Family Tree

PhiDelt649 · #1 07-05-2004, 11:03 AM

Just curious if anyone has actually traced their family tree in their fraternity or sorority?

I worked on mine for about 8 months and finally traced it back to one of the Founders. It gets frustrating sometimes, and its horrible to call and talk to someone's wife and find out that the brother was 70 years old and fought brain cancer for 3 years before he died.

But, all the negative stuff aside, it was a great experience, and it was cool to talk to my 15th Gen. Grandbig. and whatnot. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Note: If you are going to do this, pick up a program like Family Tree Maker. You can store addys, phone numbers, etc that will make your job 10000X easier.

nyrdrms · #2 07-05-2004, 11:14 AM

I've not only traced my own family tree, but all of the family trees for my chapter. I've been working on our chapter history for about four years now (I'm now an alumna and still doing it).

Most of it was fairly easy since we've only been around since 1988 and we have a tradition of family books (unfortunately, that tradition died out somewhere and I've been trying to revive it). Basically the family book gives the new sister family traditions, family tree, all of the big sisters for her pledge class, little extras that the big sister chose to include (when the first book was made, the rest are just duplicates with the necessary information changed).

There are still quite a few sisters that I haven't been able to place into families because I can't find them now and the older sisters seem to remember their own families, not everyone's (which is understandable). Plus we were charted as Gamma Phi Beta in 1988, prior to that we were a local sorority, so it's quite possible that some of these older sisters that I can't place into the known families are in families that died out shortly after we became Gamma Phi and don't connect in anyway (at least not without going back into Pi Kappa Sigma) to the known families.

But overall, it's been very interesting contacting sisters that I've never met and realizing just how willing they are and how excited they are that the chapter history is finally getting done.

#3 07-05-2004, 11:17 AM

Since I'm a founding mother for my new chapter...I'll keep this in mind. For future generations, I'll make sure we write all this stuff down and keep record...Hopefully.

GeekyPenguin · #4 07-05-2004, 12:19 PM

That's really cool - I can go back about 10 generations with mine, but considering our chapter is almost 140 years old, it's not really that great.

It's really a cool thing to do when alumnae come back because it kind of ties them to your chapter to be able to say "We're in the same family!" My family, unfortunately, died the semester after I went alum.

#5 07-05-2004, 12:26 PM

Considering my chapter's only 12 years old, I thought that it was going to be a piece of cake. I tried doing it on my own using the chapter history, but it turned out I needed the help of some of my early chapter sisters. Thankfully my own sister-mom was helpful because she was the all-around "Miss AGD" of her time, and provided me with info even though she already moved back to New York.

We had our 10 year reunion 2 years ago and I was fortunate enough to meet one of the chapter founders, who eventually turned out to be my sister-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-mother. At the end of the reunion, everyone was amazed as to how much alike we were. Kristi's a flight attendant based in Virginia now (I think), and she is one AMAZING woman.

I've started a legacy of my own, and hopefully, this Fall, my sister-granddaughter will take on a sister-daughter of her own.

MsCongeniality3 · #6 07-05-2004, 02:01 PM

Since I am a rechartering brother, I will have to make sure the chapter stays on top of it.

President
Tau Mu Chapter
Alpha Phi Omega

Rio_Kohitsuji · #7 07-05-2004, 02:12 PM

I have and it was a pain, but a good pain

I not only did my family tree, but every branch that I could get a name for, dead or alive. We are 30 years old and unfortunelty, since the sorority split twice, and went national twice, we've lost A LOT of history. So, it made the search harder.

kwazi19 · #8 07-05-2004, 02:17 PM

I would like to be able to continue seeing my family tree grown down the line; unfortunately it has come to an abrupt end..

I was a Founding Farther of my chapter.. I have my little bro and he has his; unfortunately he is inactive and my lil brother and i have since graduated..

Erik P Conard · #9 07-05-2004, 04:46 PM

in my undergrad years I had 17 pledge sons; 16 of them made
their grades and were initiated. I stopped counting at a hundred,
and my word....48 years later...golly.
The tightness of the Betas always impressed me. One of my high
school buddies flew his plane back to K-State for a reunion of his
pledge class...think it was 45 years...at any rate, 18 of 21 showed up. That is brotherhood personfied.
Fraternity is for life. For those of you who never had a house or
never lived in one...sorry...an experience you missed.
And it is hard for me to conceive of Fraternity without a house and at least sixty men...

CarolinaCutie · #10 07-05-2004, 04:50 PM

I can trace mine back to a chapter founder... but I can't take credit for doing any of the work. Our family's tradition is to give your Little a copy of their family tree. I have been the one to add the names in the past year or so and distribute copies.

CASIGKAP · #11 07-05-2004, 04:58 PM

I've always wanted to do this. I do know that I belong to the largest branch of the family tree but to actuallly get all the names down would be difficult. However, since it is not impossible, it is something I will definitely do with a lot of enthusiasm. My particular chapter has been around since 1955 and later recolonized in 1988 so I will definitely have my work cut out for me. I'm excited now!

Intense1920 · #12 07-05-2004, 05:03 PM

I've been working on my family tree off and on. The only reason that I have a very good one is because one of my Specs gave me a copy of hers. I need to update it to account for the newer ladies.

Senusret I · #13 07-05-2004, 05:48 PM

We did this in APO. Fortunately, Brothers did all the research years before I pledged, so all we have to do is add the names of new Brothers every semester.

My family tree originated in Spring 1966 with Bill Clinton's line Brother, Kit Ashby. I am now a great-great Big.

CASIGKAP · #14 07-05-2004, 06:04 PM

It's fun to do this. I started mine a less than 20 minutes ago and already am having fun with it. I so far have my twin (we were in the same plegde class) and our big, my grand big, and her other littles. WOW! It's a lot of work but I seriously hope to get more!

mommag2 · #15 07-05-2004, 06:45 PM

I'm really lucky that my chapter is only 2yrs old (my daughter is 9days older than my chapter) so I have direct contact with my founder I call her my momma, eventhough she is actually my great-grandma.

I've documented my family, and I have also written down the members of other family trees in my chapter.

One thing that I really love about family tree's in my chapter is that we all have a family name....I love my family name it is so fitting....sorry I can't share it ....TOP SECRET !!!!!!

One question? As anyone really taken a look at the members in your respective family tree's ? Are all the girls/guys have the same type of personality characteristics?

I've looked at the families in my chapter and I noticed that all the girls are matched very well. They are not all carbon copies of each other, but they all have similar/same personalities.

I know that in mine we are the girls that are very vocal, like to talk s&%* to each other , are very sarcastic, but we all know when we are kidding and we can go back to being wicked cool with each other .