Using the basic pedigree chart, list your full name, birth and marriage dates and locations. It will be a necessary benefit to add your siblings with your information. You might be surprised to see a given name, such as; Nicholas, Elizabeth or Myrtle, appear in an earlier ancestor’s name, so you do need full names.
Next add your parents with their information. If there is item you don’t know, either write down a guess or an approximate answer with a question mark. Maybe you are unsure of where your father was born. If you are certain of the county, write that, or if it was a particular region, indicate that locality. You need a commencement point and the information can always be corrected once you have some primary sources and vital records to back up the data.
Continue the pedigree chart out to grandparents and great grandparents if you have knowledge or even a guess of a name or location. Even placing ‘Grandma Hattie’ is fine as a starting point.
Have a Chat With Your Relatives
The very best place to begin once your have the basic pedigree chart is to talk to other family members, especially older relatives such as a great aunt or grandparent. Besides learning additional names or dates to add to the chart, you might learn of another relative also working on compiling a family pedigree chart. Putting together what two or more other family members have can produce some great rewards.
Send relatives copies of what you have gathered on the pedigree chart, asking them to add what they recall on those individuals listed. This can be a wonderful source of information for the family history. To help encourage relatives to write you back included a self-addressed and stamped postal envelope in which they can reply. Again, those rich additions of information about occupations, skills, talents, residences, etc. that an ancestor possessed can better help you know that person.
When contacting relatives, whether by the telephone, email or postal letter; ask for any copies of photos, documents, newspaper articles, etc. they may own. A wealth of information can be accumulated by starting to gather these items. If a relative lives nearby, offer to come to their home to assist in getting that large box of photos down from the attic or the notebook of letters off the top shelf in the closet. They may not realize what they have until a hunt is undertaken.
The key element to remember once you begin a genealogical project, allow yourself time. It took many decades for your ancestors to make their mark and live their lives, it will definitely take time for you to gather the information together.