This is a collection of articles and helps about researching the genealogy of the Redpath, Ridpath, and Reidpath families.
Building a complete and accurate family tree requires your input. You know the most about your life, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your spouse, and your children. Sharing what you know about your part of the family history allows other family members, both near and far, to know how we are related and preserves this information for generations to come.
While some family members are dedicated to Genealogy - the study and research of our family history, you don't have to go beyond providing what you can easily determine about your immediate family.
Here are several ways to gather and submit your Family Tree information:
1. Simply write an email or document that includes important events/dates/places in your life and your immediate family. Births, Marriages, and Deaths with dates and places are standard, but you can include graduations, employment changes, moves, retirements, etc. You can then send the email and/or attach a document to tree@redpath.org.
2. Get another close family member to do it. Usually, there is a close relative who already knows much of your information. Update them on the latest information in your life, tell them about this project, and ask that they provide your information for you.
3. Fill out the Family Tree Survey Form online. This allows you to input the basic data with more structure and submit it online.
4. Download, print and fill out the paper version of the Family Tree Survey Form: family_tree_survey.rtf
5. Get Family Tree Software and submit a GEDcom file. Examples are The Master Genealogist , Family Tree Maker, or a free version of the LDS Church Personal Ancestral File (PAF). Once you have entered your information, you share it with a GEDcom (GEnealogy Database COMmunication) file, which can be emailed as an attachment to tree@redpath.org .
Genealogy Information
Due to the sometimes sensitive nature of genealogy information, not all the data available is published on the web. Handling of all information on the web site is defined by the Privacy Policy. The family history gathered here has come from the generosity of many family researchers, with proper credit given and permission of the original source obtained, when possible. To make genealogy work, we always share our information fully with other Redpath/ Ridpath/ Reidpath cousins who are researching our family history.
I have been researching the Ridpath and Redpath Family histories since 1990. It has been an on-again off-again hobby that really has quite a bit to offer to my personality. It is detective work without a crime and researching my ancestors has been a great history lesson. I have been able to use my computer skills by maintaining a database of the information I gather and documenting the conclusions I reach. I currently use software called The Master Genealogist (TMG) by Wholly Genes, Inc. which can track the data I gather to a very low level.
I have started up a very ambitious Open Source software project called GeneaPro. GeneaPro is a multi-user, cross-platform Genealogy database program based on the GenTech Genealogical Data Model, a very comprehensive model for genealogical information.
As with all family history, this web site is a work in progress. My highest ideal is to have the information presented on the website be as correct and complete as possible. That requires documenting conflicting sources of data, noting where the data came from, and flagging what items are actually guesses, assumptions, and sometimes, just plain wishful thinking.
Roger W. Ridpath has been instrumental by sharing the wealth of data that he has gathered with much more success than I ever expect to have. Many other cousins have communicated various bits and pieces of family lore, rumors, and legends as well as the mundane staples of genealogy: Names, Dates, and Places of Births, Marriages and Deaths. It is only through sharing our family history that it can start to make sense and be preserved for future generations.