Climbing Your Irish Family Tree

The approaches to growing a family tree are many and varied.


As is true of many things what you get from your family tree depends to a large extent on what level of effort you are prepared to put in!

Without a doubt, the larger the family tree is the more effort that will be required and the greater the level of difficulty involved; this should be considered prior to undertaking your project.

Simplest method to design a family tree

The simplest way to design a family tree is by starting with yourself and progress from there. So unlike with real trees, the family tree begins at the top and traces its way back to the roots from that point.

Documentation and Records

As a general rule your family tree should be supported by as much documentation and evidence as possible.

Accordingly, it is always a good idea to archive any items related to your family tree and then store them separately, thus avoiding the dreaded scenario of having to start again from scratch.

If you are very successful in your research you may find your family tree expanding beyond manageable proportions. At this stage you have a few options.

Pruning

One is pruning, which essentially means removing any persons from your family tree that bear little relevance to what motivated your original interest in your genealogy or removing any persons on whom information is simply unattainable.

Alternatively you could try splicing your family tree; normally this will involve splitting the family tree in two by some category or other such as male/female, paternal/ maternal, maiden name/ married name and so forth.

Strategic approach

You may also find other people who have completed similar research to yourself, so it is always a good idea to list what publications are available to you and adopt a strategic approach, when the temptation can be to dive in head first into a deluge of relations!

Whatever approach you decide to take climbing your family tree is certain to be a challenging yet satisfying experience