| In my previous article about how to get a family | | | | you much time. There is so much genealogy |
| history started, I recommended writing a | | | | material on the Internet that it is confusing to the |
| biography about a favorite ancestor. In this article, | | | | beginner. Try entering "genealogy" into your |
| I write about starting your family history with a | | | | search engine and you see why the many results |
| family tree. | | | | are overwhelming. |
| Assumptions: In these articles, I assume that the | | | | I believe most of my friends and clients are |
| final goal is an online ancestral family history using | | | | happy to pay Ancestry's monthly fee of under |
| a blog platform. | | | | $20. Otherwise, like I did, you will spend hours |
| Many families have various types of family | | | | researching many other genealogy sites. If saving |
| records. You might start by doing a hand-written | | | | time is not an issue, then look for the free |
| sketch. Then you can scan it, email it to family | | | | services that fit you. |
| members and ask for their comments. You will | | | | Most family tree Internet sites allow you to |
| get responses and your family history is started. | | | | upload photos of your ancestors. This gets you |
| A better way to start may be to do an online | | | | started organizing your family photos. Start |
| family tree and let friends and relatives view it | | | | organizing your photos on your computer early. |
| and make comments and suggestions. Today, | | | | My experience is that you should set up one file |
| there are many Internet sites offering free online | | | | location on your computer (with many sub-files to |
| family trees. Just enter "family tree" or "free | | | | come) for family photos so that you can always |
| family tree" in your search engine and you will see | | | | go back later and find the photo that you want - |
| many alternatives. | | | | going back and looking for a particular photo will |
| I worked my way through maybe ten to twelve | | | | happen many times in writing a family history. |
| free family tree websites. Many were okay, some | | | | Some of you may use photo-sharing sites like |
| were good and a few weren't so good - in other | | | | Flickr or Photobucket; they are fine, but in |
| words, the quality of these sites varied a great | | | | working with clients, I've found that if you having |
| deal. | | | | all your photos on your computer's hard drive |
| I finally decided on It certainly is one of the | | | | organized as you wish is the most practical and |
| leading genealogy websites. The reasons I | | | | safest, even if they duplicate some photos on |
| selected were: | | | | your photo-sharing site. |
| - It is clearly one of the top leaders | | | | One suggestion is to consider whether you want |
| - It gives you 14 days free to try it out | | | | one or two family trees. If you have extensive |
| - It was relatively easy to use | | | | ancestor information back several generations on |
| - You can invite others in your family to view | | | | both your father and your mother, you may wish |
| your tree | | | | to build two family trees. |
| - I feel comfortable recommending it | | | | When you start an online family tree maker, |
| More about why I feel comfortable | | | | plunge right in. That's how you will learn. Make |
| recommending .. | | | | mistakes because you can almost always go back |
| As a beginner, if you start with the genealogy | | | | and correct those mistakes. And your online |
| resources available at Ancestry.com, it will save | | | | family tree will help get relatives involved. |