Has anyone created a Family Tree ??

If so, can you point me in the right direction? (For my own obviously !!! )

I really don't know where to start with all this, so any help would be appreciated.

I have googled etc for Family Tree info and found some sites, but the thing is nothing really helps me - Unless I am willing to part with lots of cash !!

My family tree was created the old fashioned way... we tracked and tracked. It meant going to cityhall and working your way through dusty files. It even gets harder the further you work your way back. I did this in 1988, without the net and I even had to get help from people who could read old files for me...

That's on mother's side, which we can track back until the 1400's,which is quite an achievement. But then again, a record was found in which one of my ancestors claimed his son was not his, but the son of a Portugese Jew, which I believe. The kid was still allowed to carry the family name, so my ancestory is a bit OFF... I suppose MOST are...

I often consider my FOUND family (friends) more related than my own family, so...

Cool.....the 1400's is a serious amount of tracking !!!

But how did you start it all off? I mean, obviously your parents would have given you the right information etc and then did you follow on from that? How did you log all your info?

I am a complete newby to this but I really want to do it for personal reasons.

I cannot help you, really. Most archives are now digital.

My mom's family was easy to track cuz they had stayed in the same area for generations, centuries.

Everything before 1800 (pre-Napoleon) was HELL because they were no official documents, but as my mother's family is from France (officially) and Portugal (un-officially), certain records have been drawn up that still allowed me to track her ancestory.

The parts in France were hardest, as the language eluded me, but I found an enthousiastic French family member that helped me out.

Most people won't be able to track their family back before 1800, I am afraid. Most people were never recorded, I was lucky cuz my mother's family was, waaaaay back, a family of scribes and guild people (officially) and religious people (un-officially). But tree's were rather easy to follow, as soon as I had the right acces points...

I forgot to say that for every family member that lived in another town, I had to write or call that town to find out if their archives were accesible.

I had tracked my mum's official family back to 1400's France, quite an achievement, when she told me that there was talk in her family that one of her female ancestors strayed and divided the family.

I had seen that split, but if you do not know the right info, you do not know what you look for. So it turned out that in France, one of my ancestors had an affair, out of which a son was born. The husband cast her out, and she moved to now Belgium, then Amsterdam to start a new life, but keeping her ex-husbands name.

And I was only able to find that out because there was a dispute in France and they had recorded it.

I'm lucky because I've got an unusual last name.

If you know your great-grandparents' names, try starting here: http://www.1901censusonline.com/

You can start by getting a large piece of paper, or if you are going to do it on the computer, that's also good. Write down all the names of your known relitives, and link them together in the way you know they fit. Quickly get to all the known relitives and interview them as to family members. It would be best if you could record this in some way. By telling them you will get them a copy would make the very glad to help you out and they wouldn't want to forget anyone. Many stoies go shared and passed around. If there are any relitives you didn't know about, but are still alive, interview them.

Honestly, it is alot of work, but it is very intresting process.

If you have a digital camera, that's cool because you never know when someone is going to pull out old pictures or paper clippings.

Well I can see I am going to be busy !!!

Thanks so far for comments posted.

One of the reasons I got so interested in my Family tree is because my surname has a lot of strong ties with the north of England where I grew up - Pennington is my surname - But I also found out that a lot of the Penningtons emigrated to the USA and some even fought in the Civil War there, obviously I know that this alone is not a direct link to my own family, but it did spark an interest. The name Pennington crops up a lot in the history of North West England - and apparently the family name itself can be dated back to some of the earliest Farming communities in that area. Now I know that doesn't mean my family specificly but like I said, it did spark an interest.

My Mother is German, which again poses difficulties, both her parents have passed so that would prove more difficult to research - My grandfathers family name is Otto and my grandmothers name is Spiegelberg which would seem almost Jewish?? I know very little of my european heritage, i do know I have a relative of sorts in what used to be Yugoslavia.

It just seems to be all a very daunting task !!!

Ya know, family trees have always interested me as well. I remember some time back, my aunt had a list of relatives and distant relatives (many of whom I have never met, but would like to some day).