Sometimes one needs a chart showing the relationships between several key people—not all the descendants of one person, not all the ancestors of one person, or not all the relatives of one person. Genealogical software usually doesn’t allow for charts to be created showing a select number of individuals. It may be faster (depending upon your purpose) to sketch out a chart on paper to keep the relationships clear while working on those individuals. Later a more polished chart can always be made using the hand drawn one as a starting point. handdrawn
The genealogy world will not end if you use pencil and paper.

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6 Responses

  1. The descendants of my grandfather, Charles, and his brother, John, have a three-way kinship. Wives of the brothers were related on their paternal and maternal side. A hand-drawn chart illustrates the connections where software can’t.

  2. I agree wholeheartedly because I am making an index card chart so I can do it like the detectives do,putting them on a board. Different colors 4 1st,2nd,3rd or further down relatives & stickers if related.

  3. I’ve been doing this awhile. I did a lot with pencil and paper. I still will if it helps me wrap my head around a problem. I also made notes when I was reading through unindexed county histories. I also anticipate making notes from courthouses and libraries when I retire this summer and can visit some of the sites that will hopefully help with “roadblocks” in my research.

  4. I have a big white board on one wall of my office. I use it for things like this, then photograph it and file for future reference. I bought the board at home depot… very inexpensive and works great!

  5. I do this as I find relations of my dad, so that I can show him how he is related to friends and neighbors. I even have a notebook for this purpose.

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