Cloze Test: Family Tree

TRACING YOUR FAMILY TREE

Genealogy, the history of a family from the past to the present, is one of the most popular subjects (1)__________ the Internet. Although genealogy has always been conducted professionally (2) __________ serious legal and financial reasons, (3)  __________ a hobby it began to take off in the 1990s when people started to use the Internet to share information.

(4) __________ embarking on genealogy (5)  __________ a hobby, though, you are advised to decide on what it is you want to find out about your family and what you will do with the information. (6) __________ go from what you  (7) __________ know and work backwards. You should undertake to find out the basic facts about as many relatives as (8) __________ : their date and place of birth, marriage, death and burial. You are encouraged to look through photo albums and talk to relatives and their friends, (9) __________ a breakthrough often hangs on a single conversation. It’s important that you remember to write everything down, (10) __________ a note of where the information came from, for some of the clues (11) __________ not be obvious at first sight.

After that, you (12)  __________ visit a local records office or reference library to look for useful documents, (13) __________ wills and tax records. You might (14) __________ want to join a Family History Society and share information with others. From then (15) __________ , it’s time to make good use of the computer, (16) __________ the Internet or the vast number of family histories stored on a CD-ROM.

Genealogy can be a frustrating hobby, full of dead ends and misleading trails, but, (17) __________ no amount of software is a substitute for patience and an enquiring mind, with the Internet it has never been easier to pursue.