When I first got started with my family history research, as a result of stories told my by aunt and grandmother, I had no idea how I should be formatting the information. All I had ever seen was a descendants-style family tree chart. I knew nothing at all about other genealogy forms, much less about citing my sources. (I've been playing catch-up on that for years!)

In Along Those Lines . . . this week, I want to discuss the conventions for recording the information you find in your genealogical research. All of us were beginners at one time and many “just starting” researchers read this column, and for the rest of us, it never hurts to have a refresher or reminder of what we should be doing.

Conventions for Recording Data
Gathering information about your family is one thing; recording it in a format that can be understood and used by others is quite another. Genealogists use a number of standardized forms for this purpose, such as pedigree charts, family group sheets, abstract forms, source summary sheets, and others. Free copies of these forms are available at Ancestry.com (Free Ancestral Chart) and I maintain a master set of blank ones to copy. I even use the census extract forms as references to remind me what informational columns are included on each of the censuses. Genealogy database software programs such as Family Tree Maker 2005 also will produce printed versions of these forms and other reports, even custom ones whose contents you can define, as a result of data entered into and stored in their programs. Let it suffice to say that genealogists have standards for the entry of data. Let's discuss each type of data and the standards that are universally used...

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