Family Trees are the diagrams used to easily read details of a family and usually includes ancestors and descendants, birth and death dates and marriage and divorce information. There are two main sorts of family tree diagrams. An Hour Glass Tree and a Family Tree.

Both diagrams use standardised forms. For example a double line between two adjacent boxes indicates a marriage. The dates within a box beneath a person's name are at the left, the birth date and at the right the date of death. A vertical line connects parent's with their children and so on. For example of page 96 of The Time Stealers the double line shows that Sylvia Francis Strode married Sylvester Adair and they had four children, John, Rehanna, Anja and Gregory Adair.

Hour Glass Tree

An Hour Glass Tree is shaped like an hour glass and details the immediate ancestors and descendants of a particular person. That person is always found at the centre of the diagram which is also the narrowest part of the hour glass shape. If you've never seen an hour glass just think of the little timer graphic that comes up on your PC when WIndows programs need you to wait.

The diagram on page 96 of The Time Stealers is an Hour Glass Tree. An hour glass tree won't show information extending past the immediate person's family. For example on page 96 we discover that Gregory Adair had two children, Janique and Taleena but it doesn't tell us who Gregory married because Gregory's wife is not related to Sylvia Francis Strode.

Family Tree

Although a family tree uses the same graphic language as an Hour Glass Tree its shape is determined by the amount of information accessible about any given family. For example the family tree for my mother's side of the family, to date, includes, 570 individuals, and the diagram when unrolled is the length of my hallway. My husband's family tree is even larger. Some families from India can trace their ancestors back through many centuries far further than I can trace my ancestors.

Where as an Hour Glass Tree limits the information a Family Tree is only limited by what you can establish about who your ancestors and relatives are and how many off-spring each couple had.