Family Group Sheets

 A Family Group Sheet is a work sheet to record information on a family.

 

While an ancestor chart presents multiple generations of ancestors, a family group sheet focuses on the details of a family; a set of parents and their children. 

A family group sheet is created for each couple that appear on an ancestor chart.

If an individual has had more than one partner, a family group sheet is created for each couple.

Additionally, a sheet is created for each child and their spouse or partner.

A good family group sheet shows:

• The full names, including nicknames, of each person.
• The dates and places of births of each person.
• The dates and places of marriages of each couple.
• The dates and places of deaths for each person.
• Whenever possible, the sources of each piece of information is included.

Like the ancestor charts, family group sheets take many forms. Choose the one that best suits your needs.

• From the Medina  Library:   https://www.mcdl.info/sites/default/files/attachments/FamilyGroupSheet.pdf
• From Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestrycdn.com/support/us/2018/03/famgrec.pdf
• From the National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/genealogy/charts-forms/family-group-sheet.pdf 
• From the National Genealogical Society: https://bh9qf7dyqmpb4rk14s84y90-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Family_Group_Sheet_NGS_Final.pdf 

Also, most genealogy programs create family group sheets as you build your family tree. Here are three examples.

From Ancestry.com

Notice the difference in the layout with the couple's parents' names listed above the couple. Also, the spouses/partners of the children aren't listed on this sheet.

This family group sheet is from the popular program Family Tree Maker. The inclusion of thumbnail photos is a nice feature.

This sheet is from another popular family tree software program,  Roots Magic. 

Like an ancestor chart, a family group sheet quickly identifies what information is missing on each individual. 

• Look for events that are missing, i.e. birth, death marriage, etc. 
• Look for events that need better documentation.
• Look for events that need a more exact date.
• Look for events that need a more exact place.

A family group sheet organizes in one place the information that is known/unknown about a family. 

Notice all the missing information:

• No religion is listed for William Henry MASON or his wife Elizabeth HARMON. Church affiliation could lead to baptism, marriage or burial information.
• No military service information for William. He was too young to participate in the Civil War, but would have been old enough to serve in the Spanish American War. However, by that time he was the father of at least 9 children.
• The question mark after William's mother's name indicates that this information needs to be verified. It was listed on the death certificate of one of her children but no where else, as no marriage record has been found for his parents.
• Florence and George have no information listed for their deaths or marriages. There are several possibilities:
• The died before getting married. Death information for this time period and location is spotty. 
• They might have been using a middle name instead of their given names. What do their initials stand for? Can any records be found under that name?
• Marriage information for James Wilford and William Henry MASON is missing. There are numerous marriage records in West Virginia for these names.  More work needs to be done to detect which are the correct ones for these individuals.

How else can family group sheets aid your research?

• It can help your correlate and analyze information. In the example above, could obituaries of their siblings lead us to discover the death information for Florence, and George MASON?
• While filling in the family group sheet, you have to examine your original source again. The names of the children of this family group come from census records. Florence and George disappear from the family unit between the  1900 and 1910 census. Florence would have been when she was 16 years old in 1900 and 26 years old in 1910. Those are prime marrying years for girls of that time period. Now, we have a specific time period to look for either a marriage or death record. Also, we could look for a woman named Florence who was 26 years old in the 1910 census.
• Build up more clues to help discover harder to document events. In looking at the 1910 Census again (for this post), we see that the mother Elizabeth says she has had 9 children, 6 of whom are still living. So now we know that most likely Florence and George died sometime between the 1900 and 1910 censuses.
• Use blank family group sheets at family gatherings to help gather new information. This is particularly helpful for filling in the newest members for those families you don't get to see regularly.

Tips for filling in Family Group Sheets

• Use a pencil to fill in the information so that it can be easily corrected.
• Last names are written in ALL CAPITAL letter. 
• Women are ALWAYS listed under their maiden names.
• Fields listed as "Birth", "Marriage", "Death", etc, should have dates filled in.
• Dates are entered day/month/year
• Never use all numeral form
• For example, "11 January 1999" NOT "1-11-99"
• Most people have ancestors or relatives from other countries that list dates differently that we do in the U.S.
• ALWAYS use four digits for the year because as you get further into your research you will be working in multiple centuries, 1900's, 1800's, 1700's and 1600's if you are lucky!
• Places are listed from the smallest unit to the larges as in city or township, then county, then state, then country. Example: Seville, Guilford Township, Medina County, OH, USA
• Use standard abbreviations for states, months, etc, or provide a key to what your abbreviations mean.
• In the "CHILDREN" section, you do not have to repeat the surname.
• Create a family group record for each couple on your ancestor chart.
• If an individual had more than once spouse or partner, make a separate family group record for each additional partnership, especially if there were children produced.

This is the family group sheet for Lunas JOHNSON and Stella BARRY, who were married on 21 Dec 1918 in Gallia County, Ohio. Notice that they both had at least two other partnerships (underlined in purple), some of which also resulted in children. Not all of the partnerships were marriages. From this sheet we find that we need to make 4 additional family group sheets.

So remember...

Family Group Sheets are an essential tool for gathering information,

 guiding your research, and are easily filled out.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact your Medina Library Genealogy Team:

me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info

or

330-7252-0588 ext. 5017