Collecting Family Memories

Collecting information on a person's ancestors can seem like a huge job. It can be as big or small a job as the participant would like it to be. It all depends how far back the participant wants to go.

The first thing the participant should do is to record the basic genealogical information about close relatives. The best place to start is the most recent generation. This may be the participant, their children (or nieces and nephews) or grandchildren. The participant needs to collect facts like:

• full names
• birth dates and places
• marriage dates and places
• death dates and places

When the participants have collected information about their own and younger generations, then they'll start working backwards with parents, grandparents etc. as far back as they can remember.

Participants may need to talk to family members for additional information that they can remember. When they talk (or write) to family members, participants should verify information with relatives about themselves and other relatives. For example, if grandparents are deceased, participants can talk to their parents about them. Another source of information about family members could be close family friends.

Recording Information

SARAW Write program
Particpants can use the SARAW Write program to record their information. Using the TAB key, they can move information over within a line and therefore make the tree. For example (Please note this example doesn't include birth or marriage places for simplicity sake)

Smith Family Tree

John Smith    -    Mary Smith (Jones)
DOB: 04/04/43                                
Marriage: 10/12/66