Have you ever had to fake your Family Tree?

Yep, I faked a family tree while I was in school. I was supposed to do some sort of report about where my family came from. Well, nobody knew anything about my father, and my mother didn't share much about her side of the family aside from her own parents. So, I made up some lie about how my great grandparents came down from MooseJaw, Saskatchuan (probably spelled that wrong, sorry).

No Bounce - I have never had to do this either for myself or for my children. I have quite an extensive genealogy together with photos and letters well over 100 years old. Many photographs from the 1850's. My side is Irish blood and my husband's side is Portuguese Jew and black with a dash of white added in. Interesting as my husband's cousins' complexion ranged from white to black and all shades in between. there are some relatives on my husband's side that I do not associate with as I do not particularly like them but my children get on well with their cousins and this is good.

sadly I don't know many of the names on my family tree. My mom was 40 when she had me , my dad 42. I know of cousins but not enough about my grandparents Or great grandparents. I lost my dad when I was 12 and My mom in 2005 . so unless I have a seance I will never know. Thankfully I won't have any kids to " lie " to. And I have honorary brother and sister, and a birth sister. I guess she may know all the names but I really am not interested.Oh Well.

I´m not sure I´d have actually made names up. I´d have been more likely to tell my son either that I didn´t know, or that there were people in the family who I didn´t really know much about. I think 11 is old enough to know about family, even if there are difficulties. There´s no need to go into specifics, but I find it´s easier to tell the truth than to try and explain why I made something up, which can often turn something into a bigger deal than it ever started out being! As families spread out, I bet there are a lot of parents who can´t fill in a complete family tree.

hello, When I was a kid i also put names that I dont really know because my nannie is the one who helps me building my family tree. So, she is also having a hard time. I knew that she is just inventing names because my parents is not around for everyday because of work. And besides my teacher dont know it at all.

I think everyone can relate to not wanting to have a few people on their family tree. I personally don't like people that try to stir up trouble and of course I have a family member that likes to do just that. But, family is family, even if we don't claim them. ^.^

The names are pretty meaningless if you don't know the people. I would prefer to be honest than to lie. You don't have to explain anything at this stAge, justput the names up there. My first husband, the father of my children is on the diagram of our family tree. He was a (expletive deleted) but no-one ever refers to him. The grandchildren are growing up now but in the general way of things they are not interested in our family's "who's who" - that seems normal to me.

LOL well so far my daughter hasnt had to do this but I am pretty sure that I could help her do a family tree and not have any problem at all... but if I did get stuck and couldnt think of my childrens great grandparents names I could ask their grandparents. I think if I didnt know I wouldnt bother to lie I would just write only the names of those that I know and the child can say that no one knows the rest of the family history.

I haven't had any communication with my family for many years. I have been on my own a very long time. I did reunite with my grandmother on my mom's side but she only lived 5 years after we reunited. I can go back a bit on my tree but not to the extent that I would like. I think we all have a need sometimes to know where we come from. As far as the project goes...I haven't had to do that but I did have to do a little digging for my daughter's...just to have something besides a stick

For my own personal family tree, I've never had to make up any of the names because of the fact that both of my parents came from close families and I was actually lucky enough to have met all of my grandparents except for one (my dad's father passed away 11 years before I was born) and two of my great-grandparents. Now, when it is time to make a family tree for my children, there will be information on it that isn't really true because my husband has never met his biological father and only recently learned that he does have a sister that shares the same biological father (also his cousin that he has always been close to).

I did a huge family tree project while in College. I was lucky that most of the work was already done for me on my mom's dad's side going back to when the first of my ancestors came over from Germany in the 1850's. My dad's side I did not go back as far on. I went back to when my mom's mom's family moved to the state that we live in (1876). I liked reading all of that information, and would like to do more with my dad's side of the family.

Unfortunately my family tree isn't that intensive or big, my family is pretty small so remembering the people hasn't been to much of an issue for me, which is especially beneficial since I am not particularly good with remembering names . My kids are still a bit young and have yet to bring those type of projects home, but I am pretty sure that sooner or later I will probably be in a similar situation as you. But seriously speaking, you should be honest and let him know sooner than later about making up those names, I know he is probably still to young to understand, but soon the curiousity will rise.

Well not really. I am proud of my roots and I have not come through a situation requiring me to lie about my roots. I don't really keep track of my family tree like some do. I just know I have a cousin from here and there and that's about it. Little white lies would not hurt unless it might have a lot of consequences at the end.

I haven't made any family tree. So making a fake one is not necessary too But in case I would be asked to make one in the future, when I have kids that will ask me... I might make up names too. I am not so familiar with names of other relatives on one side of the family. So I think just to make the homework done, I will also come up with names