While you're there, search land records (deeds), court cases, and tax rolls. If you know the location of an ancestor's birth, marriage, or death, begin with those counties to request basic records. In a family tree, the ancestors branch out from the bottom to the top of the page in a fan chart, they're displayed in a fan shape, while a pedigree chart looks like half of a sports bracket and displays the pertinent information reading from left to right.
The difference between them is in how that information is displayed. All of them show the same basic types of information, such as birth, death, and marriage years for ancestors going back several generations.
A number of websites offer free ancestry charts and forms to view, download, save, and print, including family tree-style documents, fan charts, and pedigree forms.
