Fleshing out the tree

[lpeake]

Good morning,
I have been dipping in and out of researching both my and my partners family tree for several years and have a reasonable number of ancestors.
While it is okay to add names, dates and places etc, I am now looking to "flesh-out" some of the characters I have found with more information about their general lives, professions, social environment etc.
My question is has anyone found an easy to use program(s) to do this?
I would like it to be shared with family members and ideally add photos.
Thank you for your time.

[Aguella]

Generally, I find programs better for recording data, and more freeform methods (such as Word documents, personal websites) better for recording biographical narratives/pertinent social history.

Which program(s) do you use at the moment? You could try recording some biographical information in the 'notes' section. Most programs allow you to record 'notes' for each individual fact. So for example, an ancestor's occupation is listed as 'yeoman farmer'. That's the input for the occupation 'fact' in the program. But then you might have gone on and done research into their property, their staff, some broader history about the agricultural industry in that part of the country in the early 18th century, etc etc. You could add all this into the occupation 'notes' in the program.

I prefer to use a personal website for the recording/publication of my research, but I do also use Rootsmagic to produce ancestral/descendancy reports. What I like about Rootsmagic is you can enter freeform text into each individual's profile, so you are not bound by the basic existing facts. So, a typical individual entry will have born X, married X, died X, but will also have 'Arthur was a keen county cricketer and golfer and was a committed churchwarden of St Peter's until he became indisposed due to increasing frailty' - the sort of stuff that gives life to the otherwise rather plain data!

Hope this gives some useful possibilities!

[rogerb]

I have had the idea of incorporating some of my ancestors into some sort of novel.  I got the idea from reading London by Ernest Rutherfurd about 20 years ago - a book I really enjoyed.

However, I am unlikely to do so!

[Kiltpin]

For some relatives, I have the bare bones - birth, baptism, marriage and death. Sometimes not even that. Google "Street View" often comes to my rescue. If I know an address, I can get a current picture of where they lived. Same for schools, church of their baptism and marriage. None of it special to them, but it does give a flavour of how they lived. 

Regards 

Chas

[Erato]

"a current picture of where they lived"

And to get an idea of what a place was like 100 years ago, I always make a concerted search for "historical photos" of any location of interest.  This will bring up pictures of the landscape that the ancestors knew and also local buildings of the time - the train depot, the creamery, the general store, etc.  There will also be photos of local activities that your ancestors participated in - ice fishing, harvesting hops, barn raising.  Occasionally, you even get lucky and find a picture in which your very own ancestors appear and are named.  Not long ago, while picking through old photos of Kennewick, Washington, I found a 1900ish photo of an ancestor and his daughter working in a strawberry packing shed.

[martin hooper]

I research particular people in depth partly because of some interesting connection or event. I store the data in Family Tree Maker and publish the information in a website:

https://www.hoopertapestry.com/

I write it for a known audience - my siblings.

Martin

[coombs]

Old newspapers online can be a starting point, as well as googling old photos of the villages and towns or city streets you know your ancestors lived in. researching ancestors old employers on Google can be good.

My main tree is my Ancestry tree and often add biographical info such as "residence" in a certain year or month, such as if they witnessed a wedding or are listed on ratebooks, poor law records or electoral rolls as well as the census years.

I often write up biographies on colourful ancestors. One program you can use to put flesh on the bones as well is a blog. You can add lots of biographical info, as well as Rootsmagic.

[Blairvadach]

I research particular people in depth partly because of some interesting connection or event. I store the data in Family Tree Maker and publish the information in a website:

https://www.hoopertapestry.com/

I write it for a known audience - my siblings.

Martin

Hi Martin
Your Hooper tapestry is absolutely amazing.
I would like to do something similar for my family.
Cheers Tam

[Erato]

"old employers"

That's another good tip.  And looking at modern businesses in the area can also be productive. In one case, I looked at the website of a current business situated on the precise location of my ggg-grandparents' farm in Maine and it gave a detailed description of the unusual microclimate of that exact spot.  In another case, I looked at a blog about an old mountain resort in Oregon and an ancestor was mentioned by name as an especially good cook.