A family tree is generally a graphic illustration of family relationships that go deeper through generations. There are different family tree types used today. Some charts offer more detailed information, and not simply include the names, birth or death dates of the family members. Here’s a look at the family tree of one of the world’s most famous personalities, Confucius, the Chinese philosopher and educator

Who Was Confucius?

K’ung-tzu, pinyin, K’ung-fu-tzu. Confucius was a famous Chinese thinker and philosopher, whose teachings and values cornered on correctness of social relationships, justice, sincerity, personal and government morality. His teachings and values became popular, and gained prominence in China from the Han Dynasty, up to today. His thoughts and ideals have been developed into a system of philosophy called Confucianism, which was introduced in Europe by an Italian Jesuit priest named Matteo Ricci. Fr Ricci also coined K’ung-fu-tzu’s Latin name as Confucius.

The Confucius’ Family Tree Keeps On Growing

Confucius has been dead for more than 2,000 years, but his family surprisingly keeps on growing. His descendants continue to flourish in China and all around the world. The latest version of his family tree has tripled in size, and the process of registering new members to his family tree was completed in 1007, and the number of updated members now stands at more than two million.

The World’s Longest Family Tree

In 1998, a 7th generation descendant of Confucius, Kong Deyong, began the registration process for new members of this illustrious Chinese philosopher’s family tree. Kong set up a committee in Hong Kong, and 450 branches were also set-up around the world, to assist in the effort. The last revision of the famous Chine sage’s family tree was made in 1930, and that time it included only 600,000 members. Compared with previous versions, the new and updated family tree will include for the first time female and overseas descendants. The Confucius family tree is regarded as the world’s longest, and has recorded more than 80 generations of his family.

The living member of Confucius’ family tree paid five Yuan or 70 US cents for official registration. The committee also included many of the deceased members, provided their descendants can show document to prove they truly did belong to the tree, or if they can show a collateral family tree that conforms to the Confucius genealogy.

Centuries after his death, his followers and adherents organized his teachings into the Analects, and in a few years after, the Analects and other core teachings were constituted to form the philosophical system which is now known as Confucianism. A different form of Confucianism was also believed to have held sway and influence over a large swath of countries, from China, Korea and Vietnam, until the 1800′s.

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A wide array of family tree types is used today. Some family trees offer simple information, such as the person’s name, date of birth and death. Some family trees on the other hand, offer extra details such as snippets of how they lived, where they were born, and others. If you plan to build a more intricate family tree chart, you will need more details and factual items to enhance your genealogy chart. Here are some tips on how to enrich your family tree, and provide a more complete picture of your ancestor’s lives.

Identify The Gaps In Your Family Tree

Before you begin building your family tree, identify any gaps or limited information from the data you collected from relatives or family members. For example, if you know very little about your grandparents and their siblings, and you only know their birth dates and birth places, you may ask for information from any of your older living relatives. You may be surprised to learn that your older relatives will be more than happy to give you any extra information about your ancestor’s life.

Use a Family Gathering to Ask Questions

Whenever you have a family gathering, always seize the opportunity to ask questions from your relatives. You may ask questions to clarify or evaluate the data you already have, like for example immigration, occupation or residence records, as well as details about engagements or marriages, death and burial places, and more. Before the family gathering starts, make a list of questions for your relatives, but remember not to overwhelm them with too many questions. Once you’ve created your list of questions, get your uncle or aunt to spend some time with you over a cup of tea or coffee. You may also wish to bring a recorder to store all their answers.

Check Your Details Twice

Once you’re ready to add a name, place, residence, birth or death date, occupation and other details to your family tree, remember to double check the information you gathered. Look for historical articles, obituaries, diaries, journals, memoirs, letters and more. You can collect or borrow these from your relatives, or you may drop by the local library, census office or archive, where you can find birth registration records, burial certificates, medical and hospital reports, ship passenger lists, accident reports and others. Some of the documents you may find could provide you with interesting clues, which may lead you to other notable discoveries.

The most interesting and satisfying family trees are usually the accurate and personalized ones. You can actually personalize a family tree, if you’re lucky enough to find many old photographs or items from your grandfather or grandmother’s trunk. Make copies, and create stories with the attached old photos, and paste them to your tree. You may also wish to add a historical map of the city, town or place where your ancestor’s family lived for generations.

Also check out anything historically significant that happened in their locality at that time, and include those details too.

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A family tree can serve as a source of inspiration and pride for you and your family. With the family tree, you’ll learn more about the early beginnings of your direct descendants, an you’ll also find a lot of interesting tidbits about how they lived, where they raised their families, how they died, or what they’re notable achievements were.

There are different types of family tree charts, from simple diagrams to extensive, well-researched five-genration charts, complete with old photos, qoutations and other historical pieces. Here’s a look at one of the most popular family tree chart forms today, the pedigree chart.

How A Pedigree family Chart Looks Like

Also called the ascendancy or lineage chart, the pedigree family chart is the most common family tree used today. With th pedigree family chart, you, or your parent or grandparent, are the starting point. After you or your parent, a single bloodline or family name follows, through different generations that you are able to trace.

History Of Pedigree Family Charts

In the Middle Ages, particularly in England and Wales, pedigree charts were recorded in the College of Arms, which included pedigrees collected during travelling inquiries made by its heralds during the16th and 17 centuries. Those who wished to claim the right to bear arms had to provide enough proof or details about the grant of arms given to them by the College. They also had to show proof of descent from an ancestor or descendant who was also entitled to bear the coat of arms.

How To Prepare Your Pedigree Family Chart

In preparing your pedigree family chart, first write down all information you gathered from your family, and start entering these into the family tree chart. If you’re not used to filling out these types of forms, ask for assistance, or get step-by-step information from those who are familiar with properly filling geneaological forms. Next, select a single surname to begin with. By keeping your family search focused, you’ll be able to go in the right direction, and you will also reduce the chance of missing out on any vital information or details.

Explore The Worldwide Web For Information On Your Ancestors

The Internet is a good place for getting additional information regarding your ancestor’s records. Go to pedigree databases, message boards, forums and resources that are specific to your ancestor’s location.You can also drop by your local Family History information center, where you’ll be able toget easy access to a large collection of pertinent geneaological information.

You can also drop by the local census office and other public archive centers, to search for records of your direct descendants, from birth, marriage, death certificates, to wills, land deeds, immigration records and more. Once you get all the required data, organize your information, make photocopies, take photos, store notes, and keep backup copies in digital or computer files. Ensure that you save and record everything.

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The Family History Library of Mormons in Salt Lake City has been always popular for the Genealogists. However, not all genealogists have the chance to get there.

For instance, if a genealogist is located in Sydney, Australia, he needs to travel a mere 12, 890 km. Aside from the fact that it will be a bit time consuming, and it will also be harsh in the purse.

Good thing, Family History Centers (FHCs) was founded. FCHs are branch libraries of Family History Library. And there are 3,400 FHCs that are operating in 64 countries.

These FHCs circulate a hundred thousand rolls of microfilm to its centers monthly. These microfilm rolls, along with the books and other resources of genealogy do not require the genealogists to travel a long distance anymore.

The FHCs are generally located in the easiest driving distance. This is because these centers are situated both in major cities and smaller communities.

Included in these centers are massive records that are of great genealogical value. Like for instance, census, probate, church records, vital, land and immigration.

There is no need to worry for any fee. FHCs records are accessible for the public for free. These are facilitated by volunteers from the church and community. They are the ones who lend assistance and answer the queries of the visitors.

FHCs are also funded by Church congregations in the locality. For this reason, these are usually situated in the church buildings.

These FHCs are also referred as satellite libraries. And other available resources here that are helpful for the search on genealogy include the genealogy records, family tree databases, genealogy books and maps and family histories.

Most of these FHCs contain massive book collections, series of microfilms as well as microfiche. And all of these may be viewed in any time.

Although, there are many instances wherein the FHCs cannot release the records requested by the researcher instantly. Some of these records are still requested by the FHCs from the main library, which is the Family History Library situated in Salt Lake City.

The request is done by the volunteer in the local FHC. Also, borrowing materials from the main library will require a small fee, roughly, $3.00 to $5.00 each film.

Normally, the records that you requested will take about 2 to 5 weeks before it arrives to the FHC in your locality. The record will remain in the local FHC for 3 weeks. Hence, you would have that span to view and study the record.

If you feel hesitant to visit the FHC because of the thought that these people might persuade you to join in their religion, then don’t be. The Mormons, also known as The Latter Day Saints, believe that family is perpetual.

Therefore, they really encourage and support the family to track their ancestors.

It is a part of their mission to share the records they have accumulated to all the people, religion is not an issue.

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There are about 60,000 billion cells found in the human body. It includes muscle cells, cheek cells, and white blood cells. Each cell contains the whole genetic information which is the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The nucleus inside the cell holds the DNA or chromosomal DNA that consists of Y chromosomal DNA, X chromosomal DNA, and autosomal DNA. The external part of the nucleus holds mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The autosomal DNA comes from both the mother and the father, Y chromosomes is inherited by a son from his father, and mtDNA comes from the mother only.

There are advancements made in testing DNA to meet various areas of interests. For example, the most common uses of DNA are related to finding criminals and proving paternity. But today, genealogy research also uses DNA testing.

For so many years, genealogy has become an important element of the society and a favorite hobby of some enthusiasts. Although this is more rewarding, somehow it brings frustrations even to expert genealogists. It can be very time consuming when doing paper research. More often, it can lead to illegible and damaged documents. But, DNA testing provides quick results without questioning its authenticity or quality. Moreover, the genetic genealogy results can endure the tests of time.

1. Mitochondrial testing is utilized for tracing the maternal heritage of a person. The mtDNA testing is very important since genealogists are mostly females. When they marry, maternal lines are often lost because of changing their surnames. In this manner, they can learn and trace their maternal ancestry.

There are advances made in understanding genetics and using laboratory techniques in helping a person to identify maternal lineage through mtDNA tracing services. The distinct mtDNA of person is analyzed and compared to the databases of other samples of mtDNA worldwide, revealing information about the lost ancestry.

The mtDNA remains nearly unchanged even for so many years. You can share the same type of mtDNA with your mother, maternal grandmother, and maternal great grandmother. The same exact mtDNA code can track your direct maternal lineage way back from the time where mtDNA code’s natural mutation occurred.

Women who are living today can trace their origins 150 thousands years ago through natural mutations or mitochondrial eve. In connection with matrilineal descent, eve is the common ancestor. But it doesn’t necessarily imply that eve is the only woman who lived in that era. There were also other women alive but only the lineage of eve has survived.

2. Y chromosomal DNA testing is the most common used form of genetic genealogy testing. Some people can even trace if a deceased man is related to them by conducting this test.

Like mtDNA, Y chromosomes can be also traced back from one prehistoric father, Adam. The DNA mutation of the first Y chromosomes naturally occurs over many generations. Determining the present Y chromosomes can trace your paternal lineage through searching the Y database worldwide.

Moreover, genealogists can find out if two people are related because they have similar surnames through Y chromosomes testing. It is not impossible since in most cultures, surnames or family names are inherited by children from their fathers like the Y chromosomal DNA.

A successful genealogy research lies on DNA testing because its usefulness is proven as time has passed by.

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Invisible relatives may pertain to those people who are difficult to find or are hidden relatives perhaps. A relative can be considered missing if he or she does not appear even in one of the volume of records containing your family’s history. Detailed information of your invisible relative can be hard to uncover. You don’t probably suspect that he or she exists before you begin your research.

You need to know some of the reasons why such things happen.

- Women are most often categorized as invisible relatives. Keep in mind that women didn’t have legal identities of their own in many countries. They are not regularly mentioned in community records. In Ireland, property was rarely registered in the name of a woman from 18th to 19th century. When registration of civil marriages took place in 1865, only the father’s name of both couples is listed.

- If family members disapprove a relationship, thinking that it can bring disgrace to their family, they hide it consciously. For example, a widow who wanted to marry again but her children are all grown up.

- It runs in the tradition of the Irish, they always want to portray the best face and feet forward. They omit sad memories from the tales about their family. Thus, infants and young children who are already dead were never mentioned again.

- Some common records used in genealogy research are incomplete. The contents have entirely missed important things about the person. Maybe, they failed to anticipate that the latest generation would likely want to know about their origins. Some census in the U.S has this problem. Former spouses were never mentioned on the record as well as the date of immigration until 1900.

So, some Irish who are just starting to find their genealogy can face a lot of challenges. It is advisable not to rely much on what they find on the written records. However, any piece of information is important to help you in your research. No matter how small the information is, you can unravel many things once you dig deeper.

Never assume that the norms in the 20th and 21st century made sense 50, 100, or 100 years ago. Try to learn and understand that norms vary according to time and place. Considering all the records (both Irish and American) are helpful in solving the jigsaw puzzles of your life, in case your family already migrated in the U.S. This process is also similar in other countries.

There are factors that you should concentrate on when finding an invisible Irish relative. Checking the census can be effective in finding the persons who are related to the one you are looking for. Another is to learn some significant traditions associated with the place. For example, in Ireland, the naming tradition is very popular. Irish men name their oldest son after their grandfather. If the person is already married, then search for the marriage record. Take note, during the 1860, divorce is not favored in Ireland. So, better check for death records also in case the name changed.

Finally, be patient as your research progresses. After all, it is worthwhile to embrace your origin again and find the missing part of your life.

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Today, there are a lot of people who don’t know about their family’s past for many reasons. Some have been separated, some have personal family issues, and others were affected by historical events that changed their family’s lives forever.

Canada is a country rich in culture and history. You have to consider that a lot of people have migrated and lived in Canada and started a family. If you have Canadian ancestry in your blood and you want to find out more about your family and what happened to them, you can hire a genealogist to help you with your quest.

There are Canadian genealogists today who offer their services for a fee. You have to consider that researching for your ancestry alone can be very difficult. With a genealogist, you can be sure that you will be able to trace your genealogy at the fastest time possible and with little effort in your part. A genealogist will know what documents to look for and where to look for it. They will also organize all the documents and provide you with a copy of it or in some cases, some genealogists even provides you with the original copy of the documents.

You can even take it a step further by getting information about what happened to your extended relatives. For many reasons, people try and find out about their family’s past. Some say that they do it to find out more about themselves, and there are also others who do this to put up a family tree. There are also people who want to know about their family’s medical past to know about a mysterious medical condition that has been plaguing their family for years.

However, you have to admit the fact that finding out about your family’s past can be fun and exciting. For instance, you may even find out that you are a relative of someone famous. Or, you may even find out that you have a different race and not entirely of Hispanic blood. For example, in the United States, an African American man began researching his family’s history and found out that he was a relative of a wealthy Hispanic plantation owner back in the days where plantations and slavery existed.

As you can see, there are quite a lot of surprises that you can come across with if you research about your Canadian ancestry. However, you have to consider that it will take quite a while to search all the document archives. You have to realize that depending on how long you are willing to look back in your family, you have to expect that it will take a long time to retrace your roots if you are willing to look back on a lot of years.

Although it will take quite a long time and you will encounter a lot of dead ends, you have to consider that with patience and determination, you will be able to know about your Canadian ancestry. Always remember that you have to be patient as genealogy is a complex process where there will be lost or misplaced documents among thousands of other documents available.

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The internet is one of the most useful tools available in modern society today. With this technology, you can communicate with your loved ones for free, do your shopping and groceries, and you can even search for different data available in the internet. One of these data is genealogy data. Genealogy search is where you find who you are related from. If you are trying to find that long lost relative or you are trying to research about your family, you can consider using genealogy websites.

You have to consider that different world events have changed the world the way it is today. For instance, in World War II, there had been a lot of families separated because of migrating to another country. And, up to this day, the surviving families don’t even know that they are related to someone in another country.

Genealogy search website can open up a lot of hidden documents, such as birth records of your great-great grandparents, marriage records, death records and even immigration records. You have to consider that there are more than 6 billion people living in the planet today and the mentioned documents will be quite hard to obtain without professional help. However, because of modernization and the availability of the internet, it is now possible to search for these records the easy way on various genealogy websites available.

In genealogy websites, all you need to do is type in the name of your grandparents, their date of birth, their date of death if they passed away, and the date of their migration to the United States if they are from another country. The next thing you need to do is click on the search button and various documents will appear in links. However, you have to consider that not all genealogy websites offer accurate and comprehensive results. You have to consider registering and paying a genealogy website that offers comprehensive results. It is important that you should first look for a genealogy website that offers great quality services that will meet your needs.

You should look for the following features in a genealogy website in order to be sure that you are getting what you pay for. Always consider the fact that genealogy search can cost quite a pretty penny. So, it is just important that you should look for a genealogy website that will offer these following features in order to be sure that it will meet your expectations when it comes to searching for your genealogy.

The first feature that you should look for is the easy-to-use interface. Besides, you have to consider the fact that using a genealogy website that has complicated and hard to use interface will be useless if you don’t understand it.

The next feature is that they should guarantee that they will be able to give you the genealogy ser vice that you want.

If it is possible, you should also look for a genealogy website that can provide you with an interactive family tree.

These are some of the things that you should look for in a genealogy website. With the right easy-to-use web tools, you can be sure that you can obtain great results.

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The internet is such a vast resource of important and needed information. It has a lot of uses that many individuals find very useful in their everyday life. Now, even genealogy has a place in this great and infinite resource.

Genealogy research involves extensive research and verifications. For those who are clueless what genealogy is, it is the study of a family tree or family trees. If you’re interested in knowing your past and want to know how your life ended that way it is now, then you’d better come up with your own genealogy tree or family tree.

Once you find out several generations included in your family tree, then perhaps you might want to share it to the whole world for free. Yes, that is truly possible. This can happen if you create your very own free genealogy site. But how will you do it?

Even if you haven’t completed your family tree, and is still looking for some pieces of the puzzle, having your own genealogy site is such an advantage. This can generate interest that can lead you to discovering new information. The software programs offered for genealogy research are much better now because they provide this special opportunity to the people. By submitting alternately your GEDCOM file to the many genealogy sites, you can have your history and name present on the web for all people to see. There are also other alternatives in store for you like using a hosting service. You can make your very own site at Yahoo GeoCities and other hosting websites. If you’re a first time user, you may find it quite difficult to opt for this alternative because they have a lot of restrictions.

So you are left with the only alternative of creating, developing, and publishing your personalized genealogy site. This involves purchasing your domain name, as well as web hosting. You can use HTML editors that offer free service or you can use your own HTML editor like that of Microsoft’s FrontPage.

If you opt for the last alternative, then you can make use of these tips:

1. Your web page must contain a title that is catchy and easy to remember. This is a very critical decision that your family should decide together.
2. Your header, or first paragraph, must contain all the surnames of principal families that were researched. Try to incorporate certain words like family tree, ancestors, Family History, and genealogy.
3. Search engines and visitors look for content quality especially on your home page. It would be best to compose several paragraphs about your family history, and don’t forget to provide links to detailed pages. Try to limit the pictures contained on your home page; instead, provide links to other family photographs.
4. Make sure that your site has a good navigation system, like text links and navigation buttons.
5. Meta tags are very important because it improves your tanking in search engines.
6. To improve traffic in your site, be sure to provide other genealogy sites. Links are very essential.
7. Prominently display your email address so that you can be contacted easily.

Following the tips mentioned above can help you in coming up with a good and free genealogy site that your entire family can be proud of.

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Many people are eager to find out their ancestors as well as where they come from. Thus, learning the history of your family becomes a popular objective. It can start from a hobby during weekends to everyday pastime and even to a regular job. In fact, a very attractive alternative for a day job or incomplete research is to rely on a genealogy research done by professionals. The advantages that it provides can be a gift for you.

1. Speed. Using trained and certified genealogists in conducting research can allow you to take the advantages of their previous experiences and expertise. Certified genealogists already know what they are going to do thus their research are efficient. Let their efficiency and speed work for you.

2. Training. Trained genealogists always have systematic plans. Their tasks are listed from the very beginning of the research until the end. They get the most relevant and the best information rather than sifting over countless census, probates, and other records. Their experience combined with a thorough training is effective for knowing what to find, where to find, and how to find. Researching your Family History requires knowledge of various resources, from books to microfilms to computerized records, from correspondence indices to probates to censuses.

3. Geographical access. Even though the internet has become a good source for plenty of records, some information are not yet entered in the computer. To obtain these records, you need to send money and letters to archive offices located in far places. When you choose a professional research service, make sure that the location is closer to a huge resource such as the Family History Library, or the National Archives, each stores millions of important documents.

4. Accuracy. Many years of genealogy practice exposes you to a lot of conflicting information. For example you have learned from your mother that the birthday of your great grandmother is in June however the official record reveals that it is February. There also instances that the documents disagree. You should be able to determine the right source. Say, John Smith is your great grandfather and he passed away in 1995. So, how would you be able to find the true John Smith?

Trained researchers already know everything on how to analyze conflicting sources as well as identify the individuals accurately. Based on their experience and training, they are able to judge the date that appears to be more accurate. Likewise, they can determine your ancestor with the name of John Smith.

Assessment of source material takes several years of experience in the field of genealogy. Professional genealogists can ensure that their works have accuracy.

5. Qualified access. Most resources are very sensitive. Some have even restricted access. Many archives have strict rules regarding the use of their resources. It can include the person who wants to access particular information, the procedure of accessing the materials, the researcher’s return incentives, and others. Certified genealogists are familiarized with these restrictions already. They have the expertise in researching in such environments and handling documents. Moreover, only professional genealogists are permitted to do the research in archives with only limited access.

Learning your ancestry is fun as well as a unique gift. Remember, to avoid any hassles, ask for the help of professionals.

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