Tangled genealogy can result from unfamiliar relationship terms, causing confusion in your relationship charts. And confusion at family gatherings!
You may well wonder: How AM I related to that person, after all?
I came across this relationship chart among my late Aunt Fran Schnuck Hardman’s family genealogy collection. The Schnuck Book was the first publication of Perfect Memoirs. I created the sample book in 2011, with this chart in the Appendix. I distributed the book at a Schnuck-related wedding of my First Step-Cousin Once Removed that year.
Two tips for you from that experience for your own writing and preserving of family history:
- Appendixes can be very useful. Place important information that could impede story flow in the back of your book. Examples: entire letters, both transcription and handwritten scans; family trees; original documents of import…and certainly a bibliography.
- Allow relatives to share your cost. Since this first book was done before I learned more about online printing, it was relatively expensive, though beautiful.I purchased copies and gave one to each of my parents and siblings. I bought enough copies to sell the rest at cost to relatives at one of the peripheral wedding functions and they were more than pleased to write me a check. There was also a way for them to purchase the book on their own directly from the printer and i furnished that web address.
This Relationship Chart found in a box among old papers has been a prize, and here I share it with you. Just substitute your own surname, and follow the instructions under the Relationship Chart.
Deborah Wilbrink
