How to Set Up a Family Tree for a School Project

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Constructing a family tree is an excellent exercise for students to learn about family relationships and genealogy. It is a fun project that students can enjoy working on with their families. Family trees can be created online and printed, drawn on poster board, or made in various software programs such as Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint.

  • Paper
  • Pen
  • Computer

1 Gather information

Gather information from your parents or grandparents about all the members of your family and how they are all related. You may need to conduct some research online or in the library and search for last names of relatives from older generations.

2 Begin

Begin with the oldest relative known by your family. Draw a box on paper and write down the person's name. If the person has a spouse, draw a line to another box on the same line. Enter the spouse's name in the box.

3 Draw a vertical line

Draw a vertical line from the box and draw a number of boxes corresponding to the number of children of the original couple.

4 Is

Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all individuals until the tree is complete.

5 Finalize the tree

Finalize the tree by transferring it neatly onto a poster board, or entering the information in an online program such as Geni.com, or using Microsoft Office products to draw the family tree.

Shreya Mehta graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelors degree in business administration with a double concentration in finance and MIS. She attended Bentley College to obtain a MBA in finance and Masters in IT. She has been working for a financial software company for the past three years as an associate content manager.

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