My Genealogical Tree 

The buttons below represent my grand parents and their pedigree for six or seven generations, starting with my four Grand parents.

The button for Cousin Matching is now a work in progress, needs more

The above Pedigree charts are just the tip of the iceberg, in this case the seeds of a giant tree. Exploring my ancestors has resulted in a tree that I created using “Family Tree Maker” and has over 8,000 listings. That tree is not linked to any online database, such as Ancestry or MyHeritage. The tree that is public on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com is a little less than 500 relations. You may ask, why is that? The public tree is smaller and basically follows my line of people that I most likely share DNA with. The large Family Tree Maker tree is the tree I use to constantly add, correct and update. The tree is loaded with people that are not genetically related to me but may hold a path to those that are.

I am still scratching my bald head thinking about how this website can be useful. I am a big believer in sharing genealogy and in today’s world, this is one way.

I have a distant cousin that is related through the “Spears” family (a McDougal connection). This cousin, Janice Main, created a website that really impressed me and inspired me. Her website is designed differently, and I think you will enjoy browsing what she has done. Go ahead and click on the about link and take a look.

Third Party Tools

Computer software has come a long way since the early days. When it comes to genealogy, software has its own history. The first revolution in genealogy, in my opinion, was the personal computer. I think we owe a lot to the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Way back in 1984 the GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication) and the PAF (Personal Ancestry File) were created. PAF is retired, but the GEDCOM lives on and is still a powerful tool used in the genealogy world. Go ahead, put these two terms in your favorite search engine and learn a lot more. Be careful not to go down any rabbit holes.

I have mentioned Family Tree Maker a few times. It is one of the oldest genealogy software out there. I used it to create my family tree from my mother’s family group sheets she had handwritten. There have been many versions since then and Family Tree Maker software was one of the first that allowed Ancestry.com to synchronize with each other.

Other software used for genealogy that are very important and very useful are:

• Legacy
• Roots Magic
• Family Historian
• Others I am not familiar with

I highly recommend checking out any of the above software to keep records and organize your genealogy and family history.

Home Page

This page is a work in progress, stay tuned.