Completing A Family Tree Template
Posted in Genealogy on May 21st, 2010 by Frank Jones – Be the first to commentHere’s how to record details in a family tree template.
Putting names into your family tree template:
First you would record the first name, then their other names, and finally the surname. Surnames must be capitalized, and this means it would be displayed as such: John Lyon Smith. Married women will always have their maiden name listed, but if you do not know their maiden name, you should write “unknown”. In order to indicate unknown, you would write the following: Mary Wright//. The // indicates that the maiden name is unknown.
In the case of nicknames, show nicknames in quotes: e.g. Colleen “Cols” Elizabeth DUNCAN. Where someone has been adopted or a name has been changed, show the original name in brackets, preceded by “a.k.a” (also known as): e.g. Ryan David DAY (a.k.a. Ryan David PIDDINGTON). Include professional titles: e.g. Dr Mark Peter SMITH.
Remember to record surnames exactly as you find them. Don’t change them to what you think the correct spelling should be. Names were often misspelled due to illiteracy, transcription errors, or misunderstandings. Be sure to record every variation you find e.g. Smith, Smyth, Smithe may all represent the same individual so should be recorded as Mark Peter SMITH/SMYTH/SMYTHE.
There are many other reasons that you might find a different spelling on the surnames. One of the reasons might be that the person or family immigrated to another country where they needed to fit in. Thought that generation might not be able to fit in, the next would, and with a changed surname, many people would never know the difference. It takes a very wise individual to see that far ahead. If you find these variations, make sure you record the original surname, and then note the changes throughout the years.
Entering dates in a family tree form:
To enter dates properly, you would use the European standard. For instance you would record the day first, the month, and then the year(dd Mmm yyyy). Yes, the first letter of the month is a capital, so you would enter your dates as such: 12 Apr 1978.
When dealing with approximate dates, show these with a prefix: abt (short for “about”) or ca. or c. (abbreviation of the Latin word “circa” meaning “around” or “about”): e.g.: abt Feb 1916 or ca. Feb 1916 or c. Feb 1916.
If you don’t know the exact date but can establish a range of dates between which the event occurred, then use the abbreviation bet. (short for “between”), with a hyphen between the two dates. E.g. bet. 22 Jan 1950 – 26 Feb 1950.
You might run into a case where the date is only represented in numerals. If you find this to be the case, then you should know that in North America, the month is shown first, and the number corresponds to the month’s position in the calendar. If you are looking at a European chart, then the day would be shown first.
Location data and abbreviations
List places accurately, proceeding from the smallest to the largest geographic area. E.g. London, England, United Kingdom. In regards to abbreviations, use genealogical standards such as b for born, d for died and m for married etc.
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