r/family_history

Please help me find my biological father, his name is Miguel Marine, he's still alive, I lost contact with him and here's the only photo I have of him and his relatives.

I created this graph using the birth, baptism, death, burial, census and other records I have collected while researching my direct ancestors.

The count increases by one whenever an ancestor is born and decreases by one whenever an ancestor dies. Rather than plotting a value for every day, I recorded each point at which the total changed and used a COUNT formula in Google Sheets to calculate how many ancestors were alive at that moment.

The spreadsheet was originally created to track the maximum and average ages of my living ancestors over time. Once the lifespan data was assembled, I realised I could also use it to chart the total number who were alive at each point.

At the beginning of 1850, 140 of my currently identified direct ancestors were alive:

• 11 third-great-grandparents
• 60 fourth-great-grandparents
• 59 fifth-great-grandparents
• 10 sixth-great-grandparents

I used exact birth and death dates wherever I could establish them. Where an exact date was unavailable, I used conservative record-based boundaries: the latest supported birth date and the earliest supported death date.

For example, a baptism provides a date by which the person must already have been born. A census or another record showing that someone was alive establishes that their death occurred after that record. I used these boundaries so the graph would never count someone as alive during a period when they may already have died.

The sharp drop in 1851 represents seven ancestors whose death or burial records I have not yet found. Their final known records are entries in the 1851 census, so the graph stops counting them after that evidence ends. It does not mean that all seven are known to have died at the same time in 1851.

The family-tree data is mostly complete for the period shown, although further records may allow some dates to be refined.

Has anyone else used spreadsheets or other tools to create visualizations from their genealogical research?

Survey Link

We have never been more able to piece together our family tree and ancestral experiences. Anyone can now also readily complete an ancestry DNA test gaining knowledge about their ethnic backgrounds and family member connections, and gain access to large collections of digitised records, with or without genealogy platforms such as Ancestry. com. As interest in genealogy, family trees, and ancestral DNA testing has become more widespread, this project investigates what compels people to seek connection to their ancestors and ancestral cultures, with or without ancestral DNA testing, and how these impact our sense of identity and wellbeing.

This survey asks you about your engagement with family history and your reflections on that process. It also asks you to think about your ancestors and how you have reflected on their life experiences. Participation involves completing an online survey that will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Taking part in the study is completely voluntary and no personal information will be collected.

This study is being conducted under the supervision of Dr Janine Lurie from the Psychology Discipline within the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at Federation University. This study will also form the basis of the research dissertation requirement within the Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) course for student researchers Charity Marisa and Stefan Redpath. This study has been approved by the Federation University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval reference: 2026/137).

To participate you just need to be aged 18 years or over. It is important to note that you will not be asked to give any specific details about any of your family members. You are asked just to rate your general impressions of them on a small number of questions. Beyond this the survey contains broader more general questions about your perspectives and reflections.

To complete the survey and/or for more information go to this survey link or contact Dr Janine Lurie directly via email at j.lurie@federation.edu.au

Survey Link