My Four Family Trees

Tracing my family back through the generations I like knowing which of my four family trees each of my ancestors belongs to.

Four family trees? Yes, I like to know whether an individual belongs in my paternal grandfather's, paternal grandmother's, maternal grandfather's, or maternal grandmother's family tree.

I suppose other people may not find this as important as I do, but it is nice knowing at a glance which of my four family trees an individual is part of.  How do I accomplish this? It is so simple I am ashamed to admit it took a couple years for me to come up with it.

My software allows me to display an image (or profile picture) for each person in my family history. I created four images that simply say "Ancestor Of" and which of my grandparents this person is a blood relative of. Then I use that same image file over and over again for anyone that belongs in that family tree.

There are people I document that are not blood relatives, yet still belong in my family trees. A simple example would be an individual that married my grandfather's sister. For that type of relationship, I have created and image with the words "No, not directly related, related by marriage"