Color Coding: Brighten Up Your Day

Tree limbs and branches on the old family tree can get complicated fairly quickly.  After a few generations "bunches" of them start to appear.  Keeping them kind of organized, and grouped appropriately, can be a real challenge.  Over the years I have found that a color coding system can be helpful.

The figure to the right shows my own system, developed after a few generations had passed.  Three sons of one grandfather started things off.  Each son was given a color (magic markers were used) and from that point onward in the family tree, this color was applied to this branch of the tree.  Pink to the oldest
[his line descended through a daughter ], yellow to the second son [the color I had at the time], and blue to the youngest which was my direct branch [ Go Big Blue ! cause we grew up in Kentucky under Adolph Rupp!]

You can see the branches bloom before your very eyes.  The second son seemed to get the advantage with more children around the tree. It became evident that the baby of the family must have remained in contact the oldest branch since one grandfather married into this group.  Each page can then be used to show the relationship between the branches. [For us visual learners, this can be very helpful.]

The "square and circle" method has been presented in my blog entitled: Ge-ne-al-o-gy 101.  My complete family tree using this method is given in my blog entitled: Jones Surname DNA.  Have a go at it if you like to color...it will brighten up your day.