SHARE YOUR RESEARCH

As you collect and collate your ancestor’s stories you’ll start to see things you might like to share with the rest of your family. Think about whether you’d like to create a photo book, write a narrative, or create a family tree chart to display in your home or give as a gift. Each one of these keepsakes requires different types of information and media.

ONLINE FAMILY TREE WEBSITES

Online family tree websites like Ancestry, My Heritage, and Geni allow you to share your family trees with other people, most often your relatives. You can invite people to view your tree and contribute to help you grow it. Unrelated people may request membership to your tree if they are researching adjacent families. Different sites allow differing levels of interaction and you can usually control access via the control panels or settings menus in site preferences. 

FAMILY TREE CHART

Most of the online family tree sites offer a service to print out charts as posters with as much or as little information as you like contained in them. These are usually done in templates and may not be to your taste. If you are familiar with graphics software such as Photoshop or Canva, you can design your poster using premade templates. Alternatively, you can hire someone online to create a bespoke family tree chart for you.

PHOTO BOOKS

There are many ways of generating beautifully printed photo books nowadays. Web-based services like Snapfish, Photobook Australia, and Albumworks offer Australian-based print services for Mac and PC users. You upload your photos, design your book using one of the hundreds of templates, order as many copies as you like and, presto, they arrive in the mail within just a few days.

WRITE A NARRATIVE

Writing your family story can seem like a daunting task but here, too, there is help available to get you on the right track. Adult education services and community colleges sometimes offer Write Your Family History courses. The Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) also offers writing courses.

Just as every family is different, so too will every family story, so how you tell your story will be unique.

If you’re not sure how to start researching your family history take a look at our Where To Start, Organise Your Research, and Research Resources pages for more information.If you’re not sure where to start researching your family history take a look at our Where To Start page. Learn how to Organise Your Research, and explore our Research Resources pages for more information on subject and country-specific research areas.