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I had just a touch of a mortality crisis this week after reading several dozen obituaries, and filling in the dates behind little d's for death underneath the names of my relatives. I am working on a giant painting of a family tree in my foyer that spans across the walls and the ceilings and even into adjoining rooms. It is quite a project and I've learned a lot about how family trees work as I teeter on a ladder with a tiny paintbrush in hand and a little palette of paint.

Years ago, I amassed a collection of names and dates of relatives on all sides of my family and my husband's family. A lot of the research came to me, already complete. Some of it however is research that I've done myself. At any rate, these names and dates have slowly been accumulating over the past five years or so and finally, I decided it was time to put it all together into one giant tree.

A family tree that incorporates all sides and branches of the family will take root with one person (or two people, namely a union of two people in marriage or cohabitation) at the trunk of the tree. Obviously, the first two big branches that come off the trunk of the tree will be that person's parents. If the tree starts with a union of two people, then there will be four branches that sprout off of the trunk of the tree representing both people's parents.

The basic pattern for the family tree proceeds such that each branch branches into two branches. Each of those branches branch off into two more branches and so on and so forth emanating out from the trunk of the tree. Painting my giant tree across my foyer, I realized quickly that I needed to build the skeletal structure of my tree first before adding in the names of my relatives. In order to do this, I simply followed the pattern above, making each branch divide into two branches. One thing I kept in mind, however, was that each branch needed to be far enough away from the other branches to allow me to add information about my ancestor's children. People two or three generations back generally would have 8 or more offspring and so, as I painted branches onto my walls, I kept this in mind and made sure that I left plenty of room between the places where the branches divide off into two branches.

A family tree that incorporates information going back four or more generations has the potential to sprawl into a gigantic bushy and convoluted plant. If you are planning on drawing out your family tree onto a piece of paper, make it a big piece

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