Growing a Family Tree: Part 1

Family Tree - A Letter Home - Meet the Roeddes - Memoir Bag - Learning to Marble - Family Time

FAMILY FUN ACTIVITY
Growing a Family Tree Part 1

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Materials Needed:

Drawing of a family tree

Chalk/Blackboard (or scrap paper and pencil)

Pen/paper

Activity Description:

Diagrammed Tree A family tree is actually a picture record or diagram of a family's history.

A simple family tree records the following information:

First and last names of people (if a woman gets married and changes her name, include what her last name was before she got married).

Unions, including marriage and re-marriage, dissolved unions (for example, if there is a divorce or death)

Children born to the union (sex, name and birth order) children adopted or added by another marriage/union

A more complex family tree could include any of the following information:

Middle names

Dates of marriages or births places of birth

Events such as emigration date and circumstances of death (war, disease, etc.)

Professions

Part One:

1) Go to the chalkboard (or use scrap paper) and try to figure out what symbols could be used to distinguish males from females?

On a family tree, usually a triangle is used to represent all males, and a circle is used to represent all females.

Male = (Triangle)

triangle

Female = (Circle)

circle

EGO: Ego means yourself and shows who in the family drew the family tree. Some diagrams use a square for ego; others use the appropriate triangle or circle with a star inside.

Ego = (Square)

square

Ego =
(Triangle or Circle with a star)

star in circle

MARRIAGE/DIVORCE:

Draw what you think a "Union" symbol would look like. . . . . .Draw what you think a Marriage Symbol would look like. . . . . . . .

We use the term union since not all babies are born to a married couple. Family tree diagrams use equal signs to illustrate unions or marriage.

Union or Marriage =
(equals sign)

Can you draw a male and female in a union or marriage using family tree symbols?

What do you think the symbol might look like if the marriage or union ended in divorce, breakup or death? When a union, like a marriage, ends, usually the symbol is an equal sign with a diagonal line through it.

Union or Marriage Breakup =
(equals sign with slash through it)

not equal sign

The letter D isn't used to symbolize divorce because it might be confused with death. Death is sometimes written as a d followed by the date. For example, d.1932 means the person died in 1932.

Death can be written: with a small letter d with the date of death.
Death can be written: using the male or female symbol with a cross inside of it.
Death can be written: using the male or female symbol with an x through it.

Children and Brothers and Sisters:

Do you have a "sibling"? The word "sibling" means brother or sister. How many siblings do you have? So how might you draw them for the family tree? Remember what the EGO sign looks like (look up the page if you have forgotten), and remember what symbols are used to show male and female.

How could we show on a diagram that a man and woman have had a child or children?

A vertical line is used to show descent, a horizontal line shows siblings.

decent and sibling symbol

A vertical line is used to indicate "descent" in a family tree diagram. A horizontal line is used to indicate siblings or more than one child. Generally a family tree shows siblings in order of birth, but ego -- the person doing the diagram - can also be put at the center.

TRY THESE FAMILIES ON FOR SIZE!

Try to draw what each of these families would look like using the family tree diagram symbols.

1) A man and a woman marry and eventually have three children: 1 boy, then a girl, then another girl. (Click here to check your answer)

2) A man and woman marry and have two daughters. Those daughters grow up and marry and each has two daughters.(Click here to check your answer)

3) A man and woman marry but she dies. He marries another woman and they have one daughter.(Click here to check your answer)

4) A man and woman marry and have one son. Then they divorce. Each remarries and has a son.(Click here to check your answer)

5) A man and woman marry and have three boys. They divorce and the woman remarries another man who has three daughters.(Click here to check your answer)

6) A woman and a woman marry and have no children so they adopt a boy and a girl. (Obviously this situation needs a special symbol. Adoption is shown by a dotted line. What does this family tree look like? Click here to check your answer)

Click here for a full lesson plan of this activity