Do-it-yourself family tree. How to draw a family tree: templates and programs. Creating a real family tree

Modern education pays a lot of attention to the formation of a patriotic personality. Patriotism is, first of all, knowledge of the heroic past. And the past is the origins, the roots. Therefore, compiling a family tree is almost the primary task of properly raising a child. Genealogy studies heredity through direct and mixed lines. It’s better to start building a tree with a straight line: only parents, parents of parents, etc. are indicated in it. (that is, only married couples, without brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles...) Due to the small number of components of information, generations can be easily distributed “in rows”.

Materials for work:

A4 sheet – 1 pc.;
Colored paper - 2 sheets of different colors;
Simple pencil, eraser, brush, paints, PVA glue, stationery tape.
Stages of work:

First stage: ruling.

On sheets of colored paper we print out information about our ancestors (full name, dates and places of birth and death, number of years lived). Colored sheets are used to separate information about men and women. Carefully cut out the rectangles and lay them out on an A4 sheet, following the lines of the “rows” (me - my parents - my grandparents - my great-grandparents, etc.).

We outline each rectangle with a simple pencil. For convenience, you can also draw row lines.

Second stage: draw the outline of the tree.

With a pencil we draw the outline of the trunk (this is me) and branches (thick branches connect me and my parents, thinner branches go from my mother to her parents and from my dad to his parents, then follow the same principle). The further the generation of ancestors is from me, the thinner the branches flowing into each other become.

From the edges of the tree (at the end of the generation information) we draw completed branches.

The third stage: we add color to the family tree.

First, we paint the entire tree (both trunk and branches) with light brown paint. Rectangles can be left unpainted so as not to disturb the clarity of the branching. Allow the previous layer to dry completely before applying the next coat of paint.

Then, using long strokes in a random order, apply paint several tones darker than the main one. It is important not to get carried away and not paint over the light paint completely.

On top of the second layer of paint we also randomly draw lines with dark brown paint. Dark paint does not completely cover the previous color.

Draw the outermost completed branches.

Stage four: draw the foliage.

We form the crown of the tree: we apply foliage simply by applying a brush to the paper next to the branches. Paint with light green paint.

After the paint has dried, apply a stroke of dark green paint to each leaf (or next to it).

Fifth stage: we form the “ranks” of generations.

We glue the rectangles printed with information about our ancestors to the main sheet (trying to maintain the rows).

Elena Kiseleva

Practicing genealogist.

Everyone has thought about their roots at least once. Of course, we know the place of birth of our parents. If we're lucky, we're familiar with our grandparents' story. So what is next? Dispossession, wars and repressions erased a lot of information from family archives. And the passport system in Russia was introduced relatively recently - at the beginning of the twentieth century. Until this time, documentary information about a person was kept in government agencies or churches.

Because of this, families are left with only vague memories and legends about their ancestors. But the older and wiser you become, the more clearly you understand how important it is to know your roots. We'll show you how to get information about your ancestors.

Step one. Organization of information storage system

A pedigree is a family archive, which implies a system for storing information. A variant of such a system is sites for compiling pedigrees.

Their advantages:

• Possibility of access from different devices and anywhere in the world.
• Ability to upload photos, documents and other information.
• The ability to invite relatives to the site, who will be able to enter information and share their documents and photographs.

After choosing a suitable site, fill out personal cards for each relative with the information that is currently available.

Step two. Analysis of family documents and photographs

Surely, somewhere on the mezzanine everyone has a box, or even a suitcase with such a legacy. Forgotten documents, photographs, postcards, letters and other traces of history can be useful. Carefully study and analyze their contents.

Pay attention to:

• Dates in documents. Enter dates and related events in the card index for each person. In constructing a genealogy, dates are key starting points for subsequent work in the archive.
• Signatures on the reverse side of the photographs. Sometimes the age can be found along with the year the photograph was taken, allowing the year of birth to be calculated. Open frames with old photographs. On the back you can find cherished dates and other messages from your ancestors.
• Photos of relatives in uniform. Based on the uniform, you can determine the type of military service and military rank, as well as approximately determine the year of the photograph, if it is not indicated on the back. It doesn't matter if you are not an expert in this field. Now on many genealogy forums (for example, the VGD Genealogical Forum) you can find enthusiasts knowledgeable about the topic who will be happy to help with their expertise.

At this stage, gaps in family history are often identified. For example, you may find a photo with a person unknown to you or, conversely, you will not find a single card of your beloved grandfather. Perhaps the documents will reveal previously unknown facts that you will want to know more about.

Step three. Communication with relatives

Surely you have a lot of questions after analyzing the photos and documents. To avoid missing anything and get a more complete picture of your ancestor, use these questions in your conversation:

• Last name, first name and patronymic (for a woman - maiden name).
• Date and place of birth.
• Date and place of burial, if the person is no longer alive.
• Last name, first name and patronymic of father and mother.
• Nationality.
• Brothers and sisters, their dates of life.
• Children, their dates of life.
• Last name, first name and patronymic of the wife (husband).
• Where and when did you study, what education did you receive, what was your specialty.
• Occupation and place of occupation: where, by whom and when he worked.
• What events of broad social significance did he participate in (war, development of the north or virgin lands).
• Religion.
• Awards, titles.
• Which class did he belong to (before 1917).
• Character traits, interests, inclinations.
• Sources of information about a person: publications in the press, the Internet, letters, memories.

Record your answers during a conversation in a convenient format. Make a note about the source of information: indicate the surname, first name and patronymic of the relative, who he is related to the ancestor being studied, the current date.

Ask if your relative has photographs of an ancestor or documents from which you can learn additional facts about life. But you shouldn’t limit yourself to just them. At this step, facts and dry dates are filled with emotions and memories. Write down all interesting events, even if they did not have a significant impact on the course of family history.

Step four. Search on the Internet

Our ancestors did not see the boom of social networks. Information about them is stored on paper in government agencies. However, some information can still be found on the Internet. Thus, in recent years, a lot of data from military archives from the First and Second World Wars has been declassified, digitized and published.

Information can be found on these resources:

• First World War 1914–1918. Alphabetical lists of losses of lower ranks.
• Feat of the people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.
• VIPTs "Fatherland".

All databases have a search bar where you can enter the name you are looking for and find the desired person in the drop-down list. In some databases you can view and download the original document where your ancestor is mentioned.

All databases were created manually by transferring data from paper sources. Therefore, when searching, it is worth taking into account the human factor and looking for a surname in different variations.

Step five. Working with archival documents

In archival documents you can find information that relates to personal data: full name, date of birth, date of death, date of marriage. Depending on the statute of limitations and the type of document, information may be stored in the registry office or city archives. The websites of these institutions indicate the conditions for the provision of such services, terms and address where to contact.

The full name, year and place of birth of the person about whom you are requesting information are required for the search.

Electronic requests can be sent to both institutions, but the registry office will ask you to come in person with an identification document to receive information and will ask to see the person for whom the information is being requested.

The archive responds within a month. In response to the request, a receipt for payment for services is sent.

After receiving payment, workers begin a search, which can last another month.

You may be told that there is no information on this person in the archive. This could happen if one of the three criteria was invalid. In this case, it is recommended to expand the search by year or neighboring settlements.

If the search is successful, you will receive a certificate from the archive about your ancestor. It will contain all the information that is in the original source, but the archive will not send a copy of the historical document itself. If you are interested in a copy, check the website for reception hours and the procedure for accessing documents and visit the archive in person.

If you live or often visit Europe or the USA, there is another option. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) has a database on residents of the former CIS countries. In the 90s, they toured the archives and digitized most of the documents: parish books, population censuses, audit tales. For a relatively small amount of money, you can gain access to this information. The data is stored at the Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City in the form of microfilm, which can only be viewed on equipment located on the premises of churches in cities in Europe and the United States.

Microfilms can be ordered from the FamilySearch website. There you can select a convenient city and make payment. Shipping takes about a month. The site states that copying materials is prohibited, but not everything is so hopeless. The argument “I flew from distant Russia especially for these purposes” is considered weighty, and it is quite possible to obtain permission.

Compiling a family tree is a fascinating process, similar to archaeological excavations and detective work. When you find information about your ancestors, you feel like you have found a treasure. And this is not far from the truth, because this piece of family history is truly priceless.

Every child is interested in learning about their ancestors and who they were. This is why they create a family tree for kindergarten with their own hands. Such a children's craft will not only expand the child's knowledge about his roots, but will also allow him to engage in creativity.

A family tree can be made for interior decoration and painted on the wall at home. If you want to make a small family tree, you can draw it, make it into an applique, or simply print it out on your computer. Today we will make a family tree for kindergarten with our own hands in the form of an applique. It’s better to make a family tree together with your child, he will definitely like it. Our family tree will look voluminous and bright. Wood production time is approximately 1 hour. But you can do it faster.

Materials and tools for the family tree:

• Whatman
• Colored double-sided paper
• Markers
• Scissors
• Simple pencil
• PVA glue
• Stickers

How to make a family tree for kindergarten with your own hands:

1) To make a family tree, we will need the following tools: Whatman paper, colored double-sided paper, double-sided tape, glue, markers, stickers, scissors, a simple pencil.

2) I used colored double-sided paper because it is brighter and easier to work with. Take a black A4 sheet and draw a tree on it with a simple pencil. I drew the tree by hand. You can either print a tree from the Internet or redraw it. We cut out the tree.

3) Take a pink sheet, fold it in half, then in half again, and so on 3 times. Draw a flower on a folded sheet of paper and cut it out. We will get 8 large flowers. Then we make small flowers in the same way, only we fold the sheet in half 4 times.

4) Take our flowers and bend the petals inward. Glue the small flower into the large flower using glue or double-sided tape. I used double-sided tape, it doesn't wrinkle the paper at all, unlike glue does.

5) Fold a green sheet of paper in half 4 times and draw leaves of different sizes on it. Let's cut them out.

6) Now let's start decorating the tree. We take whatman paper, attach the tree and cut off the required part of the whatman paper, focusing on the size of the tree. Take a green piece of paper, measure how tall you want your lawn to be, and cut it out. First, I glued the dark green lawn with double-sided tape, and then the light green one on top of it.

7) Then glue the tree. I glued small branches with glue.

8) Glue our flowers onto the branches.

Even if you don’t like drawing at all and don’t know how to draw, this skill can be very useful to you in life. For example, when you help your child prepare his homework. It is better to learn from the simplest, for example, an image of a tree. Moreover, such a skill will help you, if desired, make a family tree of your family.

How to draw a tree step by step?

Just a few steps and your tree drawing will be ready. You can draw an oak tree quite easily.

• Step 1. First, outline the line of the ground, draw a trunk (as a rule, an oak tree is very thick, not quite even, its branches begin to grow low) and a couple of large branches, from which you can then draw a few more small branches.
• Step 2. Now your future tree needs to draw the crown and foliage. This is an important point, since the shape of the crown determines the overall impression of the entire drawn tree. The oak crown is depicted expanded in both directions. As for the leaves, you can either make them smeared or, on the contrary, draw each leaf, it depends on what kind of effect you want to achieve.
• Step 3. Now add thickness to the foliage, which will help make the tree more voluminous and give it lightness and liveliness. Please note that the lower part of the crown is slightly darker than the upper part, which comes into direct contact with the rays of the bright sun.
• Step 4. Highlight the contours of the tree trunk and branches emanating from it, shading them with a simple pencil, now add density to the leaves near the branches.
• Step 5. The final touch is needed to complete the drawing - draw the final outline of the crown and draw a shadow under the tree.

How to draw a family tree?

Pictures of a pedigree (family tree) are a great way to help children learn about great-grandparents and other relatives they never got to see. For adults, this is a good opportunity to perpetuate the memory of those who have already passed away by creating a display of the history of their family.

Before you start drawing your family tree, collect all the necessary information about your family members. Contact older relatives and archives for information. In addition, the Internet will help you. A site like Familysearch.org contains information about relatives that you may not even know exist right now.

Be extremely careful. If one of the relatives is accidentally missed, then the drawing of the family tree will partially lose its meaning. Next, select your drawing paper. It must be large format. Let it be a beautiful sheet, for example, watercolor paper. Another option is poster board.

This is your tree, so it starts with you. Place your name in a place on the paper so that there is plenty of space around it for the other names. Where your name is, the tree begins. If you write it at the bottom, the branches will spread upward. If at the top, then vice versa.

Write your parents' names above or below your name, depending on which direction your tree is growing. Write the names of brothers and sisters on the 1st level with yours so that they are associated with the names of the parents.

If you or your brother or sister have spouses or children, write down their names. The names of the spouses are written next to each other, the names of the children - under the names of the parents. If you wish, you can draw lines to connect the parents and children.

Include aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents. At this stage the tree branches. On your father's side, include the names of his brothers, sisters, their spouses and children. On the next level, write the names of the father's parents and draw lines from them to each of their children. Do the same on your mother’s side, listing all family members on it.

Include other generations in the tree. Add the names of great-aunts and uncles, their spouses and children, great-grandparents, etc., until you have filled out as many levels of the tree as you like.

The design of the tree can be varied. For example, you can write the names of men in rectangles, and women in squares. For divorced couples, draw dotted lines. If space allows. Write to relatives not only the date of birth, but also the place of birth; for those who need it, the date of death; for women, the maiden name.

To learn how to draw a tree, just follow simple instructions. If you master this image, you can make a family tree of your family, designing it in the form of, for example, a spreading oak tree. By the way, this will be a great gift for your loved ones.

Before directly compiling a family tree, preparatory work should be done. First, write a list of your immediate family. Then collect as much personal information as possible about them, as well as data related to their profession and field of activity.

Try to find out something about your ancestors. Create a geographical map of where your relatives live. Also, be sure to look through documents from the home archive and make notes on the photographs found (place, who took the photographs and when).
Essentially, a family tree or pedigree tree is a diagram of family relationships made in a specific form. As a rule, descendants are located at the roots, and the ancestor is in the crown. This is the most popular ascending.

Process of making a family tree

After the preparatory process is completed, you can begin the actual production. For work you will need: plywood, a frame with glass, hinges and a hook, four wooden boards, a brush, white and brown paints, green paper, burlap, a heat gun or glue, cardboard and photographs, as well as putty.

First, measure the frame with glass and make a wooden box according to the resulting dimensions. Then you need to cut the plywood to the size of the box and attach it well to it. Make a recess on the frame and mark it for the hinge. Now you can proceed to priming and subsequent painting of the frame and frame. Fasten the loops and hook so that it can be closed.

Start gluing the linen fabric to the inside bottom of the box. Do this very carefully, starting from the middle of the bottom. Then you will need to cut out a tree trunk from thick cardboard or plywood and apply putty to its surface. Be sure to add knots and rough edges to make it look more like real bark. Complete drying will occur in approximately 12 hours. Only then can you start sanding. And don't forget to paint the wood brown.

Cut the leaves out of paper, and then fold them in half for volume, unfold them and glue them to the trunk. The order of gluing can be arbitrary. Photos should be cut out and pasted onto cardboard. In this case, the size of the cardboard should be slightly larger than the size of the photographs. All that remains is to secure the cardboard with photo cards with double-sided tape in the desired order. The family tree is ready.