Making a family tree can be so much more than placing a few names linked by branches in a diagram. Why stop there? You can record information like medical histories, places of residence, occupations and other interesting facts. Perhaps you'll find striking patterns or famous people in your past family genealogy. When you've finished, you'll have a wonderful conversation piece to share with family and friends or a meaningful gift to give loved ones.

To begin your family tree project, you should start with what you know for sure. Write out a rough draft with names, genders, birthdates, birthplaces, death dates, burial plots, medical history, occupation, years married, children, etc. Call your nearest relatives or set a date to meet with them to branch out even further. Ask grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and great-uncles to name as many people as they can. If you know where your grandparents were married, go to that church and find out where their marriage certificates are kept. From there, you can see the names of the bride and groom's parents, which will then lead you to where they got married and where their parents are from. You can find additional clues at gravestones and at local libraries.

Once you have gone as far as you can with your family tree, try looking up census records, Ellis Island immigration records, marriage certificates, social security death certificates, your local county records office, or your local library. A great site to look up this information is www.ancestry.com, but you will have to pay a minimum of $12/month after your free 14-day trial expires. You may find that someone in your family has already started compiling information, which will greatly help your search. There are also state genealogy societies dedicated to uncovering local history and folklore, which may be another great resource to check. Once you find out all this information, you may want to purchase family tree software to organize your information and keep it personal.

You'll notice that many websites charge you to provide family tree information, which may not be conducive with your budget. There are actually a number of free resources you can use for your project. At www.interment.net, you can look up cemetery records. At www.glorecords.blm.gov, find records for land usage and patents. You can search for famous biographies at www.geneabios.com. You can find a number of records at the International Genealogical Index (www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp.) At www.archives.gov/research/arc/index.html, you can look up research archives to find famous family members. You will be able to look up death records for free at www.ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com. All of these sites can give you a great start, but you may want to pay a genealogist to get all this information right at your fingertips.

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