This is a post I originally wrote on May 16, 2009, about color coding my Family History. That was 98 Family History Friday’s ago!! Can you believe it? I thought I would remind you about the way I started to color code my families, and give some information about how to continue on from there.
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-May 16th 2009-
I’ve decided to have every Friday be a Family History post. Those who know me, know that I love Family History. Some people don’t know what Family History is. Well, it’s like genealogy, learning about your roots, but more about the history of our ancestors. I love these people, because I know them. I know life is better because of them. I enjoy getting to know them by reading their histories, and learning about how life was in the places they lived. So what I plan to do is talk about one of my ancestors or a Family History topic every Friday. Have an open mind and you may be bit by the Family History bug, too!!
I thought I would tell you my favorite way to keep my Family History organized. I am a visual person. One of my objectives in organizing my Family History is, first, so I can find the information I’m looking for when I’m researching, but also, anyone can find the information. So, here it is- I color code my ancestors. I know it’s not a new thing, but it works for me! To start out with, I use only the primary colors, plus green. Green in not technically a primary color. So, I have four grand parents. Most of us do. Some may have more if they have blended families. Then I pick a color of out of the primary colors plus green that reminds me of my grandparent or of the place they are from. So, my paternal grandfather is blue, they came from Norway. It is a country surrounded by the ocean and is very cold. My paternal grandmother is green. They are Native American, and came from the Great Lakes area. They were Woodland Indians. My maternal grandfather is red. They came from Wales and England. They were miners and life was very hard. My maternal grandmother is yellow. They are also from England and the Channel Islands, in the English Channel. They were pioneers. They joined the LDS church and came across the American plains, sacrificing much, sometimes everything. In doing my organizing in this way, I know at a glance which family names belong together. If you’d like, pick a color for your grandparents. Use this color by putting it somewhere on each piece of paper or document that pertains to that family. Good luck! Happy Family History Friday!!!
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-Today-
So, after doing much research, or accumulating more information you may feel like you need to separate your grandparents into two different colors. I have only done this with one family. That is my maternal grandmother’s line. All of the other lines, I just don’t have that much information on them, so I don’t feel like I need to. Someday I might.
I thought I would let you know how I will separate them when I do have enough information that I feel like I need to.
First of all, my paternal grandfather’s line is Blue, they are from Norway, and I don’t speak Norwegian. For this reason, I only have a small amount of information on them, but when I have more and want to add a color, I will move back to my paternal great grandfather, he will stay blue and give his wife’s family will have the color Purple. My paternal grandmother’s line is Green, they are Native American, when I have more information and want to add a color, I will move back to my paternal grandmother’s father will still be green, and his wife will be Brown. My maternal grandfather’s line is Red, when I have more information on them and want to add a color it will be Pink, which I will add to my maternal great grandfather’s wife’s line. My maternal grandmother’s line is yellow, this is the family line that I have the most information on, so I have now added a new color, it is Orange. The orange is now my maternal grandmother’s mom’s family. I will eventually have a Family History book with colors for each of these families. Right now I have a Family History book with histories and research for the Blue family, the Green family, the Red family, the Yellow family and the Orange family. I will never add more colors than the eight I have told you about, mostly because, if I added any more colors, they would just be variations of the eight. I hope this makes sense. Next time I will put a picture of my pedigree chart on to show you what it looks like.
In the mean time…Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy