Free Interactive Pedigree Chart

The pedigree chart is one of the most common ways to keep basic information about your ancestors. The format is standard around the world and serves as a primary method to record family tree data. The typical chart starts with you and traces your family back four generations. After the fourth generation, you create additional charts for each person in the fourth generation.

I've found this free pedigree chart form in PDF format. It's great because you can interactively enter your data right into the PDF (online or off) and then print. Because it is a PDF, it can be shared easily across different computers and prints beautifully. It includes five generations on one page.

Keep those mounting digital resources under control

Digitized information, such as photos, scans and other electronic documents, allow us to keep infinitely more data than is possible with paper copies. But have you ever felt that you growing collection of digital resources is taking on a life of it's own? Without a good system to organize, store and retrieve what we need when we need it, we run the risk of losing (or at least digitally misplacing) some of the invaluable resources we've worked so hard to gather. Not to mention hours, days, weeks and months worth of accumulated time spent searching for something we know is there but can't find.

One popular software that can help is Clooz.

This software is built specifically to aid genealogists by "systematically organizing and storing all of the clues to your ancestry that you have been collecting over the years". It includes templates, easy importing of photos, reports and much more. Check it out if you haven't developed a system yet, or have one that you're already outgrowing.

Start with the basics

Seems pretty obvious that as family historians who deal with words and the origins of words that we should have a pretty good grip on spelling, right? Well, not always. It seems that many people, especially when they get started researching their family tree, have a little trouble spelling "genealogy". Probably the most common misspelling is "geneology".

For a little humor on this subject, look at this clever and descriptive memory jogger at http://www.oz.net/~markhow/writing/spelling.htm.