Creating a family tree - Tips
Aviad Ben Izhak
Introduction
Your child wishes to create the family tree. At the last wedding, your family was unsure about their relatedness to the groom. Your American uncles are asking about your relationship and you don’t have the answer. Your father is celebrating his 70th birthday and you want to surprise him with a special gift. Your grandmother claims you are the descendants of the Vilna Gaon.
There are many reasons one would like to create his family tree and the above mentioned are only a few. Below you will find useful tips and clarity on the following:
• Which tool to select?
• Where to begin?
• What is the preferred language?
• Private of public?
• Where to find interesting databases?
• Sketches
• And more
Which tool to select?
There are a few tools that come up in a simple search, but I will focus on the two most popular tools in Israel: Geni and MyHeritage. Both tools are owned by Israeli MyHeritage. In a nutshell, without getting too technical, MyHeritage allows creating a family tree while Geni aspires to create one Genealogy that connect all human beings on earth.
The main advantage of MyHeritage is control over the information. MyHeritage also allows complex automated searches. Geni is more accurate and professional, but the process of connecting additional sections to the family tree is somewhat complex.
Where to begin?
It is extremely important to collect any information, detail and fact you can find of your family. It is highly recommended to draw a sketch of the family tree and try to fill in all the details you have: names of parents, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts and their families. Dates of birth and places of birth. Is a family member has passed away, write down the date and place of death. Try to make sure your details are as accurate as possible and based on solid information. I recommend using the DD/MM/YYYY format when entering dates, based on certificates or photos of headstones.
TIP! – enter accurate birth/death dates will allow the tools’ search engines to better locate additional relatives. This increases the probability of expending your tree.
ADDITIONAL TIP! – arrange all the material – it is highly recommended to add photos and documents to the tool you select.
ADDITIONAL TIP! – backup all the material in a dedicated computer file. The folders should contain the images and scanned documents, links to various databases and more. This will become handy later on.
What is the preferred language?
If you want children to have easy access, so they can easily read and create a family tree, you should use their mother tongue as the main language – in our case, Hebrew. Nonetheless, it is extremely important to write the first name and surnames in English as well. This will allow the search engines to locate family member and will also help communicate and find a common language with relatives that live abroad.
TIP! – Geni has multiple-language support. MyHeritage supports only one language at a time.
ADDITIONAL TIP! – there are many ways to spell the Hebrew and foreign surname. Make sure you use the correct spelling and keep it throughout the genealogy. The same is true for first names.
Private of public?
The tools allow you to work privately – exposing information to family members/authorized people only – or public, when all information is available to the world. As a default, the different tools don’t reveal all the information on live people. Usually only their surname will appear, without their first name. it is important to remember that private family trees do not grant access to relatives from Israel or abroad and hence, make expending the family tree difficult. In many cases, maintaining the privacy of trivial data prevents the expansion of the tree. On the other hand, blocking and maintaining privacy narrows down the possibility of harming the tree, intentionally or unintentionally.
Where to find interesting databases?
There is an endless number of databases, but I will focus on the most common and available online databases. All number mentioned are true to the time of writing this article. Please bear in mind that these databases accumulate information and expend very quickly. They expend constantly.
- Ancestry – over 4 billion lists (people) – a databased which is part of one of the oldest software in the field. The advantage – the largest and oldest databased. The disadvantage – focuses mainly on the US and 9 additional countries. Difficulty in isolating lists.
- MyHeritage – over 2 billion lists. The number of duplicities in this database is huge, due to the duplication processes embedded in this tool – one person can appear in many family trees. The advantage – a large number of lists. The disadvantage – difficulty to locate and isolate one list.
- FamilySearch – over 860 million lists. The advantage – large database. The disadvantage – large part of the lists includes many people from around the world, not always relevant for Israelis.
- Geni – over 160 million names. The number of duplicities is extremely low. The advantage – an accurate and trustworthy database. The disadvantage – a relatively small number of lists.
- JewishGen – over 20 million names of Jews from different communities. The database covers hundreds of years and is mainly dedicated to the European Jews. The advantage – focuses on Jewish communities. The disadvantage – includes quite a small amount of information regarding quite a few countries. TIP! – JewishGen had a tool named Town Finder. This tool allows you to identify Jewish places of residency that are written and pronounced differently in different languages.
- Yad Vashem, database of Holocaust victims – over 4 million lists. Mainly based on testimonial pages filled by relatives and family members. There are additional lists from various different resources. The advantage – an excellent search engine in Hebrew. The disadvantage – not all victims are included, there are duplicities and sometimes the information is not accurate.
Sketches
The tools allow the production of a large type of sketches. You can print the sketches in various sizes, sometimes payment is required.
In conclusion
Creating a family genealogy is an important and beneficial job. It creates an impressing documentation of the family, which you can pass to future generations. Using online tools allows interactions with family members from around the globe.
Like in any other area – there are no free meals. Advanced search engines require upgrading each tool and costs vary. Without adequate search engines it will be extremely difficult to find information.
Google is usually inadequate for this type of searches.
It is extremely important to backup your family tree and genealogy. Some tools allow automatic backup. It is recommended to download Gedcom (a common format for genealogies) and save it separately from the tool.
The author
The author - Aviad Ben Izhak (Lieutenant-Colonel), former commander of the Military Computer Science School (Mamram).
Specialist in creating genealogies and locating family members and roots. Seasoned in creating genealogies that include thousands of people.
Aviad is the founder of Yedaat – Genealogy and Family Trees.
All rights reserved to the author – names of products and companies are independent registered trademarks!
