Genealogy and Family Trees
Tracing bloodlines back through time is the essential task of genealogy. Family trees create a satisfyingly neat chart, but can often pose as many questions as they answer.
Pedigree
Genealogy is essentially about tracing your ancestry, or what is also called your 'pedigree'. Family trees (or 'pedigree charts') provide an easy-to-follow visual aid to your ancestry. They show parents and their children up and down the generations. The traditional form is called a 'drop-line family tree' and shows bare essentials: the full names of parents (with maiden names), and their offspring; the dates of birth, marriage and death. When starting to plot your family tree, be sure to use a large piece of paper, and leave plenty of room for additions.
Extended family trees
One kind of family tree can start with a pair of ancestors at the top and show how generations succeeded them: if laid out horizontally, such 'extended family trees' will be cone-shaped, with you at, or close to, the bottom among the broad spread of cousins of later generations.
Birth briefs
Another sort of family tree, also called a 'birth brief', takes an individual - perhaps you - and traces ancestry backwards in time through grandparents and great-grandparents: if laid out horizontally, such family trees will be funnel-shaped, with you alone at the bottom.
What about the women?
Family trees have traditionally followed the male line only. This is a product of the rules of succession and inheritance in the Western world, part of which meant that women changed their surname on marriage. There is nothing to stop you following the female line as well; after all, this represents half of your genetic inheritance. The way that records have been kept make this more difficult, but can also lead in fascinating and quite unpredicted directions.