Family Tree member data - linear or lateral?

[RMfrance]

Having got some way into my own family research, I found (not surprisingly) that the sheer volume of data can very quickly become unwieldy. I therefore have the most basic of questions to ask, if I may, please:

How do much information concerning non-linear family members do other users decide to include in their trees?

For example, if our antecedents had various siblings, do we then research/add further data relating to each of them and to their spouses? I can see the potential lead-value of recent generations, but obviously the further back you go, the more things fan out and sap your time and energy. I know that this might all sound pretty simplistic, but I'd welcome any thoughts on how others maintain some degree of focus for their research.

Thanks!

[Gan Yam]

I came across a newspaper article about my 3xg uncle's wife, further research into the article and the story behind it led me to find and confirm the details of my 5 xg grandmother, so lateral can hold benefits! Sometimes lateral is a lot more interesting than linear.

[philipsearching]

In my research I am working to include full biographical details with sources for all siblings of my direct line together with the names and birth/death dates of their spouses and children.

It is tempting to track the descendants of multiple times great-uncles and aunts down to modern times, but there are just too many!  For example my six known great-grandparents had over forty siblings of whom over twenty married and had nearly 100 children between them.  If I tracked all these lines down to the late 20th century I could probably add anything from 500 to 1500 new names to my tree - but they would just be names, nothing more.

For me it is far more enjoyable to find out how my ancestors and their families lived - the economic and political times as well as their occupations, housing and daily lives.

Philip

[Erato]

Do whatever you want.  There aren't any rules.  I follow whatever track looks interesting, no matter how remote it is from the main line.

[Guy Etchells]

I agree with Erato having said that I do tend to put most effort into my and my wife’s blood lines however if I am using a parish register for instance and collateral lines keep popping up I will follow them as well.
Having a grown up family I also research my grand-children’s lines in case they become interested at a later date.
Cheers
Guy

[emeltom]

I tend to stick to direct lines, grandparents, great grandparents etc. I do take note of all their siblings though and, on the occasions when I get fed up banging my head on a brickwall, then I may go back and look for possible marriages and children but I draw the line at looking for their children's marriages etc.
Like Philip , I am more interested in discovering more about their lives and times. Plus I do not have the room to store all the paperwork that would be generated by lateral searches.

Emeltom

[IgorStrav]

The only thing I would add to this is

if you are embarking on DNA researches, also, you will find that you need considerable detail on your ancestors' siblings and their parents down to the current day in order to find out where your DNA matches link in to your tree.

I fondly believed before I got my DNA results that all my matches would have ancestors sharing the same surnames as I'd established, back to my gx3 grandparents, and the links would 'pop out' at me.

But that is in fact not at all the case in my experience.

Even the matches with large family trees don't have obvious ancestor links.

But do what you like with your own tree.......nobody's judging! 

[Erato]

I take a very broad approach.  I check out in-laws, neighbors, law partners, fellow students, political rivals, whatever.  I don't do a family tree for such people but I do often check them out in the census, in the newspapers, look for online trees and photos.  I figure these people were a big part of my ancestors' environment so they are worth at least a cursory look.  For example, in around 1886 my great grandparents' house burned down.  This happened in a very small village and arson was suspected.  I know who they suspected [a business rival] so I took a look at him thinking that I might find him named in other possibly criminal matters.  [I found nothing to his discredit].

[hallmark]

If I only did direct lineage I'd only have a list of names, dates, g.stones etc but because I have siblings of my gran done I've learnt a lot of stuff from them and their descendants, been shown/given photos, told stories etc

When I went looking around area my g g/father lived I got talking to some local farmers, when asked who my g g/father was I was told there were 3 by that name but because I knew names of his 6 siblings they knew which one I was looking for, even took me to meet a 102 year old man who knew him!!


Also, took someone looking for kin to the area her kin lived, she was told there were 3 Marys with same Surname that lived in area, one had a brother and sister, another 1 brother and 2 sisters and the 3rd had 2 sisters and 3 brothers..... because she didn't research siblings she/they couldn't identify her family!  The locals knew the history of the 3 families but because she didn't know siblings had to leave empty handed...