So what is an Ancestor Chart and why do we bother with them?

Let's start with what an Ancestor Chart is NOT, it is not a record of your research or of all of your ancestors.  It is simply a record of your DIRECT ancestors, no siblings, cousins or wives or husband other than the direct line. If you like, it's a record of where you came from and in most cases those people whose blood is in you.

So why bother with them if they aren't a full record of ALL your ancestors?  Well, they are fairly simple and reasonably easy to follow.

1. It is a simple way to store the important parts of your tree
2. It allows others to benefit from your research

So what follows is some guidance on submitting your charts.

The most important thing to remember is that your wishes override anything I may say, it is up to you to decide how you submit your data and how much you submit, everything I say is designed to make things easier for us.

What data do you submit?
As I said above that's up to you. What we would like, is the information laid out in our Ancestor Chart and Continuation sheets available from the shop or online.

The minimum necessary data on events should be considered as a year and a place. Dates should be in the form above, if possible, this saves confusion for people from different countries.

How can you fill out and submit your chart?

Handwritten Charts.

You can get blank charts either from the shop or by downloading ancchart.pdf and ancchart continuation.pdf  and printing them out. These can then be filled out by hand.

Ancestor Charts
Aberdeen & NE Scotland F.H.S.
164, King St. 
Aberdeen
Scotland, AB24 5BD

What do we do with your chart?
Currently when a chart is received it is scanned in to a computer, then one of our members makes a list of the unique surnames in the chart and all the locations associated with those names.  This list is then computerised and added to a database.  The chart is then filed in the appropriate folder.  Every six months or so the index is reprinted and filed for the use of members.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, these paper copies will be withdrawn from public display and replaced by a computerised system which will allow easier access to the data.  The scanned documents will have all member information, apart from the membership number, removed.
The computerised system will only be available in the shop but the indices may be available on line.

Any problems, email me at:
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John Urie

update November 2017