Tracing Ancestors

Direct line ancestry of Sylvie Tremblay. Private collection.

Ten-generations ancestry chart of Sylvie Tremblay. Private collection.

Pedigree chart of Leah Elisabeth Shea. Library and Archives Canada, Veitch family fonds, MG 25 G402.

This is by far the most popular research method. You start with yourself and go back in time, tracing your ancestors from generation to generation as far back as possible.

You compile names and the dates of birth, marriage and death using various information sources.

The primary objective in genealogy is to understand your family's origins and document the ancestral lines. One product of genealogical research is a chart showing these lines. The graph gives the names of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and other people from whom you are descended.

This method can take two approaches:

• Direct Line Ancestry

Draws a connection between the person and his or her ancestors with the same family name.

• Pedigree Chart

Traces all the male and female ancestors of a person, resulting in a multitude of direct lines. For reasons of efficiency, genealogists use the Stradonitz Method that attaches a different sequential number to each ancestor.

The information you found is transcribed on a Pedigree Chart. Genealogical Software is available to input your data in a coherent fashion.