tags. There is an example and brief instructions on making Web Pages from text based family trees (including the HTML tags).
If you have questions, please send an email. It would
also be nice to know if you find this method useful.
The author's email address is;
rfhowells@hotmail.com