| ext">Lost Relatives and Ancestors: A | | | | accessed the database and first found my |
| Beginner’s Guide | | | | wife’s records. We saw on her pedigree |
| Collecting Dead Relatives and Sometimes a | | | | chart that some relatives had already compiled |
| Live Cousin and My Family Tree is Lost in | | | | information on her mother’s line, but her |
| the Forest are just some of the catchy | | | | father’s line was empty. After downloading |
| slogans found printed on the shirts of genealogy | | | | my wife’s pedigree chart onto a GEDCOM |
| enthusiasts. These avid researchers are looking to | | | | file, we did some research on her father’s |
| fill the holes in their family trees. It’s work | | | | line. The family history consultant told us that |
| that most have been at for decades. | | | | it’s possible that there has been work |
| My wife and I wanted to get started finding our | | | | done on her father’s line, but it just |
| lost relatives, but we didn’t know where to | | | | hasn’t been connected to my |
| begin. She had a binder full of information that one | | | | wife’s file. |
| of her relatives had put together, but other than | | | | By typing in her paternal grandfather’s |
| that, we were the ones who were lost. | | | | name into the search, we were able to find much |
| We started by going to the Genealogy library at | | | | more information. The consultant told us that we |
| Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee | | | | needed to download his pedigree chart, take it |
| Library, but you can also do this online. | | | | home to our computer and merge his file with |
| The first step to finding your lost relatives is to | | | | my wife’s file. That would associate all his |
| download all the information that has already been | | | | information with my wife’s. |
| compiled. We did this by using the Ancestral File | | | | The best computer program for compiling Family |
| database that is indexed at the world’s | | | | History information is Personal Ancestral File (PAF) |
| largest genealogy library, The Family History | | | | which is currently in the 5.2 release. |
| Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. We remotely | | | | |