Tracing Your Family Tree... Online
I'm not very good at remembering family stories and histories. But I've always wanted to have it recorded so that I could look at it and learn anytime I wanted. That takes a lot of time though and now that I live on the other side of the planet from my family it seemed even more remote that I could make it happen.
Then I found Geni.com.
It's an amazing (and free) website where, after registering, you begin by putting in the most basic of your family tree. I started with myself, my wife, my kids, my parents, her parents, then my sister, and finally her sisters. Each time you enter someone in the tree you can invite them via email to join in the task of adding to the family tree. Everyone can add pictures and each person has a profile they can fill out too that others can view.
I set this up in December. No activity took place for a month or so. Then family members began to join up and started adding to the tree. In February the tree was up to maybe 100 members or so... and growing. By early April it was up to almost 250 family members in the tree. Then, in two days, the tree went to almost 500! Incredible.
Today I checked and the tree has 556 family members in it.
It's an novel use of the internet. Now and then I go into it and learn about distant family members who've uploaded pictures and information about themselves.
For my Muslim friends from Arabia and elsewhere, the staff at Geni.com are trying to implement it in different languages and include features that take into account things like multiple wives. I encourage you all... give it a try!
Below is an example screenshot from my family tree.
3 comments:
Yep, I started this one too. My brother replied with "You must have too much time on your hands." Hey, THAT is a blessing in itself.
My wife is the family tree expert and has been working on one off-line for a while. I think she goes back 7 generations on her side of the family.
Wow... 7 generations is impressive. The main reason i liked the online version was so others could help me out! I don't think I'd think poorly of anyone who has the time and initiative to trace their family roots. It seems like an important piece of life to know where you've come from and to whom you're connected... kind of necessarily humbling. No one is an 'island'.
I am thankful you posted this. I have created a family tree of mine, but it's all been on paper with my pencil, and I have to make so many additions. It's amazing to know of so many people who go so far back. My dad has 3 bros, and 2 sis and my my mom has 3 bros and 4 sis, and so you can imagine how many cousins I have (some I have never seen or met or talked to!) But I am the first one in my family to do something radical-- step out of faith into a new one! So that's my claim to fame :-)!
M
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